Search the Dictionary

A disease communicable by contact with a patient suffering from it, or with some secretion of, or object touched by, such a patient. Most such diseases have already been proved to be germ diseases, and their communicability depends on the transmission of the living germs. Many germ diseases are not contagious, some sp…

ng, to a common purpose; to have a share in any act or effect. We are engaged in war; the secretary of state calls upon the colonies to contribute. Burke.

A small assembly or gathering; esp., a secret assembly. They are commanded to abstain from all conventicles of men whatsoever. Ayliffe.

ng to, or resembling, a conventicle. [Obs.] Conventicling schools . . . set up and taught secretly by fanatics. South.

l estate) or pass (a title to real estate) by a sealed writing. The Earl of Desmond . . . secretly conveyed all his lands to feoffees in trust. Spenser.

One given to artifices or secret practices; a juggler; a cheat; a thief. [Obs.] Shak.

A secret or secluded place; a remote or out of the way place; a nook. This thing was not done in a corner. Acts xxvi. 26.

A secretary or clerk. [Obs.] Chaucer.

f the wall of the hoof of the horse and allied animals. It takes an important part in the secretion of the horny walls.

A secret opinion or purpose; a private matter. Thilke lord . . . to whom no counsel may be hid. Gower.

r another. -- Counter brace. See Counter brace, in Vocabulary. -- Counter deed (Law), a secret writing which destroys, invalidates, or alters, a public deed. -- Counter distinction, contradistinction. [Obs.] -- Counter drain, a drain at the foot of the embankment of a canal or watercourse, for carrying off the water…

To frustrate or counteract by secret measures.

The signature of a secretary or other officer to a writing signed by a principal or superior, to attest its authenticity.

let, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore. Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks. Holland.

Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised. How covert matters may be best disclosed. Shak. Whether of open war or covert guile. Milton

Secretly; in private; insidiously.

Strength; might; secret power. [Obs.] Chaucer.

; to insinuate one's self; to advance or gain influence by servile or obsequious conduct. Secretly crawling up the battered walls. Knolles. Hath crawled into the favor of the king. Shak. Absurd opinions crawl about the world. South.

To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us. The sothistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. Locke. Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6.…

A hard mass, made up of dried secretions blood, or pus, occurring upon the surface of the body.