Search the Dictionary

Indian millet. See Durra.

A coasting vessel of Arabia, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean. It has generally but one mast and a lateen sail. [Also written dow.]

A miner's compass. Dial bird (Zoöl.), an Indian bird (Copsychus saularius), allied to the European robin. The name is also given to other related species. -- Dial lock, a lock provided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock…

A degraded tribe of California Indians; -- so called from their practice of digging roots for food.

Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) (Med.) Same as Chthonophagia. -- Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. Otway (1684). -- To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie…

A West Indian fish (Epinula magistralis), of the family Trichiuridæ. It is a long-bodied, voracious fish.

A large West Indian cockroach (Blatta gigantea) which drums on woodwork, as a sexual call.

e order Sirenia, allied to the manatee, but with a bilobed tail. It inhabits the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, East Indies, and Australia. [Written also duyong.]

ic ceremonies, to discover their future husbands. Halliwell. -- Dumb cane (Bot.), a west Indian plant of the Arum family (Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech. -- Dumb crambo. See under crambo. -- Dumb show. (a) Formerly, a part of a dra…

topping bullet; -- so named from Dumdum, in India, where bullets are manufactured for the Indian army.

A fruit tree (D. zibethinus, the only species known) of the Indian Archipelago. It bears the durian.

ia, and introduced into the south of Europe; a variety of Sorghum vulgare; -- called also Indian millet, and Guinea corn. [Written also dhoorra, dhurra, doura, etc.]

r double-spurred flowers. See Illust. of Dicentra. -- Dutchman's laudanum (Bot.), a West Indian passion flower (Passiflora Murucuja); also, its fruit. -- Dutchman's pipe (Bot.), an American twining shrub (Aristolochia Sipho). Its flowers have their calyx tubes curved like a tobacco pipe.

The spike or head of any cereal (as, wheat, rye, barley, Indian corn, etc.), containing the kernels. First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Mark iv. 28.

Relating to the Eastern Islands; East Indian. [R.] Ogilvie.

A plant (Solanum Melongena), of East Indian origin, allied to the tomato, and bearing a large, smooth, edible fruit, shaped somewhat like an egg; mad-apple.

Ivory; the tusk of the elephant. [Obs.] Dryden. Elephant apple (Bot.), an East Indian fruit with a rough, hard rind, and edible pulp, borne by Feronia elephantum, a large tree related to the orange. -- Elephant bed (Geol.), at Brighton, England, abounding in fossil remains of elephants. Mantell. -- Elephant beetle (Z…

ne tortoise (Zoöl.), a huge land tortoise; esp., Testudo elephantina, from islands in the Indian Ocean; and T. elephantopus, from the Galapagos Islands.

An East Indian long-tailed bearded monkey (Semnopithecus entellus) regarded as sacred by the natives. It is remarkable for the caplike arrangement of the hair on the head. Called also hoonoomaun and hungoor.

An assembly room in dwelling of the Pueblo Indians. L. H. Morgan.