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One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor. Sir J. Stephen.

. To hunt counter, to trace the scent backward in hunting, as a hound to go back on one's steps. [Obs.] Shak.

lodge or dwelling; a slightly built or temporary structure. Death comes on with equal footsteps To the hall and hut. Bp. Coxe.

g a person; not having personality. An almighty but impersonal power, called Fate. Sir J. Stephen. Impersonal verb (Gram.), a verb used with an indeterminate subject, commonly, in English, with the impersonal pronoun it; as, it rains; it snows; methinks (it seems to me). Many verbs which are not strictly impersonal are…

turning the mind to a matter; heedless; careless; negligent; inattentive. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. Cowper. -- In`ad*vert"ent*ly, adv.

circumstances on which safety and interest depend; heedless; careless; as, an incautious step; an incautious remark.

rable quantity, degree, value, or sum. "The baser scum and inconsiderable dregs of Rome." Stepney. -- In`con*sid"er*a*ble*ness, n. -- In`con*sid"er*a*bly, adv.

ing under a profound, and, as it might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance. Sir J. Stephen.

An introductory step or movement; an act which originates or begins. The undeveloped initiatives of good things to come. I. Taylor.

Suitable for an introduction or beginning; introductory; prefatory; as, an initiatory step. Bp. Hall.

The step, or socket, in which the lower end of a millstone spindle runs.

To step in between parties at variance; to mediate; as, the prince interposed and made peace. Pope.

d at intervals." Tennyson. -- Augmented interval (Mus.), an interval increased by half a step or half a tone.

for publication. It would have made him the prince of interviewers in these days. Leslie Stephen.

To follow up step by step by patient inquiry or observation; to trace or track mentally; to search into; to inquire and examine into with care and accuracy; to find out by careful inquisition; as, to investigate the causes of natural phenomena.

g corymbs of drooping flowers, usually blue. Gray. (b) (Naut.) A rope ladder, with wooden steps, for going aloft. R. H. Dana, Jr. (c) (Naut.) A succession of short cracks in a defective spar. -- Jacob's membrane. See Retina. -- Jacob's staff. (a) A name given to many forms of staff or weapon, especially in the Middle…

have in custody; to have in some place for preservation; to take charge of. The crown of Stephanus, first king of Hungary, was always kept in the castle of Vicegrade. Knolles.

An address or public prayer read from the steps of the pulpit in Mohammedan mosques, offering glory to God, praising Mohammed and his descendants, and the ruling princes.

scent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened cross strips or rounds forming steps. Some the engines play, And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire. Dryden.

to the expression of praise; as, laudatory verses; the laudatory powers of Dryden. Sir J. Stephen.