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See Byssus, n., 1.

Byssuslike; consisting of fine fibers or threads, as some very delicate filamentous algæ.

Bearing a byssus or tuft.

See Byssus, n., 1.

Made of silk; having a silky or flaxlike appearance. Coles.

Byssaceous.

An olive-green fibrous variety of hornblende.

d by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk. [Written also byss and byssin.]

and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit. Ye powers and spirits of this nethermost abyss. Milton. The throne is darkness, in the abyss of light. Dryden.

Belonging to, or resembling, an abyss; unfathomable. Abyssal zone (Phys. Geog.), one of the belts or zones into which Sir E. Forbes divides the bottom of the sea in describing its plants, animals, etc. It is the one furthest from the shore, embracing all beyond one hundred fathoms deep. Hence, abyssal animals, plants,…

Of or pertaining to Abyssinia. Abyssinian gold, an alloy of 90.74 parts of copper and 8.33 parts of zink. Ure.

ab, abs, from, as in avert. (7) Greek insep. prefix a without, or privative, not, as in abyss, atheist; akin to E. un-.

A abyss. [Obs.]

The Patriarch, or head of the Abyssinian Church.

An abyss; a gulf. "The abysm of hell." Shak.

Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound. Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space. Carlyle.

Of or pertaining to Amhara, a division of Abyssinia; as, the Amharic language is closely allied to the Ethiopic. -- n.

The byssus of certain shellfish, as the muscle.

The Abyssinian or Arabian ibex (Capra Nubiana). It is probably the wild goat of the Bible.

An abyss. [Obs.] Dryden.