SPIT BALL n.
hich the pitcher grips the ball between two, or three, fingers on one side (which is made slippery, as by saliva) and the thumb on the other side, and delivers it so that it slips off the fingers with the least possible friction. When pitched directly overhand a spit ball darts downward, when pitched with the arm exten…
START n.
ish. The start of first performance is all. Bacon. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. Shak. At a start, at once; in an instant. [Obs.] At a start he was betwixt them two. Chaucer. To get, or have, the start, to before another; to gain or have the advantage in a similar undertaking;…
STEAL v.
To withdraw, or pass privily; to slip in, along, or away, unperceived; to go or come furtively. Chaucer. Fixed of mind to avoid further entreaty, and to fly all company, one night she stole away. Sir P. Sidney. From whom you now must steal, and take no leave. Shak. A soft and solemn breathing sound Rose like a steam of…
TROCHOID n.
d by any point fixedly connected with a moving curve while the moving curve rolls without slipping on a second fixed curve, the curves all being in one plane. Cycloids, epicycloids, hypocycloids, cardioids, etc., are all trochoids.
TROMBONE n.
n three parts, bent twice upon itself and ending in a bell. The middle part, bent double, slips into the outer parts, as in a telescope, so that by change of the vibrating length any tone within the compass of the instrument (which may be bass or tenor or alto or even, in rare instances, soprano) is commanded. It is th…