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The southwest wind. Milton.

A vessel for heating water; -- hence, a dish or pan. A chafer of water to cool the ends of the irons. Baker.

An open furnace or forge, in which blooms are heated before being wrought into bars.

e of the genus Melolontha (esp. M. vulgaris) and allied genera; -- called also May bug, chafer, or dorbeetle.

One who loafs; a lazy lounger. Lowell.

A thin cake made of flour and other ingredients. Wafers piping hot out of the gleed. Chaucer. The curious work in pastry, the fine cakes, wafers, and marchpanes. Holland. A woman's oaths are wafers -- break with making B. Jonson.

A dealer in the cakes called wafers; a confectioner. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A thin wafer-shaped mass of fried batter; a griddlecake or pancake; as buckwheat cakes.

A vibrant or whirring noise such as that made by some insects, as the cockchafer, or by some birds, as the nightjar, the partridge, etc.

ch closes or shuts; that by which separate parts are fastened or closed. Without a seal, wafer, or any closure whatever. Pope.

enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction. Esth. ix. 5. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. Shak. Destruction of venerable establishment. Hallam.

A bumblebee; also, a cockchafer. [Prov. Eng.]

oglycerin absorbed by some inert, porous solid, as infusorial earth, sawdust, etc. It is safer than nitroglycerin, being less liable to explosion from moderate shocks, or from spontaneous decomposition.

One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.

ot hold. Spenser. France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue, . . . A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. Shak.

The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ, which in the Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also, the bread before consecration.

The consecrated wafer; the host. [Obs.] Bp. Burnet.

A method or practice of the administration of the sacrament by dipping the bread or wafer in the wine and administering both together.

A rowdy street loafer; a rowdyish or noisy ill-bred fellow; -- variously applied, as to a street blackguard, a street Arab, a youth given to horse-play, etc. [Australia & Eng.] -- a.

One of a tribe of beetles which feed upon the leaves of plants, as the chafers.