Search the Dictionary

dragnet for taking up oysters, etc., from their beds. (b) A dredging machine. (c) An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea.

A framework on which dishes, food, etc., are passed from one room or story of a house to another; a lift for dishes, etc.; also, a piece of furniture with movable or revolving shelves.

A frame (commonly) of wood serving to hold a canvas upright, or nearly upright, for the painter's convenience or for exhibition. Easel picture, Easel piece, a painting of moderate size such as is made while resting on an easel, as distinguished from a painting on a wall or ceiling.

Ebony. [Poetic] "Framed of ebon and ivory." Sir W. Scott.

A branching frame, often of ornamental design, to support electric illuminating lamps.

The bony, cartilaginous, or other internal framework of an animal, as distinguished from the exoskeleton.

A citation from some author, or a sentence framed for the purpose, placed at the beginning of a work or of its separate divisions; a motto.

The connective tissue framework and sheath of a nerve which bind together the nerve bundles, each of which has its own special sheath, or perineurium.

Of an even, composed frame of mind; of a steady temper; not easily elated or depressed. Bp. Gauden.

A clamp for holding a locomotive frame to the boiler while allowing lengthwise motion. -- Expansion valve (Steam Engine), a cut-off valve, to shut off steam from the cylinder before the end of each stroke.

Framework; structure; edifice; building. Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose like an exhalation. Milton.

To form into a whole by uniting its parts; to frame; to construct; to build; as, to fabricate a bridge or ship.

A rack or frame of bars connected by strings, to keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather. Ham. Nav. Encyc. Fiddle beetle (Zoöl.), a Japanese carabid beetle (Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body. -- Fiddle block (Naut.), a long tackle block having two sheaves of different…

ips of roofs; also, in the United States, the protecting of angles and breaks in walls of frame houses with waterproof material, tarred paper, or the like. Cf. Filleting.

The wooden or iron frame which holds the sand, etc., forming the mold used in a foundry; it consists of two or more parts; viz., the cope or top; sometimes, the cheeks, or middle part; and the drag, or bottom part. When there are one or more cheeks, the flask is called a three part flask, four part flask, etc. Erlenmey…

The aggregate of the muscles, fat, and other tissues which cover the framework of bones in man and other animals; especially, the muscles.

tightening the seams of floor boards before nailing them in position. -- Floor light, a frame with glass panes in a floor. -- Floor plan. (a) (Shipbuilding) A longitudinal section, showing a ship as divided at the water line. (b) (Arch.) A horizontal section, showing the thickness of the walls and partitions, arrang…

emery; flour of mustard. Flour bolt, in milling, a gauze-covered, revolving, cylindrical frame or reel, for sifting the flour from the refuse contained in the meal yielded by the stones. -- Flour box a tin box for scattering flour; a dredging box. -- Flour dredge or dredger, a flour box. -- Flour dresser, a mashine…

The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.

The pair of arms attached to the spindle of a spinning frame, over which the thread passes to the bobbin; -- so called from their swift revolution. See Fly, n., 11.