Search the Dictionary

Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



262 words match “RETCH”

INTOLERANCE n.
intolerance shown toward a religious sect. These few restrictions, I hope, are no great stretches of intolerance, no very violent exertions of despotism. Burke.
JACK KETCH n.
ch. Lloyd's MS., British Museum. [Monmouth] then accosted John Ketch, the executioner, a wretch who had butchered many brave and noble victims, and whose name has, during a century and a half, been vulgarly given to all who have succeeded him in his odious office. Macaulay.
JACKSTAY n.
A rail of wood or iron stretching along a yard of a vessel, to which the sails are fastened.
KARROO n.
vations. [Also karoo.] The Great Karroo, or The Karroo, a vast plateau, in Cape Colony, stretching through five degrees of longitude, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet.
KAYAK n.
A light canoe, made of skins stretched over a frame, and usually capable of carrying but one person, who sits amidships and uses a double-bladed paddle. It is peculiar to the Eskimos and other Arctic tribes.
KAZOO n.
A kind of toy or rude musical instrument, as a tube inside of which is a stretched string made to vibrate by singing or humming into the tube.
KECK v.
To heave or to retch, as in an effort to vomit. [R.] Swift.
KETTLEDRUM n.
A drum made of thin copper in the form of a hemispherical kettle, with parchment stretched over the mouth of it.
KIND a.
thankful and to evil. Luke vi 35. O cruel Death, to those you take more kind Than to the wretched mortals left behind. Waller. A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind. Garrick.
KNIFE n.
A sword or dagger. The coward conquest of a wretch's knife. Shak. Knife grass (Bot.) a tropical American sedge (Scleria latifolia), having leaves with a very sharp and hard edge, like a knife. -- War to the knife, mortal combat; a conflict carried to the last extremity.
KUSSIER n.
instrument of music, with a hollow body covered with skin, over which five strings are stretched. [Written also kussir.]
LARYNX n.
It contains the vocal cords, which produce the voice by their vibrations, when they are stretched and a current of air passes between them. The larynx is connected with the pharynx by an opening, the glottis, which, in mammals, is protected by a lidlike epiglottis.
LASTER n.
business it is to shape boots or shoes, or place leather smoothly, on lasts; a tool for stretching leather on a last.
LET v.
. e., cause to be made; let bring, i. e., cause to be brought. [Obs.] This irous, cursed wretch Let this knight's son anon before him fetch. Chaucer. He . . . thus let do slay hem all three. Chaucer. Anon he let two coffers make. Gower.
LIE v.
e, or to put one's self, in an horizontal position, or nearly so; to be prostate; to be stretched out; -- often with down, when predicated of living creatures; as, the book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin. The watchful traveler . . . Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes. Dryden.…
LINE n.
The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; boundary; contour; outline. Eden stretched her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia. Milton.
LITTER n.
A bed or stretcher so arranged that a person, esp. a sick or wounded person, may be easily carried in or upon it. There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. Shak.
LUCIFER n.
Hence, Satan. How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . . When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Shak.
MINCE v.
s; to walk in a prim, affected manner. The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,... mincing as they go. Is. iii. 16. I 'll... turn two mincing steps Into a manly stride. Shak.
MISCREANT n.
One not restrained by Christian principles; an unscrupulous villain; a while wretch. Addison.
← Previous Page 7 of 14 Next →