Search the Dictionary

A stratagem or plot by which another sratagem or project is defeated. Thinking himself contemned, knowing no countermine against contempt but terror. Sir P. Sidney.

One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.

animal's head; the comb of a cock; the swelling on the head of a serpent; the lengthened feathers of the crown or nape of bird, etc. Darwin. [Attack] his rising crest, and drive the serpent back. C. Pitt.

Having a crest of feathers or hair upon the head. "The crested bird." Dryden.

A very fine, hairlike feather. Booth.

Pertaining to the crissum; as, crissal feathers.

That part of a bird, or the feathers, surrounding the cloacal opening; the under tail coverts.

nder Breeding. -- Cross buttock, a particular throw in wrestling; hence, an unexpected defeat or repulse. Smollet. -- Cross country, across the country; not by the road. "The cross- country ride." Cowper. -- Cross fertilization, the fertilization of the female products of one physiological individual by the male pro…

oss both legs of his opponent, and pulls him forward over his hip; hence, an unexpected defeat or repulse.

. Tickell. The nightly mallet deals resounding blows. Gay. Hissing through the skies, the feathery deaths were dealt. Dryden.

Cause of loss of life. Swiftly flies the feathered death. Dryden. He caught his death the last county sessions. Addison.

Separated or broken up; -- said of the crest of birds when the feathers are divergent.

earance of; to disfigure; to injure, spoil, or mar, by effacing or obliterating important features or portions of; as, to deface a monument; to deface an edifice; to deface writing; to deface a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." Emerson. So by false learning is good sense defaced. Pope.…

A defeat; an overthrow. [Obs.] After his foes' defeasance. Spenser.

roper form or symmetry; any unnatural form or shape; distortion; irregularity of shape or features; ugliness. To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body. Shak.

erous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [Archaic or Poetic] "The deftest way." Shak. "Deftest feats." Gay. The limping god, do deft at his new ministry. Dryden. Let me be deft and debonair. Byron.

Destitute or deprived of features; deplumed.

The stripping or falling off of plumes or feathers. Bp. Stillingfleet

To strip or pluck off the feather of; to deprive of of plumage. On the depluming of the pope every bird had his own feather. Fuller.

To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace out; to draw. Dryden.