Search the Dictionary

Ceremonially unclean, according to the Jewish law; -- opposed to kosher.

A species of time; -- so called from its resemblance in form to a trefoil.

Any plant of the genus Trifolium, which includes the white clover, red clover, etc.; -- less properly, applied also to the nonesuch, or black medic. See Clover, and Medic.

Same as Tréflé.

Counteracting, or preserving from, putrefaction; antiseptic.

A leguminous shrub of southern Europe, with trifoliate leaves (Anagyris foetida).

A district comprising a hundred villages, as in Wales. [Written also kantry.]

The act or the process of putrefying; the offensive decay of albuminous or other matter.

Of or pertaining to putrefaction; as, the putrefactive smell or process. Wiseman.

To corrupt; to make foul. Private suits do putrefy the public good. Bacon. They would but stink, and putrefy the air. Shak.

Same as Quarterfoil.

The buck bean.

air and need oxygen for their growth; as the microbacteria which form on the surface of putrefactive fluids.

A microörganism (Bacillus amylobacter) which develops in vegetable tissue during putrefaction. Sternberg.

A substance which prevents or retards putrefaction, or destroys, or protects from, putrefactive organisms; as, salt, carbolic acid, alcohol, cinchona.

Counteracting or preventing putrefaction, or a putrescent tendency in the system; antiputrefactive. Antiseptic surgery, that system of surgical practice which insists upon a systematic use of antiseptics in the performance of operations and the dressing of wounds.

Not liable to putrefaction; nonputrescent. -- n.

ging to the class Algæ, usually in the form of a jointed rodlike filament, and found in putrefying organic infusions. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Certai…

thopus, having a curved, cylindrical pod tipped with a short, clawlike point. Bird's-foot trefoil. (Bot.) (a) A genus of plants (Lotus) with clawlike pods. L. corniculatas, with yellow flowers, is very common in Great Britain.

Having a bud or button, or a kind of trefoil, at the end; furnished with knobs or buttons. Cross bottony (Her.), a cross having each arm terminating in three rounded lobes, forming a sort of trefoil.