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across the corner of a square room to support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or drum rests upon a square tower; -- called also sconce, and sconcheon.

A spire; also, the tower and spire taken together; the whole of a structure if the roof is of spire form. See Spire. "A weathercock on a steeple." Shak. Rood steeple. See Rood tower, under Rood. -- Steeple bush (Bot.), a low shrub (Spiræa tomentosa) having dense panicles of minute rose-colored flowers; hardhack. -- S…

. A fatal stop traversed their headlong course. Daniel. So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent. Rogers.

the best known. It commonly makes its nests on the top of a building, a chimney, a church spire, or a pillar. The black stork (C. nigra) is native of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Black-necked stork, the East Indian jabiru. -- Hair-crested stork, the smaller adjutant of India (Leptoptilos Javanica). -- Giant stork, the a…

o compete; to be a rival. Chaucer. [Not] that sweet grove Of Daphne, by Orontes and the inspired Castalian spring, might with this paradise Of Eden strive. Milton.

To blow up; to inflate; to inspire. [R.] T. Ward.

To excrete sensible moisture from the pores of the skin; to perspire. Shak.

tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object; as, the taper of a spire.

A genus of marine gastropods having a long, tapering spire. They belong to the Toxoglossa. Called also auger shell.

Divinely inspired; theopneustic. [R.]

To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn. Let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Acts iv. 17.

extremity; the upper side or surface; summit; apex; vertex; cover; lid; as, the top of a spire; the top of a house; the top of a mountain; the top of the ground. The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold. Milton.

Capable of being transpired, or of transpiring.

Top-shaped; having a flat base and conical spire; -- said of certain shells.

- To turn up. (a) To bend, or be doubled, upward. (b) To appear; to come to light; to transpire; to occur; to happen.

Not such as to inspire liking; unattractive; disagreeable. [Obs.] "The unlikely eld of me." Chaucer.

An inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations; an excessive desire for notice or approval; pride; ostentation; conceit. The exquisitely sensitive vanity of Garrick was galled. Macaulay.

Having the power of seeing visions; inspired; also, seen in visions. [R.] Shelley.

e; -- so called because originally often in the figure of a cock, turning on the top of a spire with the wind, and showing its direction. "As a wedercok that turneth his face with every wind." Chaucer. Noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of mutation. Longfellow.

should not tell whose children they were. Chaucer. There thou tell'st of kings, and who aspire; Who fall, who rise, who triumph, who do moan. Daniel. Adders who with cloven tongues Do hiss into madness. Shak. Whom I could pity thus forlorn. Milton. How hard is our fate, who serve in the state. Addison. Who cheapens li…