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ial, to be burned as a beacon; an open lamp or firrepan carried on a pole in nocturnal processions. Starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus. Milton. As a cresset true that darts its length Of beamy luster from a tower of strength. Wordsworth.

Rogation week, when the cross was borne in processions.

An interval of time in which a certain succession of events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar; as, the cucle of the seasons, or of the year. Wages . . . bear a full proportio…

accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhytmically. Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance. Wiher. Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your dauther Shak.

(Mus.), a piece of solemn music intended to be played as an accompaniment to a funeral procession. -- Dead nettle (Bot.), a harmless plant with leaves like a nettle (Lamium album). -- Dead oil (Chem.), the heavy oil obtained in the distillation of coal tar, and containing phenol, naphthalus, etc. -- Dead plate (Mach…

f those who conspired for constitutional government against the Emperor Nicholas on his accession to the throne at the death of Alexander I., in December, 1825; -- called also Dekabrist.

sappoint all his hopes. Tillotson. The escheators . . . defeated the right heir of his succession. Hallam. In one instance he defeated his own purpose. A. W. Ward.

linger; to tarry. There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. Locke.

To transfer or transmit by succession or inheritance; to grant or bestow by will; to bequeath. "Power to demise my lands." Swift. What honor Canst thou demise to any child of mine Shak.

ct of leaving with an intention not to reclaim or resume; an utter forsaking abandonment. Cession or dereliction, actual or tacit, of other powers. Burke.

To unfold gradually, as a flower from a bud; hence, to bring through a succession of states or stages, each of which is preparatory to the next; to form or expand by a process of growth; to cause to change gradually from an embryo, or a lower state, to a higher state or form of being; as, sunshine and rain develop the…

To pass by transmission or succession; to be handed over or down; -- generally with on or upon, sometimes with to or into; as, after the general fell, the command devolved upon (or on) the next officer in rank. His estate . . . devolved to Lord Somerville. Johnson.

To cut off from an inheritance or from hereditary succession; to prevent, as an heir, from coming into possession of any property or right, which, by law or custom, would devolve on him in the course of descent. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity! South.

Remoteness in succession or relation; as, the distance between a descendant and his ancestor.

To fall in drops or small drops, or in a quick succession of drops; as, water dribbles from the eaves.

strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.

To beat with the fingers, as with drumsticks; to beat with a rapid succession of strokes; to make a noise like that of a beaten drum; as, the ruffed grouse drums with his wings. Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair. W. Irving.

bliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets; hence: To play at ducks and drakes, with property, to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably. -- Lame duck. See under Lame.

A race or succession of kings, of the same line or family; the continued lordship of a race of rulers.

lon lens (Optics), a large lens constructed in several parts or layers, extending in a succession of annular rings beyond the central lens; - - used in lighthouses.