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Something spoken aside; as, a remark made by a stageplayer which the other players are not supposed to hear.

nate our fame. Dryden. Such usage as your honorable lords Afford me, assassinated and betrayed. Milton.

The alloy or metal to be assayed. Ure. Assay and essay are radically the same word; but modern usage has appropriated assay chiefly to experiments in metallurgy, and essay to intellectual and bodily efforts. See Essay.]

ight used in assaying bullion, etc., sometimes equaling 0.5 gram, but varying with the assayer.

That may be assayed.

rlike. Shines only with an astral luster. I. Taylor. Some astral forms I must invoke by prayer. Dryden. Astral lamp, an Argand lamp so constructed that no shadow is cast upon the table by the flattened ring-shaped reservoir in which the oil is contained. -- Astral spirits, spirits formerly supposed to live in the heav…

Hoisted up and ready to be swayed across; -- said of yards.

Attentive; heedful. [Archaic] Let thine ears be attent unto the prayer. 2 Chron. vi. 40.

A variety of the game of bridge in which the players, beginning with the dealer, bid for the privilege of naming the trump and playing with the dummy for that deal, there being heavy penalties for a player's failure to make good his bid. The score value of each trick more than six taken by the successful bidder is as f…

A game of cards in which the players bid for the privilege of determining or "pitching" the trump suit. R. F. Foster.

One who foretells events by omens; a soothsayer; a diviner; a prophet. Augur of ill, whose tongue was never found Without a priestly curse or boding sound. Dryden.

A salutation and prayer to the Virgin Mary, as mother of God; -- used in the Roman Catholic church. To number Ave Maries on his beads. Shak.

- Petty averages are sundry small charges, which occur regularly, and are necessarily defrayed by the master in the usual course of a voyage; such as port charges, common pilotage, and the like, which formerly were, and in some cases still are, borne partly by the ship and partly by the cargo. In the clause commonly fo…

d contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the church. Bacon. Till ardent prayer averts the public woe. Prior.

To quit or evacuate; to withdraw from. [Obs.] Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room. Bacon.

Same as Aye.

A French game of cards, played by a banker and punters.

o ridicule a person behind his back. -- Full back, Half back, Quarter back (Football), players stationed behind those in the front line. -- To be or lie on one's back, to be helpless. -- To put, or get, one's back up, to assume an attitude of obstinate resistance (from the action of a cat when attacked.). [Colloq.]…

A game of chance and skill, played by two persons on a "board" marked off into twenty-four spaces called "points". Each player has fifteen pieces, or "men", the movements of which from point to point are determined by throwing dice. Formerly called tables. Backgammon board , a board for playing backgammon, often made i…

In rounders, the player who stands immediately behind the striking base.