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a hint; a different proposal or mention; also, formerly, a secret incitement; temptation. Why do I yield to that suggestion Shak.

e guilt; to have a suspicion or suspicions; to be suspicious. If I suspect without cause, why then make sport at time. Shak.

written sile.] But our folk call them syle, and nought but syle, And when they're grown, why then we call them herring. J. Ingelow.

. Cleombroutus was so taken with this prospect, that he had no patience. Wake. I know not why, but there was a something in those half-seen features, -- a charm in the very shadow that hung over their imagined beauty, -- which took me more than all the outshining loveliness of her companions. Moore.…

Fig.: Sharp; keen; severe; as, a tart reply; tart language; a tart rebuke. Why art thou tart, my brother Bunyan.

To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge. Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife Gen. xii. 18.

A temporizer. [Obs.] Why, turn a temporist, row with the tide. Marston.

nt, fancy, purpose, or intention. Thus Bethel spoke, who always speaks his thought. Pope. Why do you keep alone, . . . Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on Shak. Thoughts come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to choose or to reject. Dryden. All their thoughts…

sper in any business; to have increase or success. "They by vices thrive." Sandys. O son, why sit we here, each other viewing Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives Milton. And so she throve and prospered. Tennyson.

Ready to act; forward; bold; valiant. Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. Shak.

Mournful; expressive of tragedy, the loss of life, or of sorrow. Why look you still so stern and tragical Shak. -- Trag"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Trag"ic*al*ness, n.

To offend against; to vex. [Obs.] Why give you peace to this imperate beast That hath so long transgressed you Beau. & Fl.

e or wavering; to unsettle; as, to unhinge one's mind or opinions; to unhinge the nerves. Why should I then unhinge my brains, ruin my mind South. His sufferings, nay the revolutions of his fate, had not in the least unhinged his mind. Walpole.

To strike unseasonably; to affect disagreeably or unfavorably. [Obs.] Why do I send this rustic madrigal, That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite Spenser.

To reel, sway, or move from side to side; to move with a wagging motion; to waddle. Why do you go nodding and waggling so L'Estrange.

his visage pale and wan." Spenser. My color . . . [is] wan and of a leaden hue. Chaucer. Why so pale and wan, fond lover Suckling. With the wan moon overhead. Longfellow.

son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it. Isa. vii. 1. Why should I war without the walls of Troy Shak. Our countrymen were warring on that day! Byron.

Why For what purpose On what account [Obs.] What should I tell the answer of the knight. Chaucer. But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates What do I pick up so thriftily their scatterings and diminishings of the meaner subject Milton.…

For what reason; why; -- used interrogatively. But wherefore that I tell my tale. Chaucer. Wherefore didst thou doubt Matt. xiv. 31.

son the male has very long, drooping tail feathers. Called also vida finch, whidah finch, whydah bird, whydah finch, widow bird, and widow finch.