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merican duck (Erismatura rubida) having a broad bill and a wedge- shaped tail composed of stiff, sharp feathers. The adult male is rich brownish red on the back, sides, and neck, black on the top of the head, nape, wings, and tail, and white on the cheeks. The female and young male are dull brown mixed with blackish on…

friend of mine . . . repaired to Paris Garden clad in one of these Waterford rugs. The mastiffs, . . . deeming he had been a bear, would fain have baited him. Holinshed.

uch used for making puddings and as an article of diet for the sick; also, as starch, for stiffening textile fabrics. It is prepared from the stems of several East Indian and Malayan palm trees, but chiefly from the Metroxylon Sagu; also from several cycadaceous plants (Cycas revoluta, Zamia integrifolia, atc.). Portla…

nsores. See Illust. under Aves. Scansorial tail (Zoöl.), a tail in which the feathers are stiff and sharp at the tip, as in the woodpeckers.

A piece of wood or stiff hide placed over shrouds and other rigging to prevent chafe by the running gear. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

A stiff wire brush for cleaning iron castings and other metal.

To fix beforehand; to determine; hence, to make unyielding or obstinate; to render stiff, unpliant, or rigid; as, to set one's countenance. His eyes were set by reason of his age. 1 Kings xiv. 4. On these three objects his heart was set. Macaulay. Make my heart as a millstone, set my face as a flint. Tennyson.…

he slender spines of a crustacean, the hairlike processes of a protozoan, the bristles or stiff hairs on the leaves of some plants, or the pedicel of the capsule of a moss.

Set with, or consisting of, bristles; bristly; as, a stiff, setaceous tail.

A covering for the human foot, usually made of leather, having a thick and somewhat stiff sole and a lighter top. It differs from a boot on not extending so far up the leg. Your hose should be ungartered, . . . yourshoe untied. Shak. Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon. Shak.

silkworm. See Silkworm. -- Silk shag, a coarse, rough-woven silk, like plush, but with a stiffer nap. -- Silk spider (Zoöl.), a large spider (Nephila plumipes), native of the Southern United States, remarkable for the large quantity of strong silk it produces and for the great disparity in the sizes of the sexes. --…

, and thus forming a soft curd; also, sweetened cream, flavored with wine and beaten to a stiff froth. [Written also syllabub.]

Easily frightened; timorous; shy; untrustworthy; as, a skittish colt. "A restiff, skittish jade." L'Estrange.

An awkward, heavy, clownish fellow. [Colloq.] Slouth hat, a soft, limp hat of unstiffened cloth or felt.

the genus Tricuspis, which often form dense, almost impassable growth, their leaves being stiff and sharp-pointed.

To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; -- often with in, out, etc.; as, to spring in a slat or a bar.

Anything short and stiff. [Obs.]

Any stiff, sharp spine, as on the wings and legs of certain burds, on the legs of insects, etc.; especially, the spine on a cock's leg.

grass (Bot.), a pestiferous grass (Hordeum murinum) related to barley. In California the stiffly awned spiklets work into the wool of sheep, and into the throat, flesh, and eyes of animals, sometimes even producing death. -- Squirrel hake (Zoöl.), a common American hake (Phycis tenuis); -- called also white hake. --…

Stiff; harsh. [Obs.] Ascham.