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Habit of body or of action. Shak. It is impossible to gain an exact habitude without an infinite Dryden.

To cut irregulary, without skill or definite purpose; to notch; to mangle by repeated strokes of a cutting instrument; as, to hack a post. My sword hacked like a handsaw. Shak.

The diameter or breadth of a hair; a very small distance; sometimes, definitely, the forty-eighth part of an inch. Every one could sling stones at an hairbreadth and not miss. Judg. xx. 16

Consisting of some indefinite portion resembling a half; approximately a half, whether more or less; partial; imperfect; as, a half dream; half knowledge. Assumed from thence a half consent. Tennyson. Half ape (Zoöl.), a lemur. -- Half back. (Football) See under 2d Back. -- Half bent, the first notch, for the sear po…

A straight line considered as drawn from a center to an indefinite distance in one direction, the complete ray being the whole line drawn to an indefinite distance in both directions.

Any one; the man or person; -- used indefinitely, and usually followed by a relative pronoun. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Prov. xiii. 20.

ons and qualifications in one's speech so as to avoid committing one's self to anything definite. The Heroic Stanzas read much more like an elaborate attempt to hedge between the parties than . . . to gain favor from the Roundheads. Saintsbury.

In hurry and confusion; without definite purpose; irregularly. [Colloq.] Helter-skelter have I rode to thee. Shak. A wistaria vine running helter-skelter across the roof. J. C. Harris.

d as raised up or elevated; distinguished; remarkable; conspicuous; superior; -- used indefinitely or relatively, and often in figurative senses, which are understood from the connection; as -

A large cask or barrel, of indefinite contents; esp. one containing from 100 to 140 gallons. [U. S.]

ns, which can often be controlled or excited by pressure on the ovaries, and upon other definite points in the body. -- Hys`ter*o*ep`i*lep"tic, a.

nown plays deal with conventional hypocrisies, the story in each play thus developing a definite moral problem.

o possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one. Johnson. What is now "idea" for us How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator contemplating his newly- created world, -"how it showed . . . Answering his great idea," -to its present use, when this person "has an idea that the tra…

, a house imbosomed in a grove. "Villages imbosomed soft in trees." Thomson. The Father infinite, By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son. Milton.

Incapble of being measured; indefinitely extensive; illimitable; immensurable; vast. Of depth immeasurable. Milton.

Extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition; indefinitely ancient; as, existing from time immemorial. "Immemorial elms." Tennyson. "Immemorial usage or custom." Sir M. Hale. Time immemorial (Eng. Law.), a time antedating (legal) history, and beyond "legal memory" so called; formerly an indefinite time, b…

vast; huge. "Immense the power" Pope. "Immense and boundless ocean." Daniel. O Goodness infinite! Goodness immense! Milton.

e for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. Heb. vi. 18. Immutable, immortal, infinite, Eternal King. Milton. -- Im*mu"ta*ble*ness, n. -- Im*mu"ta*bly, adv.

An ore deposit, with indefinite boundaries, consisting of rock impregnated with ore. Raymond.

negligence. The productions of a great genius, with many lapses an inadvertencies, are infinitely preferable to works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact. Addison.