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A sudden stroke; an unexpected device or stratagem; -- a term used in various ways to convey the idea of promptness and force. Coup de grace (ke gr Etym: [F.], the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke. -- Coup de main (ke m Etym: […

Dexterity in devising and effecting a purpose; cunning; artifice; stratagem. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Job. v. 13.

A comprehensive division of the Vertebrata, including all those that have a skull.

A slow rising of the floor of a gallery, occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.

us acid, an old name for carbonic acid. -- Cretaceous formation (Geol.), the series of strata of various kinds, including beds of chalk, green sand, etc., formed in the Cretaceous period; -- called also the chalk formation. See the Diagram under Geology. -- Cretaceous period (Geol.), the time in the latter part of th…

A class of Coelenterata, commonly ellipsoidal in shape, swimming by means of eight longitudinal rows of paddles. The separate paddles somewhat resemble combs.

The faculty or act of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose; fraudulent skill or dexterity; deceit; craft. Discourage cunning in a child; cunning is the ape of wisdom. Locke. We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. Bacon.

he cretaceous formation in Western North America; -- so named from the region where the strata were first studied.

design; a contrivance; an invention; a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. His device in against Babylon, to destroy it. Jer. li. 11. Their recent device of demanding benevolences. Hallam. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job v. 12.

arboniferous and later than the Silurian; -- called also the Age of fishes. The various strata of this age compose the Devonian formation or system, and include the old red sandstone of Great Britain. They contain, besides plants and numerous invertebrates, the bony portions of many large and remarkable fishes of extin…

icynodon, supporting also a pair of powerful tusks. Their remains are found in triassic strata of South Africa and India.

er, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.

To incline downward from the plane of the horizon; as, strata of rock dip.

Said of strata which lack conformity in direction of bedding, either as in unconformability, or as caused by a fault.

ve from its socket; to disjoint; as, to dislocate your bones. Shak. After some time the strata on all sides of the globe were dislocated. Woodward. And thus the archbishop's see, dislocated or out of joint for a time, was by the hands of his holiness set right again. Fuller.

The displacement of parts of rocks or portions of strata from the situation which they originally occupied. Slips, faults, and the like, are dislocations.

The beaked whale (Balænoptera rostrata), from which doegling oil is obtained.

To fill with fear; to affright. [Obs.] The virtues of the valiant Caratach More doubt me than all Britain. Beau. & Fl.

The sudden drop or depression of the strata of rocks on one side of a fault. See Throw, n.

To avoid slyly, by artifice, stratagem, or dexterity; to escape from in a covert manner; to mock by an unexpected escape; to baffle; as, to elude an officer; to elude detection, inquiry, search, comprehension; to elude the force of an argument or a blow. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in shades, elud…