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Formerly; sometime. [Obs.] That fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march. Shak.

hts, motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try; to test; to probe. I was in jest, And by that offer meant to sound your breast. Dryden. I've sounded my Numidians man by man. Addison.

popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty. Clarendon.

Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision. Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.Shak.

Full of sport; merry; frolicsome; full of jesting; indulging in mirth or play; playful; wanton; as, a sportful companion. Down he alights among the sportful herd. Milton.

r the increase of trade and the encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool. Sir W. Scott.

have the advantage in a similar undertaking; -- usually with of. "Get the start of the majestic world." Shak. "She might have forsaken him if he had not got the start of her." Dryden.

The quality or state of being stately. For stateliness and majesty, what is comparable to a horse Dr. H. More.

Evincing state or dignity; lofty; majestic; grand; as, statelymanners; a stately gait. "The stately homes of England!" Mrs. Hemans. "Filled with stately temples." Prescott. Here is a stately style indeed! Shak.

esp., a building of some size or magnificence; an edifice. There stands a structure of majestic frame. Pope. Columnar structure. See under Columnar.

itle; the official designation of any important body; mode of address; as, the style of Majesty. One style to a gracious benefactor, another to a proud, insulting foe. Burke.

. Mr. Barnard took one of the candles that stood upon the king's table, and lighted his majesty through a suite of rooms till they came to a private door into the library. Boswell.

th scoffs, and scorns, and contemelious taunts. Shak. With sacrilegious taunt and impious jest. Prior.

ortunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb, or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery; to plague. Cowper. He . . . suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations. Macaulay.

To dally amorously; to trifle; to play. To toy, to wanton, dally, smile and jest. Shak.

ces. Jer. Taylor. tragedy is poetry in its deepest earnest; comedy is poetry in unlimited jest. Coleridge.

e caught unawares. Let their table be made a snare and a trap. Rom. xi. 9. God and your majesty Protect mine innocence, or I fall into The trap is laid for me! Shak.

their children in fine clothes, and yet starve their minds. Locke. They are simple, but majestic, records of the feelings of the poet; as little tricked out for the public eye as his diary would have been. Macaulay.

blatant when the tones are forced; used with discretion, its effect is often solemn and majestic.

ne who turns a spit; hence, a person engaged in some menial office. His lordship is his majesty's turnspit. Burke.