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Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.

One who reads or performs music readily at first sight. [R.] Busby.

An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.

xed bowsprit, topmast, and standing rigging, while those of a cutter are capable of being readily shifted. The sloop usually carries a centerboard, and depends for stability upon breadth of beam rather than depth of keel. The two types have rapidly approximated since 1880. One radical distinction is that a slop may car…

in common salt, in albite, etc. It is isolated as a soft, waxy, white, unstable metal, so readily oxidized that it combines violently with water, and to be preserved must be kept under petroleum or some similar liquid. Sodium is used combined in many salts, in the free state as a reducer, and as a means of obtaining ot…

The tendency to separate readily into parts by spurious articulations, as the pods of tick trefoil.

Relaxed; open or readily opened. [R.] "The bowels must be kept soluble." Dunglison. Soluble glass. (Chem.) See under Glass.

Readily; willingly; -- in this sense used with would, or some other word expressing will. I would as soon see a river winding through woods or in meadows, as when it is tossed up in so many whimsical figures at Versailles. Addison. As soon as, or So soon as, imediately at or after another event. "As soon as he came nig…

and turning upon each other in such a manner that any possible spherical triangle may be readily found, and the measures of the parts read off by inspection.

Wood that readily takes fire; touchwood; also, a kind of tinder made from a species of fungus; punk; amadou. Sir T. Browne.

ibrous substance that unites the valves of the pericap of leguminous plants, and which is readily pulled off; as, the strings of beans.

Capable of admitting anything additional, or any change, affection, or influence; readily acted upon; as, a body susceptible of color or of alteration. It sheds on souls susceptible of light, The glorious dawn of our eternal day. Young.

without examination or scruple; to receive implicitly. Though that story . . . be not so readily swallowed. Sir T. Browne.

wivel hook, a hook connected with the iron strap of a pulley block by a swivel joint, for readily taking the turns out of a tackle. -- Swivel joint, a joint, the two pieces composing which turn round, with respect to each other, on a longitudinal pin or axis, as in a chain, to prevent twisting.

A vitreous form of basalt; -- so called because decompposable by acids and readily fusible.

Not to refuse or balk at; to undertake readily; to clear; as, to take a hedge or fence.

One who talks; especially, one who is noted for his power of conversing readily or agreeably; a conversationist. There probably were never four talkers more admirable in four different ways than Johnson, Burke, Beauclerk, and Garrick. Macaulay.

Capable of being possessed or realized; readily apprehensible by the mind; real; substantial; evident. "A tangible blunder." Byron. Direct and tangible benefit to ourselves and others. Southey. -- Tan"gi*ble*ness, n. -- Tan"gi*bly, adv.

be secured to any other loop or bight or ring; a kind of button or frog capable of being readily engaged and disengaged for temporary purposes.

ction of any fluid into the blood vessels, or into a cavity of the body from which it can readily be adsorbed into the vessels; intrafusion; as, the peritoneal transfusion of milk.