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trument; to rub over with something that roughens by removing portions of the surface; to grate harshly over; to abrade; to make even, or bring to a required condition or form, by moving the sharp edge of an instrument breadthwise over the surface with pressure, cutting away excesses and superfluous parts; to make smoo…

nions, as they hang, will shoot forth. Bacon. But the wild olive shoots, and shades the ungrateful plain. Dryden.

To clear by means of a slice bar, as a fire or the grate bars of a furnace.

no blind zeal or fond tradition rise, But saved from death, our Argives yearly pay These grateful honors to the god of day. Pope.

The state of being dissolved or disintegrated; resolution; disintegration. It is unquestionably an enterprise of more promise to assail the nations in their hour of faintness and solution, than at a time when magnificent and seductive systems of worship were at their height of energy and splendor. I. Taylor.…

ty made themselves popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty. Clarendon.

a luxury in self-dispraise: And inward self-disparagement affords To meditative spleen a grateful feast. Wordsworth.

] is contrived by a fistula, or spout, at the head. Sir T. Browne. From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide. Pope.

To extend so as to cover something; to extend to a great or grater extent in every direction; to cause to fill or cover a wide or wider space. Rose, as in a dance, the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit. Milton.

ed miscreant coolly rolled his tobacco in his cheek, and squirted the juice into the fire grate. Sir W. Scott. Squirting cucumber. (Bot.) See Ecballium.

anslation. W. K. Clifford. Back step, Half step, etc. See under Back, Half, etc. -- Step grate, a form of grate for holding fuel, in which the bars rise above one another in the manner of steps. -- To take steps, to take action; to move in a matter.

The mouth to the grate of a furnace; also, the space in front of the furnace, where the stokers stand.

Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.] I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait, And so ingrateful, you deny me that. Shak.

Especially, a great number of honeybees which emigrate from a hive at once, and seek new lodgings under the direction of a queen; a like body of bees settled permanently in a hive. "A swarm of bees." Chaucer.

That which is pleasing or grateful to the mind; as, the sweets of domestic life. A little bitter mingled in our cup leaves no relish of the sweet. Locke.

To make pleasing or grateful to the mind or feelings; as, to sweeten life; to sweeten friendship.

The quality or state of being sweet (in any sense of the adjective); gratefulness to the taste or to the smell; agreeableness.

Impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it; grateful. Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Ps. c. 4. -- Thank"ful*ly, adv. -- Thank"ful*ness, n.

Not acknowledging favors; not expressing thankfulness; unthankful; ungrateful. That she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child! Shak.

Grateful to the taste; palable. -- Tooth"some*ly, adv. -- Tooth"some*ness, n. Though less toothsome to me, they were more wholesome for me. Fuller.