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Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation. Whewel.

nveyance and delivery of mail matter. There is a mail come in to-day, with letters dated Hague. Tatler.

lations from decaying vegetable matter in contact with moisture, giving rise to fever and ague and many other symptoms characterized by their tendency to recur at definite and usually uniform intervals.

are wholly absent (intermittent fever), or only partially so (remittent fever); fever and ague; chills and fever.

ey lent upon respondentia and bottomry bonds. -- Marine law. See under Law. -- Marine league, three geographical miles. -- Marine metal, an alloy of lead, antimony, and mercury, made for sheathing ships. Mc Elrath. -- Marine soap, cocoanut oil soap; -- so called because, being quite soluble in salt water, it is muc…

rboard, metal, etc., put under the glass which covers a framed picture; as, the mat of a daguerreotype. Mat grass. (Bot.) (a) A low, tufted, European grass (Nardus stricta). (b) Same as Matweed. -- Mat rush (Bot.), a kind of rush (Scirpus lacustris) used in England for making mats.

The Paraguay tea, being the dried leaf of the Brazilian holly (Ilex Paraguensis). The infusion has a pleasant odor, with an agreeable bitter taste, and is much used for tea in South America.

A rope of hair or of maguey fiber, for tying horses, etc. [Southwestern U. S.]

e fata Morgana and looming are species of mirage. By the mirage uplifted the land floats vague in the ether, Ships and the shadows of ships hang in the motionless air. Longfellow.

ed, as if turbid with mud; cloudy in mind; dull; stupid; also, immethodical; incoherent; vague. Cold hearts and muddy understandings. Burke. Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled. Shak.

To hold intercourse respecting a treaty, league, or convention; to treat with, respecting peace or commerce; to conduct communications or conferences. He that negotiates between God and man Is God's ambassador. Cowper.

diseases and transfusion of blood! T. Baker. Soerates lived in Athens during the great plague which has made so much noise in all ages. Spectator.

idional crown (Rom.Antiq.), a crown bestowed upon a general who raised the siege of a beleaguered place, or upon one who held out against a siege.

Denoting nearness or distance, either in space or time; from; as, within a league of the town; within an hour of the appointed time.

e, used in attacking; -- opposed to defensive; as, an offensive war; offensive weapons. League offensive and defensive, a leaque that requires all the parties to it to make war together against any foe, and to defend one another if attacked.

Single in kind; the same; a common. One plague was on you all, and on your lords. 1 Sam. vi. 4.

An agreement; a league; a compact; a covenant. Bacon. The engagement and pact of society whish goes by the name of the constitution. Burke.

To plague; to vex; to tormen. Glanvill.

ng at a more or less measurable distance. Hence, aërial perspective, the assumed greater vagueness or uncertainty of outline in distant objects. Aërial perspective is the expression of space by any means whatsoever, sharpness of edge, vividness of color, etc. Ruskin.

A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague. England's sufferings by that scourge, the pest. Cowper.