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A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind.

A calling together of the king's (esp. the French king's) vassals for military service; also, the body of vassals thus assembled or summoned. In present usage, in France and Prussia, the most effective part of the population liable to military duty and not in the standing army.

Originally, a knight who led his vassals into the field under his own banner; -- commonly used as a title of rank.

without a pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils. -- Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions. -- Barren Ground bear (Zoöl.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe. -- Barren Ground caribou (Zo…

The bell or vase of the Corinthian capital. [Improperly so used.] Gwilt.

To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence. Vast chain of being! which from God began. Pope.

To swell and become protuberant, like the belly; to bulge. The bellying canvas strutted with the gale. Dryden.

A band of canvas, to strengthen a sail.

A feudatory or vassal; hence, one who holds a benefice and uses its proceeds. Ayliffe.

The crevasse or series of crevasses, usually deep and often broad, frequently occurring near the head of a mountain glacier, about where the névé field joins the valley portion of the glacier.

A species of white, unglazed porcelain, in which vases, figures, and groups are formed in miniature. Meat biscuit, an alimentary preparation consisting of matters extracted from meat by boiling, or of meat ground fine and combined with flour, so as to form biscuits.

A canvas for a portrait measuring 58 by 94 inches. The half bishop measures 45 of 56.

To use evasion. [Obs.] Books will speak plain, when counselors blanch. Bacon.

The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial.

A cushioned or a piece of soft wood covered with tarred canvas, placed on the trestletrees and against the mast, for the collars of the shrouds to rest on, to prevent chafing.

A compact package or roll of cloth, as of canvas or silk, often containing about forty yards.

An additional piece of canvas laced to the foot of a jib or foresail in moderate winds. Hakluyt.

Without bounds or confines; illimitable; vast; unlimited. "The boundless sky." Bryant. "The boundless ocean." Dryden. "Boundless rapacity." "Boundless prospect of gain." Macaulay.

A band for the breast. Specifically: (Naut.) A band of canvas, or a rope, fastened at both ends to the rigging, to support the man who heaves the lead in sounding.

Trousers; pantaloons. [Colloq.] Breeches buoy, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to t…