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ng instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole. Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. T. W. Harris.

To put (a vessel) on the other tack by veering her short round on her heel; -- so called from the circumstance of bracing the head yards abox (i. e., sharp aback, on the wind). Totten.

A group of beetles having short elytra, as the rove beetles.

Having the skull short in proportion to its breadth; shortheaded; -- in distinction from dolichocephalic.

The state or condition of being brachycephalic; shortness of head.

Having short antennæ, as certain insects.

Pertaining to the shorter diagonal, as of a rhombic prism. Brachydiagonal axis, the shorter lateral axis of an orthorhombic crystal.

A dome parallel to the shorter lateral axis. See Dome.

A writer in short hand; a stenographer. He asked the brachygrapher whether he wrote the notes of the sermon. Gayton.

A plane of an orthorhombic crystal which is parallel both to the vertical axis and to the shorter lateral (brachydiagonal) axis.

A group of Coleoptera having short wings; the rove beetles.

Having short wings.

point, and descending solely by the force of gravity, will reach another given point in a shorter time than it could by any other path. This curve of quickest descent, as it is sometimes called, is, in a vacuum, the same as the cycloid.

Of a short form.

A group of decapod Crustacea, including the common crabs, characterized by a small and short abdomen, which is bent up beneath the large cephalo-thorax. [Also spelt Brachyoura.] See Crab, and Illustration in Appendix.

, pause; relaxation. Bp. Hall. -- Breathing while, time sufficient for drawing breath; a short time. Shak. -- Rough breathing (spiritus asper) (. See 2d Asper, n. -- Smooth breathing (spiritus lenis), a mark (') indicating the absence of the sound of h, as in 'ie`nai (ienai).

hich is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines. -- Breeches pipe, a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end. -- Knee breeches, breeches…

A curved mark [ ] used commonly to indicate the short quantity of a vowel.

A short compend; a summary; a brief statement. I omit in this breviate to rehearse. Hakluyt. The same little breviates of infidelity have . . . been published and dispersed with great activity. Bp. Porteus.

Having short legs. -- n.