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turies, often having three or four decks, and used for war or commerce. The term is often rather indiscriminately applied to any large sailing vessel. The gallens . . . were huge, round-stemmed, clumsy vessels, with bulwarks three or four feet thick, and built up at stem and stern, like castels. Motley.…

pprehension of some hidden danger; hence, standing agape; idly or stupidly gazing. I that rather held it better men should perish one by one, Than that earth should stand at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon! Tennyson.

A hound that pursues by the sight rather than by the scent. Sir W. Scott.

To beget; to procreate; to generate. I had rather to adopt a child than get it. Shak.

ssion; to grant, as authority or permission; to yield up or allow. For generous lords had rather give than pay. Young.

a, but having these materials, especially the mica, arranged in planes, so that it breaks rather easily into coarse slabs or flags. Hornblende sometimes takes the place of the mica, and it is then called hornblendic or syenitic gneiss. Similar varieties of related rocks are also called gneiss.

Rather good than the contrary; not actually bad; tolerable. Goodish pictures in rich frames. Walpole.

To make a harsh sound by friction. I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned, Or a dry wheel grate on the exletree. Shak.

apper. -- Gray snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. -- Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large and swift California whale (Rhachianectes glaucus), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead.

One who pastures cattle, and rears them for market. The inhabitants be rather . . . graziers than plowmen. Stow.

A name formerly applied rather loosely to certain dark-colored igneous rocks, including diorite, diabase, etc.

A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; -- sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.

See Have. Had as lief, Had rather, Had better, Had as soon, etc., with a nominative and followed by the infinitive without to, are well established idiomatic forms. The original construction was that of the dative with forms of be, followed by the infinitive. See Had better, under Better. And lever me is be pore and tr…

n with out; as, to hew out a sepulcher. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn. Is. li. 1. Rather polishing old works than hewing out new. Pope.

sometimes, triumphant; victorious; majestic, etc.; as, a high wind; high passions. "With rather a high manner." Thackeray. Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Ps. lxxxix. 13. Can heavenly minds such high resentment show Dryden.

tle. At length have housed me in a humble shed. Young. House your choicest carnations, or rather set them under a penthouse. Evelyn.

n in one's own eyes, or in the eyes of others; to humble; to mortify. We stand humiliated rather than encouraged. M. Arnold.

those actions, or muscular movements, which are automatic expressions of dominant ideas, rather than the result of distinct volitional efforts, as the act of expressing the thoughts in speech, or in writing, while the mind is occupied in the composition of the sentence. Carpenter.

ch. Prior. Sometimes we identify the words with the object -- though be courtesy of idiom rather than in strict propriety of language. Coleridge. Every good writer has much idiom. Landor. It is not by means of rules that such idioms as the following are made current: "I can make nothing of it." "He treats his subject h…

l sense of others' ills escape Is but a brute at best in human shape. Tate. That makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of. Shak.