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A staff or crutch. [Obs.]

The body of professors, or the professorial staff, in a university or college.

renheit weigh exactly the second, third, and fourth proof spirits respectively. -- Proof staff, a straight-edge used by millers to test the flatness of a stone. -- Proof stick (Sugar Manuf.), a rod in the side of a vacuum pan, for testing the consistency of the sirup. -- Proof text, a passage of Scripture used to pr…

the direction of the master. Totten. Quartermaster general (Mil.), in the United States a staff officer, who has the rank of brigadier general and is the chief officer in the quartermaster's department; in England, an officer of high rank stationed at the War Office having similar duties; also, a staff officer, usually…

A method of training trees or shrubs in the shape of a cone or distaff by tying down the branches and pruning.

A distaff.

A forestaff.

sume an erect position or posture; to set up; to make upright; as, to raise a mast or flagstaff. Hence: --

rals. In a more extended sense, it includes sergeants also, excepting the noncommissioned staff. (b) See under 1st File. -- The ranks, the order or grade of common soldiers; as, to reduce a noncommissioned officer to the ranks. -- To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. -- To take rank…

Of or pertaining to a reporter or reporters; as, the reportorial staff of a newspaper.

Gold and silver, or money. [Cant] W. Wagstaffe. As long as the rhino lasted. Marryat.

A distaff used in spinning; the staff or frame about which flax is arranged, and from which the thread is drawn in spinning. Chapman. Sad Clotho held the rocke, the whiles the thread By grisly Lachesis was spun with pain, That cruel Atropos eftsoon undid. Spenser.

One who carries and holds a leveling staff, or rod, in a surveying party. G. W. Cable.

One of the stakes of a cart; a spar; a heavy staff.

nes, or to the Norsemen; as, runic verses; runic letters; runic names; runic rhyme. Runic staff. See Clog almanac, under Clog. -- Runic wand, a willow wand bearing runes, formerly thought to have been used by the heathen tribes of Northern Europe in magical ceremonies.

h (Bot.), a heatherlike plant (Dabæcia polifolia), named from an Irish saint. -- Saint Distaff's Day. See under Distaff. -- Saint Elmo's fire, a luminious, flamelike appearance, sometimes seen in dark, tempestuous nights, at some prominent point on a ship, particularly at the masthead and the yardams. It has also bee…

A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. And the king held out Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Esther v. 2.

The interval between any tone and the tone which is represented on the degree of the staff next above it.

rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.

-- Shepherd's club (Bot.), the common mullein. See Mullein. -- Shepherd's crook, a long staff having the end curved so as to form a large hook, -- used by shepherds. -- Shepherd's needle (Bot.), the lady's comb. -- Shepherd's plaid, a kind of woolen cloth of a checkered black and white pattern. -- Shephered spider…