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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



114 words match “SPIKE”

TURNPIKE n.
A beam filled with spikes to obstruct passage; a cheval-de- frise. [R.] Turnpike man, a man who collects tolls at a turnpike. -- Turnpike road, a road on which turnpikes, or tollgates, are established by law, in order to collect from the users tolls to defray the cost of building, repairing, etc.
TWILLY n.
cleansing or loosening wool by the action of a revolving cylinder covered with long iron spikes or teeth; a willy or willying machine; -- called also twilly devil, and devil. See Devil, n., 6, and Willy. Tomlinson.
UMBO n.
The boss of a shield, at or near the middle, and usually projecting, sometimes in a sharp spike.
VALERIANACEOUS a.
which the valerian is the type. The order includes also the corn salads and the oriental spikenard.
WATER TORCH n.
The common cat-tail (Typha latifolia), the spike of which makes a good torch soaked in oil. Dr. Prior.
WATER WILLOW n.
An American aquatic plant (Dianthera Americana) with long willowlike leaves, and spikes of small purplish flowers.
WILLOW n.
A machine in which cotton or wool is opened and cleansed by the action of long spikes projecting from a drum which revolves within a box studded with similar spikes; -- probably so called from having been originally a cylindrical cage made of willow rods, though some derive the term from winnow, as denoting the winnowi…
WILLOW-HERB n.
se-purple flowers. The name is sometimes made to include other species of the same genus. Spiked willow-herb, a perennial herb (Lythrum Salicaria) with willowy leaves and spiked purplish flowers.
WITCH n.
losa. See Nostoc. -- Witch grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Panicum capillare) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle. -- Witch meal (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under Vegetable.
WOMB n.
Any cavity containing and enveloping anything. The center spike of gold Which burns deep in the bluebell's womb. R. Browning.
WOOL n.
Wool grass (Bot.), a kind of bulrush (Scirpus Eriophorum) with numerous clustered woolly spikes. -- Wool scribbler. See Woolen scribbler, under Woolen, a. -- Wool sorter's disease (Med.), a disease, resembling malignant pustule, occurring among those who handle the wool of goats and sheep. -- Wool staple, a city or…
WRINGBOLT n.
ights, to bend and secure the planks against the timbers till they are fastened by bolts, spikes, or treenails; -- not to be confounded with ringbolt.
XYRIS n.
s of endogenous herbs with grassy leaves and small yellow flowers in short, scaly-bracted spikes; yellow-eyed grass. There are about seventeen species in the Atlantic United States.
YARD n.
ached to it. -- Yard grass (Bot.), a low-growing grass (Eleusine Indica) having digitate spikes. It is common in dooryards, and like places, especially in the Southern United States. Called also crab grass. -- Yard of land. See Yardland.
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