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a thing, as by taking small bits cautiously; as, fishes nibble at the bait. Instead of returning a full answer to my book, he manifestly falls a- nibbling at one single passage. Tillotson.

t; precisely now. [Obs.] "Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the turning down of this." J. Webster (1607). -- Now . . . now, alternately; at one time . . . at another time. "Now high, now low, now master up, now miss." Pope.

Turning or bending at night into special positions.

A shortened form of of or on. "At the turning o' the tide." Shak.

The act of becoming oblique; a turning to one side; obliquity; as, the obliquation of the eyes. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

. [Obs.] In every megrim or vertigo, there is an obtenebration joined with a semblance of turning round. Bacon.

The act of turning toward or downward.

More than enough; abundant. [Obs.] If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. Shak.

Oval chuck (Mech.), a lathe chuck so constructed that work attached to it, and cut by the turning tool in the usual manner, becomes of an oval form.

The act off overturning, or the state of being overturned or subverted; overthrow; as, an overturn of parties.

Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit. The returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair. South.

in the window box to separate the weights. -- Parting tool (Mach.), a thin tool, used in turning or planing, for cutting a piece in two.

to a place of entertainment, or of readmission for one who goes away in expectation of returning.

Happening, by revolution, at a stated time; returning regularly, after a certain period of time; acting, happening, or appearing, at fixed intervals; recurring; as, periodical epidemics. The periodic return of a plant's flowering. Henslow. To influence opinion through the periodical press. Courthope.…

Turning around; rotatory; revolving; as, a peristrephic painting (of a panorama).

ines the cavity of the abdomen, or the whole body cavity when there is no diaphragm, and, turning back, surrounds the viscera, forming a closed, or nearly closed, sac. [Written also peritonæum.]

The act of perverting, or the state of being perverted; a turning from truth or right; a diverting from the true intent or object; a change to something worse; a turning or applying to a wrong end or use. "Violations and perversions of the laws." Bacon.

An apparatus consisting of a large wheel with spokes, which when turning very rapidly is illuminated by momentary flashes of light passing through slits in a rotating disk. By properly timing the succession of flashes the wheel is made to appear to be motionless, or to rotate more or less slowly in either direction.…

A making of, or turning into, fat.

led also pipe privet. -- Pipe wrench, or Pipetongs, a jawed tool for gripping a pipe, in turning or holding it. -- To smoke the pipe of peace, to smoke from the same pipe in token of amity or preparatory to making a treaty of peace, -- a custom of the American Indians.