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y; rash; thoughtless. [Colloq.] They had a quarrel with Sir Thomas Newcome's own son, a harum-scarum lad. Thackeray.

One of the partially thickened anterior wings of certain insects, as of many Hemiptera, the earwigs, etc.

A lateral half of the cerebrum. Wilder.

Monotonous; dull; commonplace. "A humdrum crone." Bryant.

An instrument out of tune or rudely constructed; music badly played.

Quicksilver; mercury.

Want of decorum; impropriety of behavior; that in behavior or manners which violates the established rules of civility, custom, or etiquette; indecorousness.

ny work is performed, or result is effected; a tool; a utensil; an implement; as, the instruments of a mechanic; astronomical instruments. All the lofty instruments of war. Shak.

Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; as, he was instrumental in conducting the business. The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth. Shak.

of truth is its utility, or that truth is genuine only in so far as it is a valuable instrument. -- In`stru*men"tal*ist, n.

One who plays upon an instrument of music, as distinguished from a vocalist.

The quality or condition of being instrumental; that which is instrumental; anything used as a means; medium; agency. The instrumentality of faith in justification. Bp. Burnet. The discovery of gunpowder developed the science of attack and defense in a new instrumentality. J. H. Newman.

By means of an instrument or agency; as means to an end. South. They will argue that the end being essentially beneficial, the means become instrumentally so. Burke.

Usefulness or agency, as means to an end; instrumentality. [R.] Hammond.

Instrumental. [R.]

The act of using or adapting as an instrument; a series or combination of instruments; means; agency. Otherwise we have no sufficient instrumentation for our human use or handling of so great a fact. H. Bushnell.

A performer on a musical instrument; an instrumentalist.

derms, one of the areas or zones intervening between two ambulacra. See Illust. of Ambulacrum.

The median of the three elements composing the centra of the vertebræ in some fossil batrachians.

See Involucre.