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ed by a particular church service, and also by special gifts, greetings, and hospitality. Christmas box. (a) A box in which presents are deposited at Christmas. (b) A present or small gratuity given to young people and servants at Christmas; a Christmas gift. -- Christmas carol, a carol sung at, or suitable for, Chris…

The season of Christmas.

-- Abbot of Misrule (or Lord of Misrule), in mediæval times, the master of revels, as at Christmas; in Scotland called the Abbot of Unreason. Encyc. Brit.

The period including the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent Sunday (Eccl.), the first Sunday in the season of Advent, being always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew (Now. 30). Shipley.

mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc. Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning. Wither. All her labor was but as a block Left in the quarry. Tennyson.

A present in a box; a present; esp. a Christmas box or gift. "A Christmas box." Dickens.

The first week day after Christmas, a legal holiday on which Christmas boxes are given to postmen, errand boys, employees, etc. The night of this day is boxing night. [Eng.]

A song of praise of devotion; as, a Christmas or Easter carol. Heard a carol, mournful, holy. Tennyson. In the darkness sing your carol of high praise. Keble.

A church festival celebrated on the 6th of January, the twelfth day after Christmas, in commemoration of the visit of the Magi of the East to Bethlehem, to see and worship the child Jesus; or, as others maintain, to commemorate the appearance of the star to the Magi, symbolizing the manifestation of Christ to the Gentl…

the day as beginning at sunset. not at midnight; as, Christians eve is the evening before Christmas; also, the period immediately preceding some important event. "On the eve of death." Keble. Eve churr (Zoöl), the European goatsucker or nightjar; -- called also night churr, and churr owl.

ully cathartic and even poisonous qualities. H. niger is the European black hellebore, or Christmas rose, blossoming in winter or earliest spring. H. officinalis was the officinal hellebore of the ancients.

sts which occur on a certain day of the year and do not depend on the date of Easter; as, Christmas, the Epiphany, etc.

e justices of the peace for that county. -- Lord of misrule, the master of the revels at Christmas in a nobleman's or other great house. Eng. Cyc. -- Lords spiritual, the archbishops and bishops who have seats in the House of Lords. -- Lords temporal, the peers of England; also, sixteen representative peers of Scotl…

ndicate his future destinies; a horoscope. The Nativity, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day. -- To cast, or calculate, one's nativity (Astrol.), to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

Christmas; also, a shout of joy at Christmas for the birth of the Savior. [Obs.]

: (Ch. of Eng.) Personal tithes payable according to custom, either at certain seasons as Christmas or Easter, or on certain occasions as marriages or christenings. [None] to the offering before her should go. Chaucer. Burnt offering, Drink offering, etc. See under Burnt. etc.

is applied. See Beam, n., 9. -- Plow Monday, the Monday after Twelth Day, or the end of Christmas holidays. -- Plow staff. (a) A kind of long-handled spade or paddle for cleaning the plowshare; a paddle staff. (b) A plow handle. -- Snow plow, a structure, usually

Anything presented or given; a gift; a donative; as, a Christmas present.

f June (Midsummer Day), the 29th of September (Michaelmas Day), and the 25th of December (Christmas Day). -- Quarter face, in fine arts, portrait painting, etc., a face turned away so that but one quarter is visible. -- Quarter gallery (Naut.), a balcony on the quarter of a ship. See Gallery, 4. -- Quarter gunner (N…

To dress; to decorate; to adorn; to invest; to embellish; as, to trim a hat. trim a Christmas tree. A rotten building newly trimmed over. Milton. I was trimmed in Julia's gown. Shak.