n. Behavior. [ Obs. ] Sir. T. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Detestation. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Object of abhorrence. Isa. lxvi. 24. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L ab + stringere, strictum, to press together. ] To unbind. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Expressing admiration; as, an admiring glance. -- Ad*mir"ing*ly, adv. Shak. [1913 Webster]

adj. 1. 1 feeling or showing profound respect or veneration. Opposite of irreverent.
Syn. -- worshipful, reverent [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. 1 feeling or showing a deep love and devotion to. her adoring parents
Syn. -- doting, fond, lovesome [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adv. With adoration. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Astringent. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. The last milk drawn in milking; strokings. [ Obs. ] Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A walk or a ride in the open air; a short excursion for health's sake. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An exposure to air, or to a fire, for warming, drying, etc.; as, the airing of linen, or of a room. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. prenom. 1. both plant- and flesh-eating; -- said of animals. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. That allures; attracting; charming; tempting. -- Al*lur"ing*ly, adv. -- Al*lur"ing*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Apparently. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

The string of an apron. [ 1913 Webster ]

To be tied to a wife's apron strings or
To be tied to a mother's apron strings, to be unduly controlled by a wife or mother. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was so made that he could not submit to be tied to the apron strings even of the best of wives. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. 1. The act of bedding ashlar in mortar. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Ashlar when in thin slabs and made to serve merely as a case to the body of the wall. Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Carp.) The short upright pieces between the floor beams and rafters in garrets. See Ashlar, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That aspires; as, an Aspiring mind. -- As*pir"ing*ly, adv. -- As*pir"ing*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That assures; tending to assure; giving confidence. -- As*sur"ing*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Astringed p. pr. & vb. n. Astringing ] [ L. astringere; ad + stringere to draw tight. Cf. Astrict, and see Strain, v. t. ] 1. To bind fast; to constrict; to contract; to cause parts to draw together; to compress. [ 1913 Webster ]

Which contraction . . . astringeth the moisture of the brain and thereby sendeth tears into the eyes. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bind by moral or legal obligation. Wolsey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being astringent; the power of contracting the parts of the body; that quality in medicines or other substances which causes contraction of the organic textures; as, the astringency of tannin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. astringens, p. pr. of astringere: cf. F. astringent. See Astringe. ] 1. Drawing together the tissues; binding; contracting; -- opposed to laxative; as, astringent medicines; a butter and astringent taste; astringent fruit. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Stern; austere; as, an astringent type of virtue. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A medicine or other substance that produces contraction in the soft organic textures, and checks discharges of blood, mucus, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

External astringents are called styptics. Dunglison. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an astringent manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. ostreger, OF. ostrucier, F. autoursier, fr. OF. austour, ostor, hawk, F. autour; cf. L. acceptor, for accipiter, hawk. ] A falconer who keeps a goshawk. [ Obs. ] Shak. Cowell. [ Written also austringer. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of one who badgers. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The practice of buying wheat and other kinds of food in one place and selling them in another for a profit. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) An East Indian insectivorous mammal of the genus Tupaia. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto.
Syn. -- blackball. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The act of closing the doors of a schoolroom against a schoolmaster; -- a boyish mode of rebellion in schools. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act or process of subjecting to strong repeated blows.
Syn. -- banging. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It was a large beam, with a head of iron, which was sometimes made to resemble the head of a ram. It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and so balanced as to swing backward and forward, and was impelled by men against the wall. Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A blacksmith's hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Mil.) A train of artillery for siege operations. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self; mien; behavior; carriage. [ 1913 Webster ]

I know him by his bearing. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Patient endurance; suffering without complaint. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The situation of one object, with respect to another, such situation being supposed to have a connection with the object, or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it; hence, relation; connection. [ 1913 Webster ]

But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Purport; meaning; intended significance; aspect. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The act, power, or time of producing or giving birth; as, a tree in full bearing; a tree past bearing. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ His mother ] in travail of his bearing. R. of Gloucester. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Arch.) (a) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports; as, a lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall. (b) The portion of a support on which anything rests. (c) Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Mach.) (a) The part of an axle or shaft in contact with its support, collar, or boxing; the journal. (b) The part of the support on which a journal rests and rotates. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Her.) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms -- commonly in the pl. [ 1913 Webster ]

A carriage covered with armorial bearings. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Naut.) (a) The situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, etc.; the direction or point of the compass in which an object is seen; as, the bearing of the cape was W. N. W. (b) pl. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer. (c) pl. The line of flotation of a vessel when properly trimmed with cargo or ballast. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ball bearings. See under Ball. --
To bring one to his bearings, to bring one to his senses. --
To lose one's bearings, to become bewildered. --
To take bearings, to ascertain by the compass the position of an object; to ascertain the relation of one object or place to another; to ascertain one's position by reference to landmarks or to the compass; hence (Fig.), to ascertain the condition of things when one is in trouble or perplexity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Deportment; gesture; mien; behavior; manner; carriage; demeanor; port; conduct; direction; relation; tendency; influence. [ 1913 Webster ]

A cloth with which a child is covered when carried to be baptized. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

A short rein looped over the check hook or the hames to keep the horse's head up; -- called in the United States a checkrein. [ 1913 Webster ]

. In a balloon, the braced wooden ring attached to the suspension ropes at the bottom, functionally analogous to the keel of a ship. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. To furnish with a fringe; to form a fringe upon; to adorn as with fringe. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a person who rings church bells (as for summoning the congregation).
Syn. -- toller. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. someone who plays musical handbells. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. playing a set of bells that are (usually) hung in a tower.
Syn. -- carillon, carillon playing. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A controversy (1886 -- 93) between Great Britain and the United States as to the right of Canadians not licensed by the United States to carry on seal fishing in the Bering Sea, over which the United States claimed jurisdiction as a mare clausum. A court of arbitration, meeting in Paris in 1893, decided against the claim of the United States, but established regulations for the preservation of the fur seal. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

adj. changing for the better; -- antonym of worsening. [ Narrower terms: ameliorating(prenominal), ameliorative, amelioratory, meliorative ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Causing bewilderment or great perplexity; as, bewildering difficulties. -- Be*wil"der*ing*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. 1. A skirmishing. “Frays and bickerings.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Altercation; wrangling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. biological science applied to the study the relation between workers and their environments.
Syn. -- ergonomics. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. the application of engineeering principles to solve problems in medicine, such as the design of artificial limbs or organs; -- called also biomedical engineering. [ PJC ]

3. the branch of engineering dealing with the application of biological processes to the solution of practical problems, such as the manufacture of products by fermentation, the production and use of enzymes for various purposes, the use of microorganisms in environmental cleanup, etc.; -- called also biotechnology. [ PJC ]

n. The application of engineeering principles to solve problems in medicine, such as the design of artificial limbs or organs; -- called also bioengineering. [ PJC ]

n. A bitter compound used in adulterating beer; bittern. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. harshly or unpleasantly loud (in sound intensity); -- used mostly of electronic entertainment devices, such as TV, radio, or phonograph. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. Senseless babble or boasting. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. harshly or corrosively critical in tone; -- of comments about people or their actions. blistering criticism
Syn. -- acerb, acerbic, acid, bitter, caustic, scathing, venomous, virulent, vitriolic. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. intensely hot. blistering sun
Syn. -- blistery. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. very fast; as, a blistering pace.
Syn. -- red-hot, scorching. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. talking incoherently; as, a blithering idiot.
Syn. -- jabbering. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The act of weeping noisily. [ 1913 Webster ]

He spake well save that his blubbering interrupted him. Winthrop. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Characterized by blunders. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a blundering manner. [ 1913 Webster ]