Search the Dictionary

which is designed in an epic poem. Dryden. Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite, significations. Locke.

o that a match or train may connect with all their touchholes, and a discharge be secured almost or quite simultaneously.

s; an occurrence; an incident; an act or deed. "In thy passages of life." Shak. The . . . almost incredible passage of their unbelief. South.

y bird of the order Impennes, or Ptilopteri. They are covered with short, thick feathers, almost scalelike on the wings, which are without true quills. They are unable to fly, but use their wings to aid in diving, in which they are very expert. See King penguin, under Jackass.

The almost inappreciable time which elapses between the systole and the diastole of the heart.

ostulation, etc.; to draw or incline to a determination by presenting sufficient motives. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts xxvi. 28. We will persuade him, be it possible. Shak.

y translocated, those that accumulate being changed to starch, which appears in the cells almost simultaneously with the sugars. The chloroplasts perform photosynthesis only in light and within a certain range of temperature, varying according to climate. This is the only way in which a plant is able to organize carboh…

us are harmless. The tree (Rhus vernicifera) which yields the celebrated Japan lacquer is almost identical with the poison sumac, and is also very poisonous. The juice of the poison sumac also forms a lacquer similar to that of Japan.

A theorem or proposition so easy of demonstration as to be almost self-evident. [R.] Crabb.

ill; ominous. For, I believe, they are portentous things. Shak. Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor. Macaulay.

e or use; as, a medicine practically safe; theoretically wrong, but practically right. 4. Almost.

ents; foreseeing; conscious beforehand. Pope. Henry . . . had shown himself sensible, and almost prescient, of this event. Bacon.

In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; -- less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact; pretty cold weather. Pretty plainly professes himself a sincere Christian. Atterbury.

ejudice the rights of any person whatever. Provided the deductions are logical, they seem almost indifferent to their truth. G. H. Lewes.

Divided into five parts almost to the base.

his head South. Sometimes his feet rased the surface of water, and at others the skylight almost flattened his nose. Beckford.

rominence or conspicuousness to; to Her tall figure relieved against the blue sky; seemed almost of supernatural height. Sir W. Scott.

A low, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow. Spenser. Pope. Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . . . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal. Earle.

Chiefly relied on; almost indispensable. Mr. Alexander Truncheon, who is their right-hand man in the troop. Addison. Right-hand rope, a rope which is laid up and twisted with the sun, that is, in the same direction as plain-laid rope. See Illust. of Cordage.

Long and filiform, and almost naked, or having only leaves at the joints where it strikes root; as, a sarmentose stem.