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The system of employing convicts by selling their labor (to be performed inside the prison) at a fixed price per day to contractors who are allowed to have agents in the prison to superintend the work.

bargain; one who covenants to do anything for another; specifically, one who contracts to perform work on a rather large scale, at a certain price or rate, as in building houses or making a railroad.

the voice or singer performing this part; as, her voice is a contralto; she is a contralto.

The act of conveying, carrying, or transporting; carriage. The long joirney was to be performed on horseback, -- the only sure mode of conveyamce. Prescott. Following th river downward, there is conveyance into the countries named in the text. Sir W. Raleigh.

A performer on the cornet or horn.

An obligation to perform certain services, as the repair of roads, for the lord or sovereign.

A brisk dance, performed by eight persons; a quadrille.

An act of civility or respect; an act of kindness or favor performed with politeness. My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you. Shak.

of voice; with gradually increasing strength and fullness of tone; -- a direction for the performance of music, indicated by the mark, or by writing the word on the score.

the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the beauties and faults of a literary performance, or of a production in the fine arts; as, dramatic criticism. The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Be…

The part one has to perform in, or as in, a play. Were it my cueto fight, I should have known it Without a prompter. Shak.

Burdensome or hindering, as a weight or drag; embarrassing; vexatious; cumbrous. To perform a cumbersome obedience. Sir. P. Sidney.

One of the attendants of a prince or noble, permanently charged with the performance of this office for his master. "I was the king's cupbearer." Neh. i. 11.

One who performs the operation of cupping.

t now usually limited to one who assist a rector or vicar Hook. All this the good old man performed alone, He spared no pains, for curate he had none. Dryden.

The quality of being cursory; superficial performance; as, cursoriness of view.

Characterized by haste; hastily or superficially performed; slight; superficial; careless. Events far too important to be treated in a cursory manner. Hallam.

teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. W. Irving. -- The curtain falls, the performance closes. -- The curtain rises, the performance begins. -- To draw the curtain, to close ot over an object, or to remove it; hence: (a) To hide or to disclose an object. (b) To commence or close a performance. -- To d…

To perform the operation of dividing, severing, incising, intersecting, etc.; to use a cutting instrument. He saved the lives of thousands by manner of cutting for the stone. Pope.

r circle; moving in cycles; as, cyclical time. Coleridge. Cyclic chorus, the chorus which performed the songs and dances of the dithyrambic odes at Athens, dancing round the altar of Bacchus in a circle. -- Cyclic poets, certain epic poets who followed Homer, and wrote merely on the Trojan war and its heroes; -- so ca…