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air; to grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or contorted; to have a curly appearance; as, leaves lie curled on the ground. Thou seest it [hair] will not curl by nature. Shak.

shortens the way and cuts off a circuitous passage. -- The cut of one's jib, the general appearance of a person. [Colloq.] -- To draw cuts, to draw lots, as of paper, etc., cut unequal lengths. Now draweth cut . . . The which that hath the shortest shall begin. Chaucer.

ither consciously or unconsciously, wholly by self- interest or self-indulgence, and that appearances to the contrary are superficial and untrustworthy. He could obtain from one morose cynic, whose opinion it was impossible to despise, scarcely any not acidulated with scorn. Macaulay.

Syria. Damascus blade, a sword or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence. -- Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc., of high…

Little and active; spruce; trim; smart; neat in dress or appearance; lively. He wondered how so many provinces could be held in subjection by such a dapper little man. Milton. The dapper ditties that I wont devise. Spenser. Sharp-nosed, dapper steam yachts. Julian Hawthorne.

A rough coat of mortar put upon a wall to give it the appearance of stone; rough-cast.

First opening or expansion; first appearance; beginning; rise. "The dawn of time." Thomson. These tender circumstances diffuse a dawn of serenity over the soul. Pope.

The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.

The beginning of the day, or first appearance of light; the dawn; hence, the beginning. Milton. The tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. Luke i. 78.

Resembling death in appearance or quality; without show of life; deathlike; as, a dead sleep.

Appearance of death. Jer. Taylor.

Characterized by courteousness, affability, or gentleness; of good appearance and manners; graceful; complaisant. Was never prince so meek and debonair. Spenser.

A beginning or first attempt; hence, a first appearance before the public, as of an actor or public speaker.

A person who makes his (or her) first appearance before the public.

; having power to mislead, or impress with false opinions; as, a deceptive countenance or appearance. Language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes. Trench. Deceptive cadence (Mus.), a cadence on the subdominant, or in some foreign key, postponing the final close.

To destroy or mar the face or external appearance of; to disfigure; to injure, spoil, or mar, by effacing or obliterating important features or portions of; as, to deface a monument; to deface an edifice; to deface writing; to deface a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." Emerson. So by fa…

The sudden disappearance of inflammation.

and laws of being -- higher metaphysics. By Kant, it was employed to signify the logic of appearances or illusions, whether these arise from accident or error, or from those necessary limitations which, according to this philosopher, originate in the constitution of the human intellect.

on of light in passing by the edges of opaque bodies or through narrow slits, causing the appearance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars. Remarked by Grimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called diffraction. Whewell. Diffra…

Consisting of only one half of what the normal condition requires; having the appearance of lacking one half; as, a dimidiate leaf, which has only one side developed.