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or less; a certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something. These salts have somewhat of a nitrous taste. Grew. Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost. Dryden.

An edentate mammal, of the genus Orycteropus, somewhat resembling a pig, common in some parts of Southern Africa. It burrows in the ground, and feeds entirely on ants, which it catches with its long, slimy tongue.

To make sour or acid in a moderate degree; to sour somewhat. Arbuthnot.

Having the qualities of an ague; somewhat cold or shivering; chilly; shaky. Her aguish love now glows and burns. Granville.

A hard, compact variety of carbonate of lime, somewhat translucent, or of banded shades of color; stalagmite. The name is used in this sense by Pliny. It is sometimes distinguished as oriental alabaster.

A genus of fleshy Alcyonaria, its polyps somewhat resembling flowers with eight fringed rays. The term was also formerly used for certain species of sponges.

A fine, deep red ocher, somewhat purplish, found in Spain. It is the sil atticum of the ancients. Under the name of Indian red it is used for polishing glass and silver.

Somewhat like alum.

Seed of the Hibiscus abelmoschus, somewhat resembling millet, brought from Egypt and the West Indies, and having a flavor like that of musk; musk seed. Chambers.

To move somewhat like an ambling horse; to go easily or without hard shocks. The skipping king, he ambled up and down. Shak. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. Shak.

; as, amic acid; phosphamic acid. Amic acid (Chem.), one of a class of nitrogenized acids somewhat resembling amides.

icle. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every.

Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; -- a part of the ornaments of certain moldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.

Curved somewhat in the form of the letter S. Cussans.

One of several species of tropical birds, of the Old World, of the genus Pitta, somewhat resembling the thrushes, and feeding chiefly on ants.

r or horror; to dismay; as, the sight appalled the stoutest heart. The house of peers was somewhat appalled at this alarum. Clarendon.

A genus of small free-swimming Tunicata, shaped somewhat like a tadpole, and remarkable for resemblances to the larvæ of other Tunicata. It is the type of the order Copelata or Larvalia. See Illustration in Appendix.

The Cynara scolymus, a plant somewhat resembling a thistle, with a dilated, imbricated, and prickly involucre. The head (to which the name is also applied) is composed of numerous oval scales, inclosing the florets, sitting on a broad receptacle, which, with the fleshy base of the scales, is much esteemed as an article…

(Zanthoxylum Americanum) and Poison ash (Rhus venenata) are shrubs of different families, somewhat resembling the true ashes in their foliage. -- Mountain ash. See Roman tree, and under Mountain.

Somewhat bad; inferior. Jeffrey.