Search the Dictionary

The sum of four tens; forty units or objects.

One of those who went to California in the rush for gold in 1849; an argonaut. [Colloq., U. S.]

The Tasmanian forty-spotted diamond bird (Pardalotus quadragintus).

Companionship; acquaintance. [Obs.] About forty years past, I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer. Burton.

affirms or maintains the proposition stated; -- opposed to Ant: negative; as, there were forty votes in the affirmative, and ten in the negative. Whether there are such beings or not, 't is sufficient for my purpose that many have believed the affirmative. Dryden.

ing to climate, in attaining maturity, when it produces a gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and perishes. The fermented juice is the pulque of the Mexicans; distilled, it yields mescal. A strong thread and a tough paper are made from the leaves, and the wood has many uses.

Having a certain age; at the age of; having lived; as, a man aged forty years.

al plant. Oaths . . . in some sense almost annuals; . . . and I myself can remember about forty different sets. Swift.

. It inhabits the northern seas of Europe and America, and grows to a length of more than forty feet. It is a harmless species.

A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woolen cloth. Knight.

A compact package or roll of cloth, as of canvas or silk, often containing about forty yards.

Used in specifying adjacent dimensions; as, a cabin twenty feet by forty.

A winning of all the tricks at the game of piquet. It counts for forty points. Hoyle.

A fast of forty days on bread and water. [Obs.]

infinitive, sometimes by that with a finite verb. I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days. Gen. vii. 4. Cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans. Col. iv. 16.

woman when menstruation 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,…

e; to compute; to reckon. Who can count the dust of Jacob Num. xxiii. 10. In a journey of forty miles, Avaux counted only three miserable cabins. Macaulay.

The Evil One; Satan, represented as the tempter and spiritual of mankind. [Jesus] being forty days tempted of the devil. Luke iv. 2. That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Rev. xii. 9.

A two-drachma piece; an ancient Greek silver coin, worth nearly forty cents.

distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the agency of ice.