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A lot; also, a kind of divination by means of lots. Sortes Homericæ or Virgilianæ Etym: [L., Homeric or Virgilian lots], a form of divination anciently practiced, which consisted in taking the first passage on which the eye fell, upon opening a volume of Homer or Virgil, or a passage drawn from an urn which several wer…

The office or function of an assessor.

The office or power of a censor; as, to stand for a censorship. Holland. The press was not indeed at that moment under a general censorship. Macaulay.

or state of suffering persecution for religious faith. Our duty to contend even to confessorship. J. H. Newman.

The position or condition of a precursor. Ruskin.

The office or position of a professor, or public teacher. Walton.

The office or position of a provisor. [R.] J. Webster.

vable on a pin in the center, by which they are held together. Often called a pair of scissors. [Formerly written also cisors, cizars, and scissars.] Scissors grinder (Zoöl.), the European goatsucker. [Prov. Eng.]

Having the outer feathers much the longest, the others decreasing regularly to the median ones.

See Skimmer.

A tyrant flycatcher (Milvulus forficatus) of the Southern United States and Mexico, which has a deeply forked tail. It is light gray above, white beneath, salmon on the flanks, and fiery red at the base of the crown feathers.

State of being a sponsor.

with the handle terminating in the figure of an apostle. One or more were offered by sponsors at baptism as a present to the godchild. B. Jonson.

he successor of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and the only apostle who has successors in the apostolic office. -- Apostolical succession, the regular and uninterrupted transmission of ministerial authority by a succession of bishops from the apostles to any subsequent period. Hook.

udge or magistrate with his special knowledge of the subject to be decided; as legal assessors, nautical assessors. Mozley & W.

Of or pertaining to an assessor, or to a court of assessors. Coxe.

toil, suffering, etc.; -- used among judges, clergymen, monks, physicians, lawers, professors of religion, etc. "A brother of your order." Shak. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother. Shak.

utter; -- called also butter stamp. Locke. -- Butter tooth, either of the two middle incisors of the upper jaw. -- Butter tree (Bot.), a tree of the genus Bassia, the seeds of which yield a substance closely resembling butter. The butter tree of India is the B. butyracea; that of Africa is the Shea tree (B. Parkii).…

Successor or vicar; -- a title of the successors of Mohammed both as temporal and spiritual rulers, now used by the sultans of Turkey, [Writting also calif.]

Of or pertaining to the pointed tooth on each side the incisors. Canine appetite, a morbidly voracious appetite; bulimia. -- Canine letter, the letter r. See R. -- Canine madness, hydrophobia. -- Canine toth, a toth situated between the incisor and bicuspid teeth, so called because well developen in dogs; usually, t…