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Free and florid; as, a figured descant. See Figurate, 3.

Any scantling smaller than a batten.

Disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous; shameful; -- said of acts, crimes, etc. Debauched principles and flagitious practices. I. Taylor.

One of the very large seeds of the Entada scandens.

Scandalous crime; sin; specifically, as applied to a woman, wantonness. [Achan] wrought folly in Israel. Josh. vii. 15. When lovely woman stoops to folly. Goldsmith.

And Heaven defend your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant, For she with me. Shak.

A sect which seceded from the Franciscan Order, chiefly in Italy and Sicily, in 1294, repudiating the pope as an apostate, maintaining the duty of celibacy and poverty, and discountenancing oaths. Called also Fratricellians and Fraticelli.

The daughter of Njörd, aud goddess of love and beauty; the Scandinavian Venus; -- in Teutonic myths confounded with Frigga, but in Scandinavian, distinct. [Written also Frea, Fraying, and Ereyja.]

ut especially of one of the four mendicant orders, viz: (a) Minors, Gray Friars, or Franciscans. (b) Augustines. (c) Dominicans or Black Friars. (d) White Friars or Carmelites. See these names in the Vocabulary.

Rascally; scandalous. [R.] "Furciferous knaves." De Quincey.

The tattle of a gossip; groundless rumor. Bubbles o'er like a city with gossip, scandal, and spite. Tennyson.

-- Grand duke. (a) A sovereign duke, inferior in rank to a king; as, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. (b) In Russia, a son of the Czar. (c) (Zoöl.) The European great horned owl or eagle owl (Bubo maximas). -- Grand-guard, or Grandegarde, a piece of plate armor used in tournaments as an extra protection for the left should…

e female mallard. -- Gray falcon (Zoöl.) the peregrine falcon. -- Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar. -- Gray hen (Zoöl.), the female of the blackcock or black grouse. See Heath grouse. -- Gray mill or millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell. -- Gray mullet (Zoöl.) any one of…

The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song. Moore (Encyc.). On that ground I'll build a holy descant. Shak.

A genus of trees (Celtis) related to the elm, but bearing drupes with scanty, but often edible, pulp. C. occidentalis is common in the Eastern United States. Gray.

ich has been felled. This said, he led me over hoults and hags; Through thorns and bushes scant my legs I drew. Fairfax.

A woman's skirt so scant at the bottom as to restrain freedom of movement after the fashion of a hobble. -- Hob"ble-skirt`ed, a.

A native, or one of the Scandinavian people, of Iceland.

The language of the Icelanders. It is one of the Scandinavian group, and is more nearly allied to the Old Norse than any other language now spoken.

service; compulsion to serve; as, the impressment of provisions or of sailors. The great scandal of our naval service -- impressment -- died a protracted death. J. H. Burton.