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s of a regiment. -- Fife rail. (Naut.) (a) A rail about the mast, at the deck, to hold belaying pins, etc. (b) A railing around the break of a poop deck.

Skill in the use of the fingers, as in playing upon a musical instrument. [R.] She has a good finger. Busby. Ear finger, the little finger. -- Finger alphabet. See Dactylology. -- Finger bar, the horizontal bar, carrying slotted spikes, or fingers, through which the vibratory knives of mowing and reaping machines pla…

The manner of using the fingers in playing or striking the keys of an instrument of music; movement or management of the fingers in playing on a musical instrument, in typewriting, etc.

ecause three fives, or fifteen, are counted to the game. Smart. Fives court, a place for playing fives.

Growing languid, weak, or spiritless; weakening; delaying. -- Flag"ging*ly, adv.

of short duration. Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw. Milton. Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn. Tennyson.

Playing at courtship; coquerty. The flirtations and jealousies of our ball rooms. Macaulay.

the flask. Knight. -- To follow the hounds, to hunt with dogs. -- To follow suit (Card Playing), to play a card of the same suit as the leading card; hence, colloquially, to follow an example set. -- To follow up, to pursue indefatigably.

A game between four players, with two on each side and each side playing but one ball, the partners striking alternately. It is called a mixed foursome when each side consists of a man and a woman.

Full of levity; dancing, playing, or frisking about; full of pranks; frolicsome; gay; merry. The frolic wind that breathes the spring. Milton. The gay, the frolic, and the loud. Waller.

The act or practice of playing games for stakes or wagers; gambling.

The art of occupation of laying out and cultivating gardens; horticulture.

The art or practice of overlaying or covering with gold leaf; also, a thin coating or wash of gold, or of that which resembles gold.

ious; to carry on; also, to proceed; to make progress. [Colloq.] -- To go it alone (Card Playing), to play a hand without the assistance of one's partner. -- To go it blind. (a) To act in a rash, reckless, or headlong manner. [Slang] (b) (Card Playing) To bet without having examined the cards. -- To go one's way, to…

ll grace was said was rewarded with a bumper. Encyc. Brit. -- Grace hoop, a hoop used in playing graces. See Grace, n., 13. -- Grace note (Mus.), an appoggiatura. See Appoggiatura, and def. 11 above. -- Grace stroke, a finishing stoke or touch; a coup de grace. -- Means of grace, means of securing knowledge of God,…

Displaying grace or beauty in form or action; elegant; easy; agreeable in appearance; as, a graceful walk, deportment, speaker, air, act, speech. High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode. Dryden. -- Grace"ful*ly, adv. Grace"ful*ness, n.

A laying fast ho1d of; also, that by which anything is seized and held, a grapnel.

The act, method, or process of laying a groundwork or foundation; hence, elementary instruction; the act or process of applying a ground, as of color, to wall paper, cotton cloth, etc.; a basis.

shift (Mus.), a position of the hand, between the open position and the first shift, in playing on the violin and kindred instruments. See Shift. -- Half step (Mus.), a semitone; the smallest difference of pitch or interval, used in music. -- Half tide, the time or state of the tide equally distant from ebb and floo…

To play the droll; to make sport by playing ludicrous tricks.