Search the Dictionary

Quality of being salient; hence, vigor. "A fatal lack of poetic saliency." J. Morley.

g and rigidity of the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues in the newly born. It is usually fatal. Called also skinbound disease.

aralysis, a peculiar jerking tremor of the muscles, headache, and vertigo, and is usually fatal. Called also multiple, disseminated, or insular, sclerosis.

etimes deposits its eggs in the nostrils, or about wounds, in man and other animals, with fatal results. -- Screw wrench. (a) A wrench for turning a screw. (b) A wrench with an adjustable jaw that is moved by a screw. -- To put the screw, or screws, on, to use pressure upon, as for the purpose of extortion; to coerce…

The red goosefoot (Chenopodium rubrum), -- said to be fatal to swine.

without fever, and produced by spasmodic contraction of the vocal cords. It is sometimes fatal. Called also laryngismus stridulus, and childcrowing. -- Spasmodic stricture, a stricture caused by muscular spasm without structural change. See Organic stricture, under Organic.

e a secret; to betray confidence; to peach. [Slang] Thackeray. To split on a rock, to err fatally; to have the hopes and designs frustrated.

To render useless by injury; to injure fatally; to ruin; to destroy; as, to spoil paper; to have the crops spoiled by insects; to spoil the eyes by reading.

Walk; passage. Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree. Dryden.

instead of the bow, in advance; hence, figuratively, in an awkward, blundering manner. A fatal genius for going sternforemost. Lowell.

That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an impediment; an obstruction. A fatal stop traversed their headlong course. Daniel. So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent. Rogers.

A sudden attack of disease; especially, a fatal attack; a severe disaster; any affliction or calamity, especially a sudden one; as, a stroke of apoplexy; the stroke of death. At this one stroke the man looked dead in law. Harte.

caulay. A sum in arithmetic wherein a flaw discovered at a particular point is ipso facto fatal to the whole. Gladstone. A large sheet of paper . . . covered with long sums. Dickens. Algebraic sum, as distinguished from arithmetical sum, the aggregate of two or more numbers or quantities taken with regard to their sign…

mbling those of apoplexy, occasioned by exposure to excessive heat, and often terminating fatally; coup de soleil.

; rigid; not lax; as, a tense fiber. The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense, and a fatal paleness was upon her. Goldsmith. -- Tense"ly, adv. -- Tense"ness, n.

A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntary muscles. When the muscles of the lower jaw are affected, it is called locked-jaw, or lickjaw, and it takes various names from the various incurvations of the body resulting from t…

To point or thrust, as a lance. Sons against fathers tilt the fatal lance. J. Philips.

ome persons of bearing doses of medicine which in ordinary cases would prove injurious or fatal. Tolerance of the mint. (Coinage) Same as Remedy of the mint. See under Remedy.

ted style, representing a signal action performed by some person or persons, and having a fatal issue; that species of drama which represents the sad or terrible phases of character and life. Tragedy is to say a certain storie, As olde bookes maken us memorie, Of him that stood in great prosperitee And is yfallen out o…

Fatal to life; mournful; terrible; calamitous; as, the tragic scenes of the French revolution.