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dæ, peculiar to America. The body and head are incased in an armor composed of small bony plates. The armadillos burrow in the earth, seldom going abroad except at night. When attacked, they curl up into a ball, presenting the armor on all sides. Their flesh is good food. There are several species, one of which (the pe…

In the early church, one who devoted himself to a solitary and contemplative life, characterized by devotion, extreme self-denial, and self-mortification; a hermit; a recluse; hence, one who practices extreme rigor and self-denial in religious things. I am far from commending those ascetics that take up their quarters…

f another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary. The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. Hallam.

A volume of plates illustrating any subject.

and subsequent washing out of the soluble parts; a kind of picture in ink from a gelatin plate.

"nature printing," by which drawings executed on gelatin are impressed into a soft metal plate, from which the printing is done as from copperplate.

Of or relating to one of the early races in Mexico that inhabited the great plateau of that country at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1519. -- n.

Having a back; fitted with a back; as, a backed electrotype or stereotype plate. Used in composition; as, broad- backed; hump- backed.

, in the larval state, a baglike case which they carry about for protection. One species (Platoeceticus Gloveri) feeds on the orange tree. See Basket worm.

To support on a narrow base, so as to keep from falling; as, to balance a plate on the end of a cane; to balance one's self on a tight rope.

A platform projecting from the wall of a building, usually resting on brackets or consoles, and inclosed by a parapet; as, a balcony in front of a window. Also, a projecting gallery in places of amusement; as, the balcony in a theater.

Plates or blades of "whalebone," from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.

bearing in coats of arms, representing one or more balls, which are denominated bezants, plates, etc., according to color.

in shape flat and roundish, commonly made of oatmeal or barley meal and baked on an iron plate, or griddle; -- used in Scotland and the northern counties of England. Jamieson. Bannock fluke, the turbot. [Scot.]

A mound of earth or a platform in a fortification, on which guns are mounted to fire over the parapet. En barbette, In barbette, said of guns when they are elevated so as to fire over the top of a parapet, and not through embrasures. -- Barbette gun, or Barbette battery, a single gun, or a number of guns, mounted in b…

That part of a roofing slate, shingle, tile, or metal plate, which is exposed to the weather.

cted to the influence of electric waves. The original form consisted of an extremely fine platinum wire loop attached to terminals and inclosed in a small glass or silver bulb. In a later variety, called the liquid barretter, wire is replace by a column of liquid in a very fine capillary tube.

n military operations. (b) A line traced round a cannon at the rear of the vent. -- Base plate, the foundation plate of heavy machinery, as of the steam engine; the bed plate. -- Base ring (Ordnance), a projecting band of metal around the breech, connected with the body of the gun by a concave molding. H. L. Scott.…

A solution in which plates or prints are immersed; also, the receptacle holding the solution.

A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form.