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A weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes, either attached to a staff or suspended from one by a chain. -- Morning watch (Naut.), the watch between four A. M. and eight A. M..

he genus Verbascum. They are tall herbs having coarse leaves, and large flowers in dense spikes. The common species, with densely woolly leaves, is Verbascum Thapsus. Moth mullein. See under Moth. -- Mullein foxglove, an American herb (Seymeria macrophylla) with coarse leaves and yellow tubular flowers with a spreadin…

A large American pike (Esox nobilitor) found in the Great Lakes, and other Northern lakes, and in the St. Lawrence River. It is valued as a food fish. [Written also maskallonge, maskinonge, muskallonge, muskellonge, and muskelunjeh.]

To spike, as a cannon. [Obs.] Crabb. To nail a lie or an assertion, etc., to detect and expose it, so as to put a stop to its currency; -- an expression probably derived from the former practice of shopkeepers, who were accustomed to nail bad or counterfeit pieces of money to the counter.

An ointment prepared partly from this plant. See Spikenard.

ct. Nit grass (Bot.), a pretty annual European grass (Gastridium lendigerum), with small spikelets somewhat resembling a nit. It is also found in California and Chili.

A kind of halberd or pike; also, a truncheon; a staff. And make him with our pikes and partisans a grave. Shak.

A cant hook having the end of its lever armed with a spike.

an East Indian woody climber (Piper nigrum), with ovate leaves and apetalous flowers in spikes opposite the leaves. The berries are red when ripe. Also, by extension, any one of the several hundred species of the genus Piper, widely dispersed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the earth.…

lversides, and other related fishes. So called from their relation both to perches and to pikes.

A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. [Obs.] "Take down my buckler . . . and grind the pick on 't." Beau. & Fl.

Having a pike or spine on the back; -- said of certain fishes.

A young or small pike. [Obs.] Bet [better] is, quoth he, a pike than a pickerel. Chaucer.

tive of both continents. The adult male has a long, tapering tail. Called also gray duck, piketail, piket-tail, spike-tail, split-tail, springtail, sea pheasant, and gray widgeon.

but especially the P. major, a low herb with broad spreading radical leaves, and slender spikes of minute flowers. It is a native of Europe, but now found near the abode of civilized man in nearly all parts of the world. Indian plantain. (Bot.) See under Indian. -- Mud plantain, a homely North American aquatic plant (…

A rustic; a countryman; a field laborer. Plowman's spikenard (Bot.), a European composite weed (Conyza squarrosa), having fragrant roots. Dr. Prior.

didissima). -- Plume grass. (Bot) (a) A kind of grass (Erianthus saccharoides) with the spikelets arranged in great silky plumes, growing in swamps in the Southern United States. (b) The still finer E. Ravennæ from the Mediterranean region. The name is sometimes extended to the whole genus. -- Plume moth (Zoöl.), any…

ed beneath the great ligament of the neck. -- Poll pick (Mining), a pole having a heavy spike on the end, forming a kind of crowbar. -- Poll tax, a tax levied by the head, or poll; a capitation tax.

minous genus Petalostemon, having small rosy or white flowers in dense terminal heads or spikes. Several species occur in the prairies of the United States. -- Prairie dock (Bot.), a coarse composite plant (Silphium terebinthaceum) with large rough leaves and yellow flowers, found in the Western prairies. -- Prairie…

A small marline spike having generally a wooden handle, -- used in sailmaking. R. H. Dana, Ir.