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of which is to be discovered or guessed. A custom was among the ancients of proposing an enigma at festivals. Pope.

Relating to or resembling an enigma; not easily explained or accounted for; darkly expressed; obscure; puzzling; as, an enigmatical answer.

Darkly; obscurely.

One who makes, or talks in, enigmas. Addison.

To make, or talk in, enigmas; to deal in riddles.

The art of making or of solving enigmas.

lphabet in regular order (as Psalm cxix.). See Abecedarian. Double acrostic, a species of enigma, in which words are to be guessed whose initial and final letters form other words.

A verbal or acted enigma based upon a word which has two or more significant syllables or parts, each of which, as well as the word itself, is to be guessed from the descriptions or representations.

Secret or enigmatical language. Johnson.

nd out, to detect (a thief); to discover (a secret) -- to solve or unriddle (a parable or enigma); to understand. "Canst thou by searching find out God" Job. xi. 7. "We do hope to find out all your tricks." Milton. -- To find fault with, to blame; to censure. -- To find one's self, to be; to fare; -- often used in sp…

version; construction; as, the interpretation of a foreign language, of a dream, or of an enigma. Look how we can, or sad or merrily, Interpretation will misquote our looks. Shak.

ning a mystery; difficult or impossible to understand; obscure not revealed or explained; enigmatical; incomprehensible. God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied, Thought in mysterious terms. Milton.

Anything artfully made difficult; an enigma.

ess the idea; a roundabout, or indirect, way of speaking; circumlocution. "To describe by enigmatic periphrases." De Quincey.

A striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. John xvi. 29.

A riddle or obscure question; an enigma; a ridiculous hoax.

W. C. Röntgen. -- X ray, the Röntgen ray; -- so called by its discoverer because of its enigmatical character, x being an algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity.

of objects whose names resemble those words, or the syllables of which they are composed; enigmatical representation of words by figures; hence, a peculiar form of riddle made up of such representations.

to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling. To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret, That solved the riddle which I had proposed. Milton. 'T was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras.

Direct; clear; intelligible; not abstruse or enigmatical; as, a simple statement; simple language.