Search the Dictionary

A large drinking vessel; also, its contents. [Colloq. Eng.] Forby.

A drum made of thin copper in the form of a hemispherical kettle, with parchment stretched over the mouth of it.

One who plays on a kettledrum.

A bird of Madagascar (Leptosomus discolor), the only living type of a family allied to the rollers. It has a pair of loral plumes. The male is glossy green above, with metallic reflections; the female is spotted with brown and black.

A reed instrument of music of the cornet kind, now obsolete (see Cornet, 1, a.)

The standard adopted by the Emperor Constantine after his conversion to Christianity. It is described as a pike bearing a silk banner hanging from a crosspiece, and surmounted by a golden crown. It bore a monogram of the first two letters (CHR) of the name of Christ in its Greek form. Later, the name was given to vario…

A lip or edge, as of a basin.

, See Alarum, and Alarm.

Crystallized litharge, obtained by fusion in the form of fine yellow scales.

A lustration or purification, especially the purification of the whole Roman people, which was made by the censors once in five years. Hence: A period of five years.

val of the Shiah sect of the Mohammedans held during the first ten days of the month Mohurrum.

Niter. Nitrum flammans Etym: [L., flaming niter] (Old Chem.), ammonium nitrate; -- probably so called because it deflagerates when suddenly heated.

Not ruminating; as, a nonruminant animal.

evice proposed by a quack. The incentives of agitators, the arts of impostors and the nostrums of quacks. Brougham.

An umbelliferous plant, the common Alexanders of Western Europe (Smyrnium Olusatrum).

A miscellaneous collection of things or persons; a confused mixture; a medley. [Colloq. & Humorous] Selden.

A special plate situated on the sides of the mesothorax and metathorax of certain insects.

Near the umbilicus; -- applied especially to one or more small veins which, in man, connect the portal vein with the epigastric veins in the front wall of the abdomen.

A small instrument of ivory, wood, metal, or quill, used in playing upon the lyre and other stringed instruments.

A long measure of 100 Greek, or 101 English, feet; also, a square measure of 10,000 Greek feet.