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with arms or an armament, stores, munitions, rigging, etc.; -- said esp. of ships and of troops. Dryden. Gave orders for equipping a considerable fleet. Ludlow.

a voyage or for warlike purposes, or the furniture and necessaries of an army, a body of troops, or a single soldier, including whatever is necessary for efficient service; equipments; accouterments; habiliments; attire. Did their exercises on horseback with noble equipage. Evelyn. First strip off all her equipage of…

A furious attack made by troops on a fortified place, in which ladders are used to pass a ditch or mount a rampart. Sin enters, not by escalade, but by cunning or treachery. Buckminster.

respect or honor; -- applied to movements on land, as convoy is to movements at sea. The troops of my escort marched at the ordinary rate. Burke.

Supplies issued to troops on the march; hence (Mil.),

A prescribed movement of a body of troops, or a vessel or fleet; any movement designed to effect a new arrangement or disposition; a maneuver. Those evolutions are best which can be executed with the greatest celerity, compatible with regularity. Campbell.

nto the account; excluding from consideration; -- opposed to inclusive; as, five thousand troops, exclusive of artillery.

e purpose of training; as, to exercise arms; to exercise one's self in music; to exercise troops. About him exercised heroic games The unarmed youth. Milton.

mes by a clause (with, or without, that); as I expect to receive wages; I expect that the troops will be defeated. "Good: I will expect you." Shak. "Expecting thy reply." Shak. The Somersetshire or yellow regiment . . . was expected to arrive on the following day. Macaulay.

reat for safety to (a stronger position in the rear, as to a fort or a supporting body of troops). (b) To have recourse to (a reserved fund, or some available expedient or support). -- To fall calm, to cease to blow; to become calm. -- To fall down. (a) To prostrate one's self in worship. "All kings shall fall down b…

e, with lees or size, without spinning or weaving. It were a delicate stratagem to shoe A troop of horse with felt. Shak .

The discharge of firearms; firing; as, the troops were exposed to a heavy fire. Blue fire, Red fire, Green fire (Pyrotech.), compositions of various combustible substances, as sulphur, niter, lampblack, etc., the flames of which are colored by various metallic salts, as those of antimony, strontium, barium, etc. -- Fi…

latile or essential oils. -- Fixed pivot (Mil.), the fixed point about which any line of troops wheels. -- Fixed stars (Astron.), such stars as always retain nearly the same apparent position and distance with respect to each other, thus distinguished from planets and comets.

To convey, as a message, by means of flag signals; as, to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance.

within the pitch line. Flank attack (Mil.), an attack upon the side of an army or body of troops, distinguished from one upon its front or rear. -- Flank company (Mil.), a certain number of troops drawn up on the right or left of a battalion; usually grenadiers, light infantry, or riflemen. -- Flank defense (Fort.),…

One who, or that which, flanks, as a skirmisher or a body of troops sent out upon the flanks of an army toguard a line of march, or a fort projecting so as to command the side of an assailing body. They threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants. W. Irwing.

beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels bein…

To flock to; to crowd. [Obs.] Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so. Taylor (1609).

of land or naval combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; -- an armament; troops; warlike array; -- often in the plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation. Is Lucius general of the forces Shak.

First in time or place; most advanced; chief in rank or dignity; as, the foremost troops of an army. THat struck the foremost man of all this world. Shak.