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rank; elevated character. "Persons of quality." Bacon. Quality binding, a kind of worsted tape used in Scotland for binding carpets, and the like. The quality, those of high rank or station, as distinguished from the masses, or common people; the nobility; the gentry. I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my f…

of Queen-post. [Courtesy] oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls. Milton.

A round and tapering mass of hair, or similar material, used by women to support the puffs and rolls of their natural hair. [Local, U.S.]

Like a rat's tale in form; as, a rat-tail file, which is round, slender, and tapering. See Illust. of File.

Having a long, tapering tail like that of a rat. Rat-tailed larva (Zoöl.), the larva of a fly of the genus Eristalis. See Eristalis. -- Rat-tailed serpent (Zoöl.), the fer-de-lance. -- Rat-tailed shrew (Zoöl.), the musk shrew.

To restore the original design of, by working in new warp; -- said with reference to tapestry.

the stigma of violets, or of the operculum of many mosses; the rostellum on the head of a tapeworm.

e Round Table, under Knight. -- Round tower, one of certain lofty circular stone towers, tapering from the base upward, and usually having a conical cap or roof, which crowns the summit, -- found chiefly in Ireland. They are of great antiquity, and vary in heigh from thirty-five to one hundred and thiry feet. -- Roun…

ce which is to be united to another by a scarf joint, the part of the end or edge that is tapered off, rabbeted, or notched so as to be thinner than the rest of the piece.

embryo produced directly from the egg in a metagenetic series, especially the larva of a tapeworm or other parasitic worm. See Illust. of Echinococcus.

lantern or cased support for a candle; hence, a fixed hanging or projecting candlestick. Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-colored, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them. Evelyn. Golden sconces hang not on the walls. Dryden.

ity or state of shining; brightness; luster, gloss; polish; sheen. Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine. Milton. Fair opening to some court's propitious shine. Pope. The distant shine of the celestial city. Hawthorne.

American cowslip (Dodecatheon Meadia). See under Cowslip. -- Shooting stick (Print.), a tapering piece of wood or iron, used by printers to drive up the quoins in the chase. Hansard.

ifling conversation; chitchat. -- Small wares (Com.), various small textile articles, as tapes, braid, tringe, and the like. M`Culloch.

Thickest in the middle, and tapering to both ends; fusiform; -- applied chiefly to roots.

Bleached yarn in making the linen tape called inkle; unwrought inkle. Knight.

Becoming hard and thorny; tapering gradually to a rigid, leafless point; armed with spines. Gray.

A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically (Arch.), the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width; also, the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; the t…

Of or pertaining to a spire; like a spire, tall, slender, and tapering; abounding in spires; as, spiry turrets. "Spiry towns." Thomson.

Any one of numerous species of ten-armed cephalopods having a long, tapered body, and a caudal fin on each side; especially, any species of Loligo, Ommastrephes, and related genera. See Calamary, Decacerata, Dibranchiata.