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acture. -- Sword shrimp (Zoöl.), a European shrimp (Pasiphæa sivado) having a very thin, compressed body. -- Sword stick, a sword cane. -- To measure swords with one. See under Measure, v. t. -- To put to the sword. See under Put.

of the atmosphere, acting upon a liquid, as oil, in the lower portion of the instrument, compresses an elastic gas in the upper part.

A compressed portion of one or more drugs or chemicals, or of food, etc.

An order of fishes remarkable for their long and compressed form. The ribbon fishes are examples. See Ribbon fish, under Ribbon.

eorological phenomena at a distance from the measuring apparatus, as by electricity or by compressed air; esp., an apparatus recording conditions at many distant stations at a central office. -- Tel`e*me`te*or*o*graph"ic (#), a.

Compression, especially constriction of vessels by an external cause.

To compress the throat of; to choke; to strangle. Grant him this, and the Parliament hath no more freedom than if it sat in his noose, which, when he pleases to draw together with one twitch of his negative, shall throttle a whole nation, to the wish of Caligula, in one neck. Milton.

to stab. "I am eight times thrust through the doublet." Shak. -- To thrust together, to compress.

he distichous arrangement of their branches, and having scalelike, closely imbricated, or compressed leaves. [Written also thuya.] See Thyine wood.

An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.

An old instrument of torture for compressing the thumb by a screw; a thumbkin.

An instrument for arresting hemorrhage. It consists essentially of a pad or compress upon which pressure is made by a band which is tightened by a screw or other means.

To release, let fall, or see free, as a weight or compressed spring, as by removing a latch or detent.

h can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse. By twisting the stick the compression is made sufficiently painful to keep the animal quiet during a slight surgical operation. J. H. Walsh.

To have the constituent particles move to and fro, with alternate compression and dilation of parts, as the air, or any elastic body; to quiver.

ed masses (or masses of other forms having a similar internal motion) of a homogeneous, incompressible, frictionless fluid. Various properties of such atoms (vortex atoms) can be mathematically deduced.

a thin edge, produces a sound more or less like that made by one who whistles through the compressed lips; as, a child's whistle; a boatswain's whistle; a steam whistle (see Steam whistle, under Steam). The bells she jingled, and the whistle blew. Pope.

The sudden compression of the air caused by a projectile in passing close to another body.

, either of the two common grasses Eleusine Indica, valuable for hay and pasture, and Poa compressa, or blue grass. See Blue grass. -- Wire grub (Zoöl.), a wireworm. -- Wire iron, wire rods of iron. -- Wire lathing, wire cloth or wire netting applied in the place of wooden lathing for holding plastering. -- Wire ma…

To twist and compress; to turn and strain with violence; to writhe; to squeeze hard; to pinch; as, to wring clothes in washing. "Earnestly wringing Waverley's hand." Sir W. Scott. "Wring him by the nose." Shak. [His steed] so sweat that men might him wring. Chaucer. The king began to find where his shoe did wring him.…