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That part of the hind limb between the femur, or thigh, and the ankle, or tarsus; the shank.

st upon as a troublesome or useless weight or load; to be burdensome or oppressive to; to hinder or embarrass in attaining an object, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble. Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight Dryden. Martha was cumbered about much ser…

Burdensome or hindering, as a weight or drag; embarrassing; vexatious; cumbrous. To perform a cumbersome obedience. Sir. P. Sidney.

Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging. He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight. Swift. That cumbrousand unwieldy style which disfigures English composition so extensively. De Quincey.

That which curbs, restrains, or subdues; a check or hindbrance; esp., a chain or strap attached to the upper part of the branches of a bit, and capable of being drawn tightly against the lower jaw of the horse. He that before ran in the pastures wild Felt the stiff curb control his angry jaws. Drayton. By these men, re…

A flag; an ensign; -- in contempt. [Obs.] Shak. Behind the curtain, in concealment; in secret. -- Curtain lecture, a querulous lecture given by a wife to her husband within the bed curtains, or in bed. Jerrold. A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffer…

th his fore legs at once, equally advanced, and, as his fore legs are falling, raises his hind legs, so that all his legs are in the air at once.

A hindoo hall of justice. Malcom.

ut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain. The strait pass was dammed With dead men hurt behind, and cowards. Shak. To dam out, to keep out by means of a dam.

uld go. -- Dead angle (Mil.), an angle or space which can not be seen or defended from behind the parapet. -- Dead block, either of two wooden or iron blocks intended to serve instead of buffers at the end of a freight car. -- Dead calm (Naut.), no wind at all. -- Dead center, or Dead point (Mach.), either of two p…

To cut off from entrance, as if by a bar or barrier; to preclude; to hinder from approach, entry, or enjoyment; to shut out or exclude; to deny or refuse; -- with from, and sometimes with of. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed Labor, as to debar us when we need Refreshment. Milton. Their wages were so low as to…

Hindrance from approach; exclusion.

A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance. Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat. Acts xxv. 17. The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day. Macaulay.

Hindrance. [Obs.] Gower.

To remove obstructions or impediments in; to clear from anything that hinders the passage of fluids; as, to deobstruct the pores or lacteals. Arbuthnot.

To dispossess; to bereave; to divest; to hinder from possessing; to debar; to shut out from; -- with a remoter object, usually preceded by of. God hath deprived her of wisdom. Job xxxix. 17. It was seldom that anger deprived him of power over himself. Macaulay.

A group of lemuroid mammals having a parachutelike web of skin between the fore and hind legs, of which the colugo (Galeopithecus) is the type. See Colugo.

The state of being detained (stopped or hindered); delay from necessity.

To prevent by fear; hence, to hinder or prevent from action by fear of consequences, or difficulty, risk, etc. Addison. Potent enemies tempt and deter us from our duty. Tillotson. My own face deters me from my glass. Prior.

That which deters; a deterrent; a hindrance. [R.]