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rt, as when one has wandered from his direct course, or made a digression. He must have overshot the mark, and must hark back. Haggard. He harked back to the subject. W. E. Norris.

Leadership; preponderant influence or authority; -- usually applied to the relation of a government or state to its neighbors or confederates. Lieber.

One who has entered upon a portion of the public land with the purpose of acquiring ownership of it under provisions of the homestead law, so called; one who has acquired a homestead in this manner. [Local, U.S.]

m the posterior side of the stem of the contour feathers of many birds; -- called also aftershaft. See Illust. of Feather.

One of the barbs of the hypoptilum, or aftershaft of a feather. See Feather.

The stem of an aftershaft or hypoptilum. [Written also hyporachis.]

See Commendam, and Partnership in Commendam, under Partnership.

Possession; ownership; acquisition. "The inheritance of their loves." Shak. To you th' inheritance belongs by right Of brother's praise; to you eke Spenser.

To introduce into a society or organization; to confer membership on; especially, to admit to a secret order with mysterious rites or ceremonies. The Athenians believed that he who was initiated and instructed in the mysteries would obtain celestial honor after death. Bp. Warburton. He was initiated into half a dozen c…

-- Joint stock, stock held in company. -- Joint-stock company (Law), a species of partnership, consisting generally of a large number of members, having a capital divided, or agreed to be divided, into shares, the shares owned by any member being usually transferable without the consent of the rest. -- Joint tenanc…

To take oath to the ownership of property sufficient to qualify one's self as bail or surety.

paper, parchment, etc., affixed to anything, usually by an inscription, the contents, ownership, destination, etc.; as, the label of a bottle or a package.

. -- Land warrant, a certificate from the Land Office, authorizing a person to assume ownership of a public land. [U.S.] -- Land wind. Same as Land breeze (above). -- To make land (Naut.), to sight land. To set the land, to see by the compass how the land bears from the ship. -- To shut in the land, to hide the land…

The state of a free person; exemption from subjection to the will of another claiming ownership of the person or services; freedom; -- opposed to slavery, serfdom, bondage, or subjection. But ye . . . caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and b…

To enroll; to enter in a register; specifically, to enter or admit to membership in a body or society, particularly in a college or university, by enrolling the name in a register. In discovering and matriculating the arms of commissaries from North America. Sir W. Scott.

ation of knights in the Middle Ages, or a body in modern times taking a similar form, membership of which confers some distinction. -- Military tenure, tenure of land, on condition of performing military service.

A woman having power, authority, or ownership; a woman who exercises authority, is chief, etc.; the female head of a family, a school, etc. The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter! To be her mistress' mistress! Shak.

of belonging to or being connected with a nation or government by nativity, character, ownership, allegiance, etc.

the very noon of that brilliant life which was destined to be so soon, and so fatally, overshadowed. Motley. High noon, the exact meridian; midday. -- Noon of night, midnight. [Poetic] Dryden.

the various odalmen constituting a family or kindred of freeborn tribesmen; also, the ownership of such land. The odal was subject only to certain rights of the family or kindred in restricting the freedom of transfer or sale and giving certain rights of redemption in case of change of ownership by inheritance, etc.,…