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s; surplus; something added or superfluous. [Obs.] Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary, Rather than want a spirit. Shak.

Chiding; reproof; reproach. [Obs.] Angry, passionate correption being rather apt to provoke, than to amend. Hammond.

nd under. A well-couched invective. Milton. I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms. Blackw. Mag.

s. -- Crab wood, a light cabinet wood obtained in Guiana, which takes a high polish. McElrath. -- To catch a crab (Naut.), a phrase used of a rower: (a) when he fails to raise his oar clear of the water; (b) when he misses the water altogether in making a stroke.

A hovel; a hut; a cottage. Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, . . . Than in the perfumed chambers of the great Shak.

imate companion; a familiar frend. [Colloq.] He soon found his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time. W. Irving.

saw, the teeth of which are so set as to adapt it for sawing wood crosswise of the grain rather than lengthwise. (b) A saw managed by two men, one at each end, for cutting large logs crosswise.

; immature. "Crudeprojects." Macualay. Crude, undigested masses of suggestion, furnishing rather raw materials for composition. De Quincey. The originals of Nature in their crude Conception. Milton.

uel wars, wasting the earth. Milton. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel. Gen. xlix. 7.

A stall for cattle. [Obs.] I would rather have such . . . .in cubor kennel than in my closet or at my table. Landor.

te; used with of; as, to chew the cud of bitter memories. Chewed the thrice turned cudof wrath. Tennyson.

(Com.), the hair of the manes and tails of horses, prepared for upholstery purposes. McElrath.

dian knot, to dispose of a difficulty summarily; to solve it by prompt, arbitrary action, rather than by skill or patience. -- To cut lots, to determine lots by cuttings cards; to draw lots. -- To cut off. (a) To sever; to separate. I would to God, . . . The king had cut off my brother's. Shak.

To hang loosely, or with a swinging or jerking motion. he'd rather on a gibbet dangle Than miss his dear delight, to wrangle. Hudibras. From her lifted hand Dangled a length of ribbon. Tennyson. To dangle about or after, to hang upon importunately; to court the favor of; to beset. The Presbyterians, and other fanatics…

specially on moral or religious subjects; hence, wickedness; impurity. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John. iii. 19. Pursue these sons of darkness: drive them out From all heaven's bounds. Milton.

kull as the emblem of death; the head of the conventional personification of death. I had rather be married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth. Shak. Death's-head moth (Zoöl.), a very large European moth (Acherontia atropos), so called from a figure resembling a human skull on the back of the thorax; -- called…

-- Dec"o*ra*tive*ness, n. Decorative art, fine art which has for its end ornamentation, rather than the representation of objects or events.

To avert or appease, as by paying off; to satisfy; as, to defray wrath. [Obs.] Spenser.

To cause to melt away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

lemn or official manner; to declare; to proclaim (especially an evil). [Obs.] Denouncing wrath to come. Milton. I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish. Deut. xxx. 18.