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A sudden movement or pull; a pull up; as, the sailor gave his trousers a hitch.

A woman's skirt so scant at the bottom as to restrain freedom of movement after the fashion of a hobble. -- Hob"ble-skirt`ed, a.

A bristling up; a rising into roughness; tumultuous movement. [Archaic] Such fresh horror as you see driven through the wrinkled waves. Chapman.

One of the scholars who in the field of literature proper represented the movement of the Renaissance, and early in the 16th century adopted the name Humanist as their distinctive title. Schaff- Herzog.

Abnormally increased muscular movement; spasm.

who skates on ice wearing an ice skate; esp. an athlete who performs athletic or artistic movements on a sheet of ice, wearing ice skates; including speed skater and figure skater

An ideo-motor movement.

Applied to those actions, or muscular movements, which are automatic expressions of dominant ideas, rather than the result of distinct volitional efforts, as the act of expressing the thoughts in speech, or in writing, while the mind is occupied in the composition of the sentence. Carpenter.

With reference to movement or tendency toward a certain limit or environment; -- sometimes equivalent to into; as, to put seed in the ground; to fall in love; to end in death; to put our trust in God. He would not plunge his brother in despair. Addison. She had no jewels to deposit in their caskets. Fielding.…

The formal beginning or initiation of any movement, course of action, etc.; as, the inauguration of a new system, a new condition, etc.

Want of coördination; lack of harmonious adjustment or action. Incoördination of muscular movement (Physiol.), irregularity in movements resulting from inharmonious action of the muscles in consequence of loss of voluntary control over them.

An introductory step or movement; an act which originates or begins. The undeveloped initiatives of good things to come. I. Taylor.

To introduce gently or slowly, as by a winding or narrow passage, or a gentle, persistent movement. The water easily insinuates itself into, and placidly distends, the vessels of vegetables. Woodward.

An instrument for measuring small movements, distances, or displacements by means of the interference of two beams of light; -- called also refractometer.

Within a cell; as, the intracellular movements seen in the pigment cells, the salivary cells, and in the protoplasm of some vegetable cells.

A movement in tactics by which the order of companies in line is inverted, the right being on the left, the left on the right, and so on.

Not under the influence or control of the will; not voluntary; as, the involuntary movements of the body; involuntary muscle fibers.

Not rotatory; passing from one point to another by a movement other than rotation; -- said of the movement of parts of a liquid or yielding mass. Sir W. Thomson.

A light, brisk musical movement. Hot and hasty, like a Scotch jib. Shak.

Resembling, or suitable for, a jig, or lively movement. Tatler.