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seize as prey; to take for food by violence; to seize and devour. Shak. (c) To wear away gradually; to cause to waste or pine away; as, the trouble preyed upon his mind. Addison.

he ventricular systole, radiating from the semilunar valves over the arterial system, and gradually disappearing in the smaller branches. the pulse wave travels over the arterial system at the rate of about 29.5 feet in a second. H. N. Martin. -- To feel one's pulse. (a) To ascertain, by the sense of feeling, the condi…

An engine of torture, consisting of a large frame, upon which the body was gradually stretched until, sometimes, the joints were dislocated; -- formerly used judicially for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and…

Slackening; -- a direction to perform a passage with a gradual decrease in time and force; ritardando.

Bending or curving gradually back from the perpendicular.

Any regulation or remedy which is intended to produce beneficial effects by gradual operation; esp. (Med.),

A kind of motor speed controller permitting of very gradual variation in speed and of reverse. It is especially suitable for use with motor driven machine tools.

Having gradual, rounded undulations of surface; as, a rolling country; rolling land. [U.S.] Rolling bridge. See the Note under Drawbridge. -- Rolling circle of a paddle wheel, the circle described by the point whose velocity equals the velocity of the ship. J. Bourne. -- Rolling fire (Mil.), a discharge of firearms b…

Biol.), a theory of evolution which holds that the transmutation of species is not always gradual, but that there may come sudden and marked variations. See Saltation. -- Saltatory spasm (Med.), an affection in which pressure of the foot on a floor causes the patient to spring into the air, so as to make repeated invo…

n certain festival days, and recited or sung immediately before the gospel, and after the gradual or introit, whence the name. Bp. Fitzpatrick. Originally the sequence was called a Prose, because its early form was rhythmical prose. Shipley.

To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, as the foundation of a house, etc.

The gradual sinking of a building, whether by the yielding of the ground under the foundation, or by the compression of the joints or the material. (b) pl.

To incline gradually; to be slopping; as, the bottom shelves from the shore.

Sloping gradually; inclining; as, a shelving shore. Shak. "Shelving arches." Addison.

Sloping gradually; shelving. The shore was shelving and shallow. Shak.

Becoming shallow gradually. "A shoaling estuary." Lyell.

ly conferred by the Mikado on the military governor of the eastern provinces of Japan. By gradual usurpation of power the Shoguns (known to foreigners as Tycoons) became finally the virtual rulers of Japan. The title was abolished in 1867. [Written variously, Shiogun, Shiogoon, etc.]

To fall by, or as by, the force of gravity; to descend lower and lower; to decline gradually; to subside; as, a stone sinks in water; waves rise and sink; the sun sinks in the west. I sink in deep mire. Ps. lxix. 2.

sh, from my soul, that the legislature of this state [Virginia] could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It might prevent much future mischief. Washington.

A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound.