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An inclosure in a canal with gates at each end, used in raising or lowering boats as they pass from one level to another; -- called also lift lock.

A sacred inclosure or temple; -- so called by the islanders of the Pacific Ocean.

A cage for hawks while mewing; a coop for fattening fowls; hence, any inclosure; a place of confinement or shelter; -- in the latter sense usually in the plural. Full many a fat partrich had he in mewe. Chaucer. Forthcoming from her darksome mew. Spenser. Violets in their secret mews. Wordsworth.

Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; -- said of certain letters. See 5th Mute, 2.

means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 20, 208); characterized by resonance in the nasal passage; as, a nasal vowel…

The region of the skull between the two parietal foramina where the closure of the sagittal suture usually begins.

Uttered, as a consonant, with the oral passage simply narrowed without closure, as in uttering s.

An inclosure containing fruit trees; also, the fruit trees, collectively; -- used especially of apples, peaches, pears, cherries, plums, or the like, less frequently of nutbearing trees and of sugar maple trees. Orchard grass (Bot.), a tall coarse grass (Dactylis glomerata), introduced into the United States from Europ…

ence, not in concealment, constraint, etc., in, or into, a state of freedom, openness, disclosure, publicity, etc.; as, the sun shines out; he laughed out, to be out at the elbows; the secret has leaked out, or is out; the disease broke out on his face; the book is out. Leaves are out and perfect in a month. Bacon. She…

The part or space which lies without an inclosure; the outer side, as of a door, walk, or boundary. I threw open the door of my chamber, and found the family standing on the outside. Spectator.

Disclosure; discovery; revelation. [Obs.] It was he That made the overture of thy treasons to us. Shak.

A small inclosure or park for sporting. [Obs.]

A space or field having bounds or limits; a limited region or place; an inclosure; -- often used figuratively. "To walk the studious cloister's pale." Milton. "Out of the pale of civilization." Macaulay.

Pales, in general; a fence formed with pales or pickets; a limit; an inclosure. They moved within the paling of order and decorum. De Quincey.

or space; specifically, an interior wall dividing one part or apartment of a house, an inclosure, or the like, from another; as, a brick partition; lath and plaster partitions. No sight could pass Betwixt the nice partitions of the grass. Dryden.

To shut up, as in a pen or cage; to confine in a small inclosure or narrow space; to coop up, or shut in; to inclose. "Away with her, and pen her up." Shak. Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve. Milton.

A small inclosure. [Written also pightle.] [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

An inclosure, maintained by public authority, in which cattle or other animals are confined when taken in trespassing, or when going at large in violation of law; a pinfold. Shak.

The act of prevaricating, shuffling, or quibbling, to evade the truth or the disclosure of truth; a deviation from the truth and fair dealing. The august tribunal of the skies, where no prevarication shall avail. Cowper.

rth. Thomson. Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure. -- Previous to, before; -- often used adverbially for previously. "Previous to publication." M. Arnold. "A policy . . . his friends had advised previous to 1710." J. H. Newman.