Search the Dictionary

Guile. [Obs.] Chaucer.

g the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; nimble; active; as, an agile boy; an agile tongue. Shaking it with agile hand. Cowper.

In an agile manner; nimbly.

Agility; nimbleness. [R.]

ood tidings; evangel. [R.] Above all, the Servians . . . read, with much avidity, the evangile of their freedom. Londor.

broken; brittle; frail; delicate; easily destroyed. The state of ivy is tough, and not fragile. Bacon.

An apparatus for smoking tobacco. It has a long flexible tube, and the smoke is drawn through water.

Quick in physical movement; of an agile and vigorous body; nimble; as, an active child or animal. Active and nervous was his gait. Wordsworth.

The quality of being agile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; nimbleness; activity; quickness of motion; as, strength and agility of body. They . . . trust to the agility of their wit. Bacon. Wheeling with the agility of a hawk. Sir W. Scott.

each ill." Mrs. Hemans. Balm cricket (Zoöl.), the European cicada. Tennyson. -- Balm of Gilead (Bot.), a small evergreen African and Asiatic tree of the terebinthine family (Balsamodendron Gileadense). Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and from this tree is obtained the balm of Gilead of the sh…

anada balsam is derived. -- Balsam of copaiba. See Copaiba. -- Balsam of Mecca, balm of Gilead. -- Balsam of Peru, a reddish brown, syrupy balsam, obtained from a Central American tree ( Myroxylon Pereiræ and used as a stomachic and expectorant, and in the treatment of ulcers, etc. It was long supposed to be a produ…

bryony, or Tamus, is called black bindweed, and the Smilax aspera, rough bindweed. The fragile bindweed bells and bryony rings. Tennyson.

Easily broken; apt to break; fragile; not tough or tenacious. Farewell, thou pretty, brittle piece Of fine-cut crystal. Cotton. Brittle silver ore, the mineral stephanite.

The power of exciting mirth; comicalness. [R.] H. Giles.

paper corrugated in order to give it elasticity. It is used as a wrapping material for fragile articles, as bottles.

trial; as, the crucible of affliction. Hessian crucible (Chem.), a cheap, brittle, and fragile, but very refractory crucible, composed of the finest fire clay and sand, and commonly used for a single heating; -- named from the place of manufacture.

most closely related to p,k,v, and b; as in E. five, Gr. f, L. lupus, Gr. fox, vixen ; fragile, break ; fruit, brook, v. t.; E. bear, L. ferre. See Guide to Pronunciation, sq. root 178, 179, 188, 198, 230.

by art; relating to pottery or to molding in any soft material. Fictile earth is more fragile than crude earth. Bacon. The earliest specimens of Italian fictile art. C. Wordsworth. Fictile ware, ware made of any material which is molded or shaped while soft; hence, pottery of any sort. -- Fic"tile*ness, n. -- Fic*ti…

al or divine. "Fleshly wisdom." 2 Cor. i. 12. Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm And fragile arms. Milton.

To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay. Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear 1 Kinds xxii. 6.