Search the Dictionary

One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. Can they think me . . . their fool or jester Milton. April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bell…

foreign idiom or custom. It is a pity to see the technicalities of the so-called liberal professions distigured by foreignisms. Fitzed. Hall.

Men of the same class, profession, occupation, character, or tastes. With what terms of respect knaves and sots will speak of their own fraternity! South.

ins to any public officer in church or state; the activity appropriate to any business or profession. Tradesmen . . . going about their functions. Shak. The malady which made him incapable of performing his regal functions. Macaulay.

ighters wear boxing gloves. -- Glove money or silver. (a) A tip or gratuity to servants, professedly to buy gloves with. (b) (Eng. Law.) A reward given to officers of courts; also, a fee given by the sheriff of a country to the clerk of assize and judge's officers, when there are no offenders to be executed. -- Glove…

The official robe of certain professional men and scholars, as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc.; hence, the dress of peace; the dress of civil officers, in distinction from military. He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield. Dryden.

One whose professional habit is a gown, as a divine or lawyer, and particularly a member of an English university; hence, a civilian, in distinction from a soldier.

preaching of the gospel, etc. -- To do grace, to reflect credit upon. Content to do the profession some grace. Shak. -- To say grace, to render thanks before or after a meal. -- With a good grace, in a fit and proper manner grace fully; graciously. -- With a bad grace, in a forced, reluctant, or perfunctory manner;…

One who has received an academical or professional degree; one who has completed the prescribed course of study in any school or institution of learning.

A scale invented by the Rev. Edmund Gunter (1581-1626), a professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London, who invented also Gunter's chain, and Gunter's quadrant.

ing the dynamics of rotating bodies, the composition of rotations, etc. It was devised by Professor W. R. Johnson, in 1832, by whom it was called the rotascope.

Professional cant; the chatter of conjurers to divert attention from their tricks; hence, jugglery. [Colloq.]

ght; to equip with harness, as a horse. Also used figuratively. Harnessed to some regular profession. J. C. Shairp. Harnessed antelope. (Zoöl.) See Guib. -- Harnessed moth (Zoöl.), an American bombycid moth (Arctia phalerata of Harris), having, on the fore wings, stripes and bands of buff on a black ground.…

A sword or other mark of the profession of arms; in general, a mark of dignity. Let there be deducted, out of our main potation, Five marks in hatchments to adorn this thigh. Beau. & Fl.

One who having made a profession of Christian belief, deliberately and pertinaciously refuses to believe one or more of the articles of faith "determined by the authority of the universal church." Addis & Arnold.

A professional tramp; one who spends his life traveling from place to place, esp. by stealing rides on trains, and begging for a living. [U. S.] -- Ho"bo*ism (#), n.

eiving investiture of fee, or coming to it by succession, that he was his man, or vassal; profession of fealty to a sovereign.

A fee offered to professional men for their services; as, an honorarium of one thousand dollars. S. Longfellow.

e of the aspect of the heavens at the moment of a person's birth, by which the astrologer professed to foretell the events of the person's life; especially, the sign of the zodiac rising above the horizon at such a moment.

A professional rider and trainer of race horses.