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Characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned; skillfully wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat. [Archaic] " The queynte ring." " His queynte spear." Chaucer. " A shepherd young quaint." Chapman. Every look was coy and wondrous quaint. Spenser. To show bow quaint an orator you are. Shak.

or contrivance. Their latest refuge Was to send him. Shak. Light must be supplied, among gracefulrefuges, by terracing Sir H. Wotton. Cities of refuge (Jewish Antiq.), certain cities appointed as places of safe refuge for persons who had committed homicide without design. Of these there were three on each side of Jord…

To attribute blame to; to allege something disgracefull against; to charge with a fault; to censure severely or contemptuously; to upbraid. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ. 1 Peter iv. 14. That this newcomer, Shame, There sit not, and reproach us as unclean. Milton. Mezentius . . . with his ardor warmed His…

. The profligate pretenses upon which he was perpetually soliciting an increase of his disgraceful stipend are mentioned with becoming reprobation. Jeffrey. Set a brand of reprobation on clipped poetry and false coin. Dryden.

Not having good repute; disreputable; disgraceful; inglorius. [R.] Shak.

To manage a horse, as an equestrian. He rode, he fenced, he moved with graceful ease. Dryden.

nched antlers, forked at the summit. This, the smallest European deer, is very nimble and graceful. It always prefers a mountainous country, or high grounds.

Disgraceful to reputation; bringing shame or infamy; opprobrious; as, a scandalous crime or vice.

eglect and scorn shall never taste. Milton. We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful. C. J. Smith.

olemn; not light, gay, or volatile. He is always serious, yet there is about his manner a graceful ease. Macaulay.

Bringing shame or disgrace; injurious to reputation; disgraceful. His naval preparations were not more surprising than his quick and shameful retreat. Arbuthnot.

Destructive; ruinous; disgraceful. [Obs.] -- Shend"ful*ly, adv. [Obs.] Fabyan.

A Sicilian dance, resembling the pastorale, set to a rather slow and graceful melody in 12-8 or 6-8 measure; also, the music to the dance.

body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully.

A South African gazelle (Gazella euchore) noted for its graceful form and swiftness, and for its peculiar habit of springing lighty and suddenly into the air. It has a white dorsal stripe, expanding into a broad patch of white on the rump and tail. Called also springer. [Written also springboc, and springbock.]…

by evaporating a decoction of the young branches of spruce. -- Hemlock spruce (Bot.), a graceful coniferous tree (Tsuga Canadensis) of North America. Its timber is valuable, and the bark is largely used in tanning leather. -- Spruce beer. Etym: [G. sprossenbier; sprosse sprout, shoot (akin to E. sprout, n.) + bier b…

mall, soft-haired South American monkeys of the genus Calithrix. They are noted for their graceful form and agility. See Teetee. (b) A marmoset. -- Squirrel petaurus (Zoöl.), a flying phalanger of Australia. See Phalanger, Petaurist, and Flying phalanger under Flying. -- Squirrel shrew (Zoöl.), any one of several spe…

the opposite of wildness, or Ant: levity. If sometimes he appears too gray, yet a secret gracefulness of youth accompanies his writings, though the staidness and sobriety of age wanting. Dryden.

tail is deeply forked. They have long, pointed wings, and are noted for the swiftness and gracefulness of their flight.

amily Cygninæ. They have a large and strong beak and a long neck, and are noted for their graceful movements when swimming. Most of the northern species are white. In literature the swan was fabled to sing a melodious song, especially at the time of its death.