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sons associated for any temporary or permanent object; an association for mutual or joint usefulness, pleasure, or profit; a social union; a partnership; as, a missionary society.

-- Spanish elm (Bot.), a large West Indian tree (Cordia Gerascanthus) furnishing hard and useful timber. -- Spanish feretto, a rich reddish brown pigment obtained by calcining copper and sulphur together in closed crucibles. -- Spanish flag (Zoöl.), the California rockfish (Sebastichthys rubrivinctus). It is conspicu…

ide, and the other on the other side. Ex. xvii. 12. Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. Dryden.

f polypetalous exogenous plants, mostly tropical. The cacao (Theobroma Cacao) is the most useful plant of the order.

To be subservient; to be useful. [Obs.] "Our passions . . . subminister to the best and worst purposes." L'EStrange.

Fitted or disposed to subserve; useful in an inferior capacity; serving to promote some end; subordinate; hence, servile, truckling. Scarce ever reading anything which he did not make subservient in one kind or other. Bp. Fell. These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another. Ray. Their temporal ambition was wh…

and principal head everywhere, not suffragant and subsidiary. Florio. They constituted a useful subsidiary testimony of another state of existence. Coleridge.

Of or pertaining to the useful or mechanic arts, or to any science, business, or the like; specially appropriate to any art, science, or business; as, the words of an indictment must be technical. Blackstone.

Any one of numerous small species of Thysanoptera, especially those which attack useful plants, as the grain thrips (Thrips cerealium).

A drug useful in neuralgia, derived from a Fijian plant supposed to be of the aroid genus Epipremnum.

Yielding of service; advantage derived; capability of being used; usefulness; utility. God made two great lights, great for their use To man. Milton. 'T is use alone that sanctifies expense. Pope.

Profitable; useful. [Obs.]

ing all the particular virtues into one, and would substitute in their place the greatest usefulness, as the alone principle to which every question respecting the morality of actions should be referred. Chalmers. But what is a utilitarian Simply one who prefers the useful to the useless; and who does not Sir W. Hamilt…

is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness.

The quality or state of being useful; usefulness; production of good; profitableness to some valuable end; as, the utility of manure upon land; the utility of the sciences; the utility of medicines. The utility of the enterprises was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved useless. Macaulay.…

To make useful; to turn to profitable account or use; to make use of; as, to utilize the whole power of a machine; to utilize one's opportunities. In former ages, the mile-long corridors, with their numerous alcoves, might have been utilized as . . . dungeons. Hawthorne.

Having value or worth; possessing qualities which are useful and esteemed; precious; costly; as, a valuable horse; valuable land; a valuable cargo.

The property or aggregate properties of a thing by which it is rendered useful or desirable, or the degree of such property or sum of properties; worth; excellence; utility; importance.

, in the language of miners, to a mineral vein or lode, that is, to a vein which contains useful minerals or ores.

Shak. Things vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise. Milton. It might be more useful to the English reader . . . to write in our vulgar language. Bp. Fell. The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class. Bancroft.…