Search the Dictionary

To start suddenly aside, as to avoid a blow or a missile; to shift place by a sudden start. Milton.

d to a share of the profits, and subject to a share in losses; -- called also sleeping or silent partner. -- Dormant window (Arch.), a dormer window. See Dormer. -- Table dormant, a stationary table. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Shak. To pierce into the dumb past. J. C. Shairp.

In silence; mutely.

The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.

Silent; mute; noiseless; as a dummy engine.

To slip or glide away; to pass away silently, as time; -- used chiefly in reference to time. Eight days elapsed; at length a pilgrim came. Hoole.

Fig.: Whatever produces the effect of moving and persuasive speech. Silence that spoke and eloquence of eyes. Pope. The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence. Macaulay.

atisfy; unsatisfactory; hollow; vain; -- said of pleasure, the world, etc. Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise. Pope.

The act of entering gradually or silently upon the rights or possessions of another; unlawful intrusion. An unconstitutional encroachment of military power on the civil establishment. Bancroft.

An engine of war used for throwing viretons, large stones, and other missiles; a springal.

At any or all times; every instant. [R.] "Eternal law is silently present everywhere and everywhen." Carlyle.

Disposed or apt to take exceptions, or to object; captious. [Obs.] At least effectually silence the doubtful and exceptious. South. -- Ex*cep"tious*ness, n. [Obs.] Barrow.

easuring the elongation of bars of iron, steel, or other material, when subjected to a tensile force.

roach not me; and what I will is fate. Milton. Beyond and above the Olympian gods lay the silent, brooding, everlasting fate of which victim and tyrant were alike the instruments. Froude.

To snap; to project quickly. The use of the elastic switch to fillip small missiles with. Tylor.

Fire pot. (a) (Mil.) A small earthen pot filled with combustibles, formerly used as a missile in war. (b) The cast iron vessel which holds the fuel or fire in a furnace. (c) A crucible. (d) A solderer's furnace. -- Fire raft, a raft laden with combustibles, used for setting fire to an enemy's ships. -- Fire roll, a…

Quality of being fissile.

l.) Same as Stone age, under Stone. -- Flint brick, a fire made principially of powdered silex. -- Flint glass. See in the Vocabulary. -- Flint implements (Archæol.), tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also…

To strike down or lay level with the floor; to knock down; hence, to silence by a conclusive answer or retort; as, to floor an opponent. Floored or crushed by him. Coleridge.