Search the Dictionary

his hand and that hand, were hangings. Ex. xxxviii. 15. The Protestants were then on the winning hand. Milton.

child's play, one child guessing in which closed hand the other holds some small object, winning the object if right and forfeiting an equivalent if wrong; hence, forfeit. Piers Plowman.

s i. 58, iv. 59). The feast, which is mentioned in John x. 22, is held for eight days (beginning with the 25th day of Kislev, corresponding to December), and is celebrated everywhere, chiefly as a festival of lights, by the Jews.

Firmly twisted in spinning.

Holing a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).

The source, fountain, spring, or beginning, as of a stream or river; as, the head of the Nile; hence, the altitude of the source, or the height of the surface, as of water, above a given place, as above an orifice at which it issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from motion; sometimes also, the quantit…

Stealing the heart or affections; winning.

The fiber of the skin or rind of the plant, prepared for spinning. The name has also been extended to various fibers resembling the true hemp. African hemp, Bowstring hemp. See under African, and Bowstring. -- Bastard hemp, the Asiatic herb Datisca cannabina. -- Canada hemp, a species of dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum)…

rence or deduction. Hence, perhaps, it is, that Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. Tillotson.

Formerly, one of the four terms of the courts of common law in England, beginning on the eleventh of January and ending on the thirty-first of the same month, in each year; -- so called from the festival of St. Hilary, January 13th.

se. -- Home stretch (Sport.), that part of a race course between the last curve and the winning post. -- Home thrust, a well directed or effective thrust; one that wounds in a vital part; hence, in controversy, a personal attack.

A dish served as a relish, usually at the beginning of a meal.

The tree itself, which was brought from Constantinople in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and is now common in the temperate zones of both hemispheres. The native American species are called buckeyes.

One who plays a part; especially, one who, for the purpose of winning approbation of favor, puts on a fair outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety. The hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job viii. 13. I dare swear he is no hy…

The formal beginning or initiation of any movement, course of action, etc.; as, the inauguration of a new system, a new condition, etc.

h; to granulate, as a wound. [R.] My uncle Toby's wound was nearly well -- 't was just beginning to incarnate. Sterne.

Beginning; commencement; initiation. Bacon. Marked with vivacity of inception, apathy of progress, and prematureness of decay. Rawle.

Beginning; expressing or indicating beginning; as, an inceptive proposition; an inceptive verb, which expresses the beginning of action; -- called also inchoative. -- In*cep"tive*ly, adv.

Recently, or just, begun; beginning; partially but not fully in existence or operation; existing in its elements; incomplete. -- In"cho*ate*ly, adv. Neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate. Raleigh.

Act of beginning; commencement; inception. The setting on foot some of those arts, in those parts, would be looked on as the first inchoation of them. Sir M. Hale. It is now in actual progress, from the rudest inchoation to the most elaborate finishing. I. Taylor.