Search the Dictionary

commuting any substance, as grain, by rubbing and crushing it between two hard, rough, or intented surfaces; as, a gristmill, a coffee mill; a bone mill.

ding or passing through a mill; the process of fulling; the process of making a raised or intented edge upon coin, etc.; the process of dressing surfaces of various shapes with rotary cutters. See Mill. High milling, milling in which grain is reduced to flour by a succession of crackings, or of slight and partial crush…

Choice; inclination; liking; intent; will. If it be your minds, then let none go forth. 2 Kings ix. 15.

by misadventure (Law), homicide which occurs when a man, doing a lawful act, without any intention of injury, unfortunately kills another; -- called also excusable homicide. See Homicide. Blackstone.

arrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused by human agency or by some living being, intentionally or not; often, calamity, mishap; trivial evil caused by thoughtlessness, or in sport. Chaucer. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs. Ps. lii. 2. The practice whereof shall, I hope, secure me from many mischiefs. Fuller.…

To construe wrongly; to interpret erroneously. Do not, great sir, misconstrue his intent. Dryden. Much afflicted to find his actions misconstrued. Addison.

To err in knowledge, perception, opinion, or judgment; to commit an unintentional error. Servants mistake, and sometimes occasion misunderstanding among friends. Swift.

Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects ri…

The relation of conformity or nonconformity to the moral standard or rule; quality of an intention, a character, an action, a principle, or a sentiment, when tried by the standard of right. The morality of an action is founded in the freedom of that principle, by virtue of which it is in the agent's power, having all t…

de currency. The original allusion was to a character in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" so intent on raking up muck that he could not see a celestial crown held above him.

ffense of killing a human being with malice prepense or aforethought, express or implied; intentional and unlawful homicide. "Mordre will out." Chaucer. The killing of their children had, in the account of God, the guilt of murder, as the offering them to idols had the guilt of idolatry. Locke. Slaughter grows murder w…

uality of murder; bloody; sanguinary; as, the murderous king; murderous rapine; murderous intent; a murderous assault. "Murderous coward." Shak. -- Mur"der*ous*ly, adv.

Inclination; intention; disposition; as, I have a notion to do it. [Colloq.]

to his station. Duties extend beyond obligation, and direct the affections, desires, and intentions, as well as the actions. Whewell.

the Order of Franciscans, who profess to adhere more strictly than the Conventuals to the intention of the founder, especially as to poverty; -- called also Observants.

Sleepy; drowsy; dull; sluggish; careless. He must not be oscitant, but intent on his charge. Barrow.

To look narrowly or curiously or intently; to peep; as, the peering day. Milton. Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads. Shak. As if through a dungeon grate he peered. Coleridge.

or the state of being perverted; a turning from truth or right; a diverting from the true intent or object; a change to something worse; a turning or applying to a wrong end or use. "Violations and perversions of the laws." Bacon.

analyze; esp., to criticize in detail. -- To pick a quarrel, to give occasion of quarrel intentionally. -- To pick up. (a) To take up, as with the fingers. (b) To get by repeated efforts; to gather here and there; as, to pick up a livelihood; to pick up news.(c) to acquire (an infectious disease); as, to pick up a co…

property from others on the open sea by open violence; without lawful authority, and with intent to steal; -- a crime answering to robbery on land.