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lves with bantering several poor scholars with hopes of being at least his lordship's chaplain. De Foe.

A special plea constituting a sufficient answer to plaintiff's action.

Plain; simple; unadorned; without polish; bald; meager. "Uttering bare truth." Shak.

Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.] J. Pickering.

An imitation, in pottery, of natural basalt; a kind of black porcelain.

le; to contend in fight; as, to battle over theories. To meet in arms, and battle in the plain. Prior.

Patient endurance; suffering without complaint.

Consisting, or made, of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech. "Plain beechen vessels." Dryden.

; to see. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, . . . a lamb as it had been slain. Rev. v. 6.

A porcelainlike kind of decorative pottery with a high gloss, which is sometimes iridescent. A very fine kind is made at Belleek in Ireland.

as with a besom. [Archaic or Poetic] Cowper. Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain. Barlow.

To lead into perplexity or confusion, as for want of a plain path; to perplex with mazes; or in general, to perplex or confuse greatly. Lost and bewildered in the fruitless search. Addison.

A declaration made in writing, stating some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law.

hat; a wideawake. "The undignified billycocks and pantaloons of the West." B. H. Chamberlain.

A kind of unraised bread, of many varieties, plain, sweet, or fancy, formed into flat cakes, and bakes hard; as, ship biscuit. According to military practice, the bread or biscuit of the Romans was twice prepared in the oven. Gibbon.

Unglazed white porcelain.

ess, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.

ciously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black day." "Black despair." Shak.

in fault; as, the conductor was to blame for the accident. You were to blame, I must be plain with you. Shak.

To use evasion. [Obs.] Books will speak plain, when counselors blanch. Bacon.