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enous bulbous plants, having a regular perianth of six colored pieces, six stamens, and a superior three-celled ovary.

ine, formerly, a ship of war large enough to have a place in the line of battle; a vessel superior to a frigate; usually, a seventy-four, or three-decker; -- called also line of battle ship. Totten. -- To cross the line, to cross the equator, as a vessel at sea. -- To give a person line, to allow him more or less lib…

The uniform clothing issued by feudal superiors to their retainers and serving as a badge when in military service.

The state or quality of being loyal; fidelity to a superior, or to duty, love, etc. He had such loyalty to the king as the law required. Clarendon. Not withstanding all the subtle bait With which those Amazons his love still craved, To his one love his loyalty he saved. Spenser.

Mastery; superiority; art. See Mastery. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The quality or condition of being major or greater; superiority. Specifically:

A writ issued by a superior court and directed to some inferior tribunal, or to some corporation or person exercising authority, commanding the performance of some specified duty.

Homage or service rendered to a superior, as to a lord; vassalage. [Obs. or Scots Law] Jamieson.

A superior kind of rich silk formerly exported from Mantua in Italy. [Obs.] Beck (Draper's Dict.).

To cover or keep in check; as, to mask a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out.

Suitable to, or characteristic of, a master; indicating thorough knowledge or superior skill and power; showing a master's hand; as, a masterly design; a masterly performance; a masterly policy. "A wise and masterly inactivity." Sir J. Mackintosh.

Mastery; dominion; superior skill; superiority. Where noble youths for mastership should strive. Driden.

The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority. If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops. Sir W. Raleigh.

A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; an emulous struggle. "Many a warlike match." Drayton. A solemn match was made; he lost the prize. Dryden.

A game arranged as a test of superiority; also, one of a series of such games.

Their architecture comprised elaborately carved temples and places, and they possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, with records said to go back to about 700 a. d.

Middle; intervening; as, a mesne lord, that is, a lord who holds land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another person, in which case he is a tenant to the superior, but lord or superior to the second grantee, and hence is called the mesne lord. Mesne process, intermediate process; process intervening between t…

The superior or presiding bishop of a country or province.

Martial law, under Martial. -- Military order. (a) A command proceeding from a military superior. (b) An association of military persons under a bond of certain peculiar rules; especially, such an association of knights in the Middle Ages, or a body in modern times taking a similar form, membership of which confers s…

s fly." Dryden. Letters missive, letters conveying the permission, comand, or advice of a superior authority, as a sovereign. They are addressed and sent to some certain person or persons, and are distinguished from letters patent, which are addressed to the public.