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when pure resembling ivory in texture and color, but variously colored to imitate coral, tortoise shell, amber, malachite, etc. It is used in the manufacture of jewelry and many small articles, as combs, brushes, collars, and cuffs; -- originaly called xylonite.

epared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes.

in parts of France; -- so called because they used to burn the feet of their victims to extort money.

The obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth.

An order of reptiles, including the tortoises and turtles, perculiar in having a part of the vertebræ, ribs, and sternum united with the dermal plates so as to form a firm shell. The jaws are covered by a horny beak. See Reptilia; also, Illust. in Appendix.

Of or pertaining to animals of the tortoise kind. -- n.

coverable by suit at law; as a right to recover money due on a contract, or damages for a tort, which can not be enforced against a reluctant party without suit. -- Chose in possession, a thing in possession, as distinguished from a thing in action. -- Chose local, a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. -- Chose tra…

ammable powder. -- Club root (Bot.), a disease of cabbages, by which the roots become distorted and the heads spoiled. -- Club topsail (Naut.), a kind of gaff topsail, used mostly by yachts having a fore-and-aft rig. It has a short "club" or "jack yard" to increase its spread.

A short, variously distorted foot; also, the deformity, usually congenital, which such a foot exhibits; talipes.

A short, distorted hand; also, the deformity of having such a hand.

t or covering; a layer of any substance, as a cover or protection; as, the coating of a retort or vial.

s works. It is lagerly used where [Written also coak.] Gas coke, the coke formed in gas retorts, as distinguished from that made in ovens.

To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort. [R.] Commissions, which compel from each The sixth part of his substance. Shak.

See Contortion.

A retort, used in the Bessemer process, in which molten cast iron is decarburized and converted into steel by a blast of air forced through the liquid metal.

Folded in tortuous windings. A highly convoluted brain. North Amer. Rev.

The state of being rolled upon itself, or rolled or doubled together; a tortuous or sinuous winding or fold, as of something rolled or folded upon itself. Blackmore.

A fresh-water tortoise (Pseudemus concinna) of Florida.

A poisonous American serpent (Ancistrodon conotortrix), closely allied to the rattlesnake, but without rattles; -- called also copper-belly, and red viper.

ps corallinus), coral-red, with black bands. (b) A small, harmless, South American snake (Tortrix scytale). -- Coral tree (Bot.), a tropical, leguminous plant, of several species, with showy, scarlet blossoms and coral-red seeds. The best known is Erythrina Corallodendron. -- Coral wood, a hard, red cabinet wood. McE…