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Ground, in respect to its nature or quality; soil; as, wet land; good or bad land.

rcolation; not capable of retaining water; porous; pervious; -- said of gravelly or sandy soils, and the like.

Loose; sandy; easily pulverized; as, a light soil. Light cavalry, Light horse (Mil.), light-armed soldiers mounted on strong and active horses. -- Light eater, one who eats but little. -- Light infantry, infantry soldiers selected and trained for rapid evolutions. -- Light of foot. (a) Having a light step. (b) Fleet…

Containing lime; as, a limy soil.

The throwing up of the soil into ridges, -- a method adopted in the culture of beets and some garden crops. [Local, U. S.]

A kind of soil; an earthy mixture of clay and sand, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due. We wash a wall of loam; we labor in vain. Hooker.

One of whom a fee or estate is held; the male owner of feudal land; as, the lord of the soil; the lord of the manor.

loses by sloth or neglect; a worthless person; a lorel. [Archaic] Spenser. One sad losel soils a name for aye. Byron.

An instrument for measuring the water that percolates through a certain depth of soil. Knight.

to maintain the digestive process or powers of the stomach; to maintain the fertility of soil; to maintain present reputation.

ious substance capable of engendering disease; esp., an unhealthy exhalation from certain soils, as marshy or wet lands, producing fevers; miasma.

In old English and in Scots law, a fine paid to the lord of the soil by a tenant upon the marriage of one the tenant's daughters.

sand. -- Mason moth (Zoöl.), any moth whose larva constructs an earthen cocoon under the soil. -- Mason shell (Zoöl.), a marine univalve shell of the genus Phorus; -- so called because it cements other shells and pebbles upon its own shell; a carrier shell. -- Mason wasp (Zoöl.), any wasp that constructs its nest, o…

or; barren; scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." Dryden. Of secular habits and meager religious belief. I. Taylor. His education had been but meager. Motley.

Easily worked or penetrated; not hard or rigid; as, a mellow soil. "Mellow glebe." Drayton

Any place where ore, metals, or precious stones are got by digging or washing the soil; as, a placer mine.gold mine

To soil with mud or foul matter. Smirched thus and mired with infamy. Shak.

To daub; to make dirty; to soil; to defile. Thou ... doest thy mind in dirty pleasures moil. Spenser.

aining the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil.

An extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath. In her girlish age she kept sheep on the moor. Carew.