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denly disappears, leaving sometimes, for a few seconds, a luminous train, - - called also falling star. Shooting stars are small cosmical bodies which encounter the earth in its annual revolution, and which become visible by coming with planetary velocity into the upper regions of the atmosphere. At certain periods, as…

The act of falling, or coming short; as:

, a like fall of snow. In drought or else showers. Chaucer. Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers. Milton.

s; peculiarity. Pliny addeth this singularity to that soil, that the second year the very falling down of the seeds yieldeth corn. Sir. W. Raleigh. I took notice of this little figure for the singularity of the instrument. Addison.

Hail or snow, mingled with rain, usually falling, or driven by the wind, in fine particles.

Falling copiously or in streams, as from a sluice. And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain. Dryden.

The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place. [Scot.]

Watery particles congealed into white or transparent crystals or flakes in the air, and falling to the earth, exhibiting a great variety of very beautiful and perfect forms.

A storm with falling snow.

To rain moderately, or with scattered drops falling now and then; as, it sprinkles.

A small quantity falling in distinct drops or particles; as, a sprinkling of rain or snow.

A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; appopletic or sleepy staggers.

or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, a flat car, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.

To adhere to fixed principles; to maintain moral rectitude; to keep from falling into error or vice. We must labor so as to stand with godliness, according to his appointment. Latimer.

To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support. Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. Ex. xvii. 12. Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. Dryden.

To make steady; to hold or keep from shaking, reeling, or falling; to make or keep firm; to support; to make constant, regular, or resolute.

eing in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits. Stern board (Naut.), a going or falling astern; a loss of way in making a tack; as, to make a stern board. See Board, n., 8 (b). -- Stern chase. (Naut.) (a) See under Chase, n. (b) A stern chaser. -- Stern chaser (Naut.), a cannon placed in a ship's stern, poi…

Falling in drops; drawn by a still.

A continual falling or succession of drops; rain water falling from the eaves. Bacon.

Falling in drops. [Obs.]