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Less. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The lower faceted portion of a brilliant-cut diamond.

A corruption of Cutlass.

An accidental blowing off of, or other serious damage to, the breechblock of a gun; also, a removal of the breechblock for the purpose of disabling the gun.

Vegetable fiber, as jute or ramie, prepared for manufacture.

Glassy; glazed. [Obs.] And pursues the dice with glassen eyes. B. Jonson.

A fish of the great lakes; the wall-eyed pike.

Ornamented by means of an imitation or suggestion of quilting, the surface being marked by depressed lines which form squares or lozenges in relief; as, matelassé silks.

See Molasses.

A soft Tertiary sandstone; -- applied to a rock occurring in Switzerland. See Chart of Geology.

The thick, brown or dark colored, viscid, uncrystallizable sirup which drains from sugar, in the process of manufacture; any thick, viscid, sweet sirup made from vegetable juice or sap, as of the sorghum or maple. See Treacle.

An under bed or mattress of straw. [Written also palliasse.]

soda with a smaller amount of potash, and usually a little lime and magnesia. Two main classes of alkali are commonly distinguished: black alkali, which may be any alkaline carbonate, but which practically consists of sodium carbonate (sal soda), which is highly corrosive and destructive to vegetation; and white alka…

A genus of succulent plants, some classed as trees, others as shrubs, but the greater number having the habit and appearance of evergreen herbaceous plants; from some of which are prepared articles for medicine and the arts. They are natives of warm countries.

One of the classes of vertebrates.

ngs endowed with animal life. It embraces several subkingdoms, and under these there are Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, Species, and sometimes intermediate groupings, all in regular subordination, but variously arranged by different writers.

r standing. [Colloq.] All the men belonged exclusively to the mechanical and shopkeeping classes, and there was not a single banker or anybody in the list. Lond. Sat. Rev.

two such foci; and it is by taking advantage of this fact that the best aplanatic object glasses of microscopes are constructed.

After the manner of nouns appellative; in a manner to express whole classes or species; as, Hercules is sometimes used appellatively, that is, as a common name, to signify a strong man.

ea, spiders, centipeds, and even worms. These animals are now placed in several distinct classes and orders.