Search the Dictionary

Doing penance. [Obs.] Shak.

Making or doing throughly; efficient; effectual. [R.] Blackstone.

The act of perpetrating; a doing; -- commonly used of doing something wrong, as a crime.

soldiers. Prescott. The best perquisites of a place are the advantages it gaves a man of doing good. Addison.

genius to a dunce. Pope. The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing. De Quincey. A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition. G. Eliot.

of the sun. He is fabled to have obtained permission to drive the chariot of the sun, in doing which his want of skill would have set the world on fire, had he not been struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter, and hurled headlong into the river Po.

loxera vastatrix) allied to the aphids. It attacks the roots and leaves of the grapevine, doing great damage, especially in Europe.

The taking of cattle doing damage, by way of pledge, till satisfaction is made. Burrill.

the genus Retinia, whose larvæ burrow in the ends of the branchlets of pine trees, often doing great damage. -- Pine mouse (Zoöl.), an American wild mouse (Arvicola pinetorum), native of the Middle States. It lives in pine forests. -- Pine needle (Bot.), one of the slender needle-shaped leaves of a pine tree. See Pi…

It has a serrated bill with which it cuts off the young shoots and buds of plants, often doing much injury. -- Plant louse (Zoöl.), any small hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the families Aphidæ and Psyllidæ; an aphid.

o wish; to desire; to will. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. Ps. cxxxv. 6. A man doing as he wills, and doing as he pleases, are the same things in common speech. J. Edwards.

A promise or agreement by which one binds one's self to do, or to refrain from doing, something; especially, a solemn promise in writing to refrain from using intoxicating liquors or the like; as, to sign the pledge; the mayor had made no pledges.

a) which feeds, both in the larval and adult stages, upon the leaves of the potato, often doing great damage. Called also Colorado potato beetle, and Doryphora. See Colorado beetle. (b) The Lema trilineata, a smaller and more slender striped beetle which feeds upon the potato plant, bur does less injury than the preced…

Ability to act, regarded as latent or inherent; the faculty of doing or performing something; capacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power. "One next himself in power, and…

Doing; active. [Obs.] Sylvester. -- Prac"tive*ly, adv. [Obs.] The preacher and the people both, Then practively did thrive. Warner.

God prohibited Adam from eating of the fruit of a certain tree; we prohibit a person from doing a thing, and also the doing of the thing; as, the law prohibits men from stealing, or it prohibits stealing.

To engage to do, give, make, or to refrain from doing, giving, or making, or the like; to covenant; to engage; as, to promise a visit; to promise a cessation of hostilities; to promise the payment of money. "To promise aid." Shak.

ncipally in reference to actions to be done, and due means, order, seasons, and method of doing or not doing. Sir M. Hale. Prudence supposes the value of the end to be assumed, and refers only to the adaptation of the means. It is the relation of right means for given ends. Whewell.

e; to splash; to make a pother or fuss; to potter; to meddle. Puddering in the designs or doings of others. Barrow. Others pudder into their food with their broad nebs. Holland.

The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing.