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A parasitic nematoid worm, espec. the roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, often occurring in the human intestine and allied species found in domestic animals; also commonly applied to the pinworm (Oxyuris), often troublesome to children and aged persons.

A group of Tunicata, often shaped like a two-necked bottle. The group includes, social, and compound species. The gill is a netlike structure within the oral aperture. The integument is usually leathery in texture. See Illustration in Appendix.

rest; out of the way; apart. Thou shalt set aside that which is full. 2 Kings iv. 4. But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king. Shak. The flames were blown aside. Dryden.

To request; to seek to obtain by words; to petition; to solicit; - - often with of, in the sense of from, before the person addressed. Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God. Judg. xviii. 5. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John xv. 7.…

A small, hooded, poisonous serpent of Egypt and adjacent countries, whose bite is often fatal. It is the Naja haje. The name is also applied to other poisonous serpents, esp. to Vipera aspis of southern Europe. See Haje.

The peculiar bitter substance, soft or liquid, and of a yellow color, produced when meat, bread, gum, sugar, starch, and the like, are roasted till they turn brown.

To try; to attempt; to apply. [Obs. or Archaic] To-night let us assay our plot. Shak. Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed. Milton.

A shareholder of the Assiento company; one of the parties to the Assiento contract. Bancroft.

To soften, in a figurative sense; to allay, mitigate, ease, or lessen, as heat, pain, or grief; to appease or pacify, as passion or tumult; to satisfy, as appetite or desire. Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage. Addison. To assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man Burke. The fount at which the panting mind assu…

Mitigating; tranquilizing; soothing. [R.] Music her soft assuasive voice applies. Pope.

Paper impregnated with saltpeter. The fumes from the burning paper are often inhaled as an alleviative by asthmatics.

A medicine or other substance that produces contraction in the soft organic textures, and checks discharges of blood, mucus, etc. External astringents are called styptics. Dunglison.

us to excite awe, nor around us to awaken tenderness. R. Hall. Atheism and pantheism are often wrongly confounded. Shipley.

A suffix forming nouns of action, and often equivalent to the verbal substantive in -ing. It sometimes has the further meanings of state, and that which results from the action. Many of these nouns have verbs in -ate; as, alliterate -ation, narrate -ation; many are derived through the French; as, alteration, visitation…

To soften, mollify, or moderate; to soothe; to temper; as, to attemper rigid justice with clemency.

near at hand, in pursuance of duty; to be ready for service; to wait or be in waiting; -- often followed by on or upon. He was required to attend upon the committee. Clarendon.

Less often, the mass of archoplasm left by the aster in the resting cell.

A kind of holothurian larva, with soft, blunt appendages. See Illustration in Appendix.

ts, and perhaps in the Caucasus. It is distinct from the Urus of Cæsar, with which it has often been confused.

resembling "nature printing," by which drawings executed on gelatin are impressed into a soft metal plate, from which the printing is done as from copperplate.