Search the Dictionary

t or roundabout language; a periphrese. the plain Billingagate way of calling names . . . would save abundance of time lost by circumlocution. Swift. Circumlocution office, a term of riducle for a governmental office where business is delayed by passing through the hands of different officials.

raints; bound; confinement; limit. The circumscriptions of terrestrial nature. Johnson. I would not my unhoused, free condition Put into circumscription and confine. Shak.

; detention, etc. The cruel corporal whispered in my ear, Five pounds, if rightly tipped, would set me clear. Gay. Clear breach. See under Breach, n., 4. -- Clear days (Law.), days reckoned from one day to another, excluding both the first and last day; as, from Sunday to Sunday there are six clear days. -- Clear stu…

Having fitness, propriety, or suitableness. "T would sound more clever To me and to my heirs forever. Swift.

To embrace, hence; to encompass. O . . . that Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself. Shak.

t. Prescott. To close on or upon, to come to a mutual agreement; to agree on or join in. "Would induce France and Holland to close upon some measures between them to our disadvantage." Sir W. Temple. -- To close with. (a) To accede to; to consent or agree to; as, to close with the terms proposed. (b) To make an agreem…

ially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession. Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth Macaulay. The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom. I. Taylor. Body cloth. See u…

en; to sully; to stain; to tarnish; to damage; -- esp. used of reputation or character. I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance taken. Shak.

ollect into a cluster or clusters; to gather into a bunch or close body. Not less the bee would range her cells, . . . The foxglove cluster dappled bells. Tennyson. Or from the forest falls the clustered snow. Thomson. Clustered column (Arch.), a column which is composed, or appears to be composed, of several columns c…

To set erect; to turn up. Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears. Gay. Dick would cock his nose in scorn. Swift.

Fig.: Treasure or funds; -- usually in the plural. He would discharge it without any burden to the queen's coffers, for honor sake. Bacon. Hold, here is half my coffer. Shak.

To inclose in, or as in, a coffin. Would'st thou have laughed, had I come coffined home Shak. Devotion is not coffined in a cell. John Hall (1646).

riangles, when placed one on the other. If the equator and the ecliptic had coincided, it would have rendered the annual revoluton of the earth useless. Cheyne.

y or colonies in; to people with colonists; to migrate to and settle in. Bacon. They that would thus colonize the stars with inhabitants. Howell.

disguise; appearance. They had let down the boat into the sea, under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship. Acts xxvii. 30. That he should die is worthy policy; But yet we want a color for his death. Shak.

t agreement, under one form of government and system of laws. The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. Milton.

r with sympathy and confidence; to interchange sentiments or feelings; to take counsel. I would commune with you of such things That want no ear but yours. Shak.

. Whewell. The bubble, by reason of its comparative levity to the fluid that incloses it, would necessarily ascend to the top. Bentley.

mpared the people unto the sea, and orators and counselors to the winds; for that the sea would be calm and quiet if the winds did not trouble it. Bacon.

The range of notes, or tones, within the capacity of a voice or instument. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. Shak.