Search the Dictionary

Five times ten; as, fifty men.

in consequence of which they daily come to the meridian of any place about three minutes fifty-six seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding. -- Acceleration of the planets, the increasing velocity of their motion, in proceeding from the apogee to the perigee of their orbits.

Out of the way; astray. Why should he wander afield at the age of fifty-five! Trollope.

The name of the ship which carried Jason and his fifty-four companions to Colchis, in quest of the Golden Fleece.

soft white alloy of variable composition (as a nine parts of tin to one of copper, or of fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction.

A game at cards, played by four persons, with two packs of fifty-two cards each; -- said to be so called from Boston, Massachusetts, and to have been invented by officers of the French army in America during the Revolutionary war.

iarly or with some contempt. "A brace of greyhounds." Shak. He is said to have shot . . . fifty brace of pheasants. Addison. A brace of brethren, both bishops, both eminent for learning and religion, now appeared in the church. Fuller. But you, my brace of lords. Shak.

inds or suits called hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. The full or whist pack contains fifty-two cards. -- To have the cards in one's own hands, to have the winning cards; to have the means of success in an undertaking. -- To play one's cards well, to make no errors; to act shrewdly. -- To play snow one's cards,…

orruption of the Tartar name for North China (Khitai, the country of the Khitans.) Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Tennyson.

struation and the capacity for conception cease, usually occurring between forty-five and fifty years of age. -- Change ringing, the continual production, without repetition, of changes on bells, See def. 9. above. -- Change wheel (Mech.), one of a set of wheels of different sizes and number of teeth, that may be cha…

of beads, or part of a string, used by Roman Catholic in praying; a third of a rosary, or fifty beads. Her chaplet of beads and her missal. Longfellow.

A division of a book or treatise; as, Genesis has fifty chapters.

A single, sudden act or motion; a stroke; a blow. What, fifty of my followers at a clap! Shak.

One of the supernumerary days of the year over fifty-two complete weeks; -- so called because they concur with the solar cycle, the course of which they follow.

Used for condemned persons. Richard Savage . . . had lain with fifty pounds weight of irons on his legs in the condemned ward of Newgate. Macaulay.

order; successive; uninterrupted in course or succession; with no interval or break; as, fifty consecutive years.

; esp., the table furniture for the use of one person at a meal; as, covers were laid for fifty guests. To break cover, to start from a covert or lair; -- said of game. -- Under cover, in an envelope, or within a letter; -- said of a written message. Letters . . . dispatched under cover to her ladyship. Thackeray.…

An age; a long period of time. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Tennyson.

To give; to bestow; to present; as, to donate fifty thousand dollars to a college.

To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on. [Obs.] See drilled him on to five-fifty. Addison.