Barren regions, especially in the western United States, where horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by cañons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A factotum. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He is his master's both-hands, I assure you. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ After the discoverer, William Cowper, an English surgeon. ] (Anat.) Two small glands discharging into the male urethra. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. grantsire. See Grand, and Sire. ] Specifically, a grandfather; more generally, any ancestor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A son's or daughter's son. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Great, 10. ] A son of one's grandson or granddaughter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a person's power or discretionary action; as, my fate is in your hands.
Syn. -- custody. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. The force of workers available; as, all hands on deck.
Syn. -- work force, manpower, men. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A dictionary containing a natural history requires too many hands, as well as too much time, ever to be hoped for. Locke.

pos>n. A saw used with one hand. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. any unit of length based on the breadth of the human hand.
Syn. -- handbreath. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Written also hansel. ] [ OE. handsal, hansal, hansel, AS. handselena giving into hands, or more prob. fr. Icel. handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. sellan to give, deliver. See Sell, Sale. ] 1. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as an omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their first good handsel of breath in this world. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our present tears here, not our present laughter,
Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter. Herrick. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Price; payment. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Handseled or Handselled p. pr. & vb. n. Handseling or Handselling. ] [ Written also hansel. ] [ OE handsellen, hansellen; cf. Icel. hadsala, handselja. See Handsel, n. ] 1. To give a handsel to. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To use or do for the first time, esp. so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally. [ 1913 Webster ]

No contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath handseled it with prayer. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Electronics) The mouthpiece and earpiece of a communications device mounted on a single handle; as, when the telephone rings, pick up the handset.
Syn. -- French telephone. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. sewn by hand rather than machine.
Syn. -- handstitched. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Compar. Handsomer superl. Handsomest. ] [ Hand + -some. It at first meant, dexterous; cf. D. handzaam dexterous, ready, limber, manageable, and E. handy. ] 1. Dexterous; skillful; handy; ready; convenient; -- applied to things as persons. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That they [ engines of war ] be both easy to be carried and handsome to be moved and turned about. Robynson (Utopia). [ 1913 Webster ]

For a thief it is so handsome as it may seem it was first invented for him. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Agreeable to the eye or to correct taste; having a pleasing appearance or expression; attractive; having symmetry and dignity; comely; -- expressing more than pretty, and less than beautiful; as, a handsome man or woman; a handsome garment, house, tree, horse. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Suitable or fit in action; marked with propriety and ease; graceful; becoming; appropriate; as, a handsome style, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Easiness and handsome address in writing. Felton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Evincing a becoming generosity or nobleness of character; liberal; generous. [ 1913 Webster ]

Handsome is as handsome does. Old Proverb. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Ample; moderately large. [ 1913 Webster ]

He . . . accumulated a handsome sum of money. V. Knox. [ 1913 Webster ]

To do the handsome thing, to act liberally. [ Colloq. ]

Syn. -- Handsome, Pretty. Pretty applies to things comparatively small, which please by their delicacy and grace; as, a pretty girl, a pretty flower, a pretty cottage. Handsome rises higher, and is applied to objects on a larger scale. We admire what is handsome, we are pleased with what is pretty. The word is connected with hand, and has thus acquired the idea of training, cultivation, symmetry, and proportion, which enters so largely into our conception of handsome. Thus Drayton makes mention of handsome players, meaning those who are well trained; and hence we speak of a man's having a handsome address, which is the result of culture; of a handsome horse or dog, which implies well proportioned limbs; of a handsome face, to which, among other qualities, the idea of proportion and a graceful contour are essential; of a handsome tree, and a handsome house or villa. So, from this idea of proportion or suitableness, we have, with a different application, the expressions, a handsome fortune, a handsome offer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render handsome. [ Obs. ] Donne [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In a handsome manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Naut.) Carefully; in shipshape style. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being handsome. [ 1913 Webster ]

Handsomeness is the mere animal excellence, beauty the mere imaginative. Hare. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A somersault made with the assistance of the hands placed upon the ground. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The gymnastic act of supporting oneself by one's hands alone in an upside down position; as, to do handstands for exercise. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

adj. same as handsewn.
Syn. -- handsewn. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Geol.) The lower group of the Wealden formation; -- so called from its development around Hastings, in Sussex, England. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Gin made in Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. See Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Formerly written also landskip. ] [ D. landschap; land land + -schap, equiv. to E. -schip; akin to G. landschaft, Sw. landskap, Dan. landskab. See Land, and -schip. ] 1. A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects it contains. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A picture representing a scene by land or sea, actual or fancied, the chief subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water. etc. Compare seascape. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The pictorial aspect of a country. [ 1913 Webster ]

The landscape of his native country had taken hold on his heart. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

Landscape gardening, The art of laying out grounds and arranging trees, shrubbery, etc., in such a manner as to produce a picturesque effect. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Working as a landscape gardner.
Syn. -- landscape gardening. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A painter of landscapes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Landscape. ] A landscape. [ Obs. except in poetry. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Straight my eye hath caught new pleasures,
Whilst the landskip round it measures. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. 1. The slipping down of a mass of land from a mountain, hill, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The land which slips down. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An election victory in which the winning candidate receives a substantial majority of the votes, usually meaning at least ten per cent more than any opposing candidate. [ PJC ]

4. Any overwhelming victory. [ PJC ]

n.; pl. Landsmen 1. One who lives on the land; -- opposed to seaman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Naut.) A sailor on his first voyage. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Dan. landsthing, landsting, fr. land land + thing, ting, parliament. See Land; Thing. ] (Denmark.) See Legislature, below. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. [ Sw. ] See Varnpligtige. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ See Strait. ] A narrow strip of land. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ G. See Land; Storm. ] [ In Germany and other European nations, and Japan: ] (a) A general levy in time of war. (b) The forces called out on such levy, composed of all men liable to service who are not in the army, navy, or Landwehr; the last line of defense, supposed to be called out only in case of invasion or other grave emergency. See Army organization, above. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

pos>n. [ See Lieberkuehn. ] (Anat.) The simple tubular glands of the small intestines; -- called also crypts of Lieberkuehn. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A group of about 2000 islands in the Indian ocean; also known as the Maldives. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. An East Asiatic saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera) with racemes of small red-and-white flowers; spreads by numerous creeping stolons; called also strawberry geranium and strawberry saxifrage.
Syn. -- strawberry geranium, strawberry saxifrage, Saxifraga stolonifera, Saxifraga sarmentosam. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

[ So called from J. K. Peyer, who described them in 1677. ] (Anat.) Patches of lymphoid nodules, in the walls of the small intestiness; agminated glands; -- called also Peyer's patches. In typhoid fever they become the seat of ulcers which are regarded as the characteristic organic lesion of that disease. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A rock made of sand more or less firmly united. Common or siliceous sandstone consists mainly of quartz sand. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Different names are applied to the various kinds of sandstone according to their composition; as, granitic, argillaceous, micaceous, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flexible sandstone (Min.), the finer-grained variety of itacolumite, which on account of the scales of mica in the lamination is quite flexible. --
Red sandstone, a name given to two extensive series of British rocks in which red sandstones predominate, one below, and the other above, the coal measures. These were formerly known as the Old and the New Red Sandstone respectively, and the former name is still retained for the group preceding the Coal and referred to the Devonian age, but the term New Red Sandstone is now little used, some of the strata being regarded as Permian and the remained as Triassic. See the Chart of Geology. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a structure (often made of wood and sometimes temporary) with seats or benches where people can sit to watch an event (such as a game or parade).
Syn. -- stand [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. A standing without moving forward or backward; a stop; a state of rest. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., after Prof. Tillands, of Abo, in Finland. ] (Bot.) An immense genus of epiphytic bromeliaceous plants confined to tropical and subtropical America. They usually bear a rosette of narrow overlapping basal leaves, which often hold a considerable quantity of water. The spicate or paniculate flowers have free perianth segments, and are often subtended by colored bracts. Also, a plant of this genus. Tillandsia usneoides, called Spanish moss, long moss, black moss, and Florida moss, has a very slender pendulous branching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees in the Southeastern United States and south to Argentina. It is often used for stuffing mattresses [ 1913 Webster + Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. 1. Not handsome; not beautiful; ungraceful; not comely or pleasing; plain; homely. [ 1913 Webster ]

Were she other than she is, she were unhandsome. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

I can not admit that there is anything unhandsome or irregular . . . in the globe. Woodward. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Wanting noble or amiable qualities; dishonorable; illiberal; low; disingenuous; mean; indecorous; as, unhandsome conduct, treatment, or imputations. “Unhandsome pleasures.” J. Fletcher. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Unhandy; clumsy; awkward; inconvenient. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The ships were unwieldy and unhandsome. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

A narrow, straight path by the water's side, very unhandsome for an army to pass that way, though they found not a man to keep the passage. Sir T. North. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Un*hand"some*ly, adv. -- Un*hand"some*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]