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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



479 words match “MOTH”

BUFFOON a.
oon stories." Macaulay. To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances. Melmoth.
BURKE v.
To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question. The court could not burke an inquiry, supported by such a mass of a affidavits. C. Reade.
BURNET n.
ennial herbs (Poterium); especially, P.Sanguisorba, the common, or garden, burnet. Burnet moth (Zoöl.), in England, a handsome moth (Zygæna filipendula), with crimson spots on the wings. -- Burnet saxifrage. (Bot.) See Saxifrage. -- Canadian burnet, a marsh plant (Poterium Canadensis). -- Great burnet, Wild burnet,…
BUTT; BUT n.
See But end, under 2d But. Amen; and make me die a good old man! That's the butt end of a mother's blessing. Shak. A butt's length, the ordinary distance from the place of shooting to the butt, or mark. -- Butts and bounds (Conveyancing), abuttals and boundaries. In lands of the ordinary rectangular shape, butts are t…
CABBAGE n.
xa oleracea of the West Indies. -- Cabbage worm (Zoöl.), the larva of several species of moths and butterfies, which attacks cabbages. The most common is usully the larva of a white butterfly. See Cabbage Butterfly, above. The cabbage cutworms, which eat off the stalks or young plants during the night, are the larvæ o…
CABIRI n.
ertain deities originally worshiped with mystical rites by the Pelasgians in Lemnos and Samothrace and afterwards throughout Greece; -- also called sons of Hephæstus (or Vulcan), as being masters of the art of working metals. [Written also Cabeiri.] Liddell & Scott.
CALLIOPE n.
The Muse that presides over eloquence and heroic poetry; mother of Orpheus, and chief of the nine Muses.
CANED a.
Filled with white flakes; mothery; -- said vinegar when containing mother. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
CANKERWORM n.
The larva of two species of geometrid moths which are very injurious to fruit and shade trees by eating, and often entirely destroying, the foliage. Other similar larvæ are also called cankerworms.
CARK n.
y. [Archaic.] His heavy head, devoid of careful cark. Spenser. Fling cark and care aside. Motherwell. Ereedom from the cares of money and the cark of fashion. R. D. Blackmore.
CARNAL a.
lesh-devouring; cruel; ravenous; bloody. [Obs.] This carnal cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body. Shak. Carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse; -- used especially of an unlawful act on the part of the man.
CARPET n.
k. (b) One made a knight, for some other than military distinction or service. -- Carpet moth (Zoöl.), the larva of an insect which feeds on carpets and other woolen goods. There are several kinds. Some are the larvæ of species of Tinea (as T. tapetzella); others of beetles, esp. Anthrenus. -- Carpet snake (Zoöl.), a…
CAT'S-TAIL n.
See Timothy, Cat-tail, Cirrus.
CHARCOAL n.
rs of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.
CHARTER n.
A special privilege, immunity, or exemption. My mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me, grieves me. Shak.
CHARTREUSE n.
A Carthusian monastery; esp. La Grande Chartreuse, mother house of the order, in the mountains near Grenoble, France.
CHOKY; CHOKEY a.
erson affected with strong emotion. "A deep and choky voice." Aytoun. The allusion to his mother made Tom feel rather chokey. T. Hughes.
CLEAR a.
e clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating; as, a clear intellect; a clear head. Mother of science! now I feel thy power Within me clear, not only to discern Things in their causes, but to trace the ways Of highest agents. Milton.
CLEAVE v.
fection; to adhere with strong attachment. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife. Gen. ii. 24. Cleave unto the Lord your God. Josh. xxiii. 8.
CLOTHES n.
, Then sunk it deep beneath the clothes. Prior. Body clothes. See under Body. -- Clothes moth (Zoöl.), a small moth of the genus Tinea. The most common species (T. flavifrontella)is yellowish white. The larvæ eat woolen goods, furs, feathers, etc. They live in tubular cases made of the material upon which they feed, f…
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