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

v. t. -- Ad*stric"tion, pos>n. See Astrict, and Astriction. [1913 Webster]

a. See Astrictory. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Astringent. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + gasth'r stomach. ] (Physiol.) Having to stomach, or distinct digestive canal, as the tapeworm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. 1 an airfield without normal airport facilities.
Syn. -- flight strip, landing strip, strip [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Alabastrine. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of, pertaining to, or like, alabaster; as alabastrine limbs. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. Alpestris. ] 1. Pertaining to the Alps, or other high mountains; as, Alpestrine diseases, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) Growing on the elevated parts of mountains, but not above the timber line; subalpine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ Pref. anti- + magistrical for magistratical. ] Opposed to the office or authority of magistrates. [ Obs. ] South. [ 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 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Astricted; p. pr. & vb. n. Astricting. ] [ L. astrictus, p. p. of astringere. See Astringe. ] 1. To bind up; to confine; to constrict; to contract. [ 1913 Webster ]

The solid parts were to be relaxed or astricted. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bind; to constrain; to restrict; to limit. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The mind is astricted to certain necessary modes or forms of thought. Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Scots Law) To restrict the tenure of; as, to astrict lands. See Astriction, 4. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Concise; contracted. [ Obs. ] Weever. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. astrictio. ] 1. The act of binding; restriction; also, obligation. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) (a) A contraction of parts by applications; the action of an astringent substance on the animal economy. Dunglison. (b) Constipation. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Astringency. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Scots Law) An obligation to have the grain growing on certain lands ground at a certain mill, the owner paying a toll. Bell. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The lands were said to be astricted to the mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Binding; astringent. -- n. An astringent. -- As*tric"tive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

a. Astrictive. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ Pref. a- + stride. ] With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Placed astride upon the bars of the palisade. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

Glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. astrifer; astrum star + ferre to bear. ] Bearing stars. [ R. ] Blount. [ 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 ]

a. Of or pertaining to Austria, or to its inhabitants. -- n. A native or an inhabitant of Austria. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. austrinus, from auster south. ] Southern; southerly; austral. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Awe-struck. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. Bestrode (Obs. or R.) Bestrid p. p. Bestridden Bestrid, Bestrode; p. pr. & vb. n. Bestriding. ] [ AS. bestrīdan; pref. be- + strīdan to stride. ] 1. To stand or sit with anything between the legs, or with the legs astride; to stand over [ 1913 Webster ]

That horse that thou so often hast bestrid. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To step over; to stride over or across; as, to bestride a threshold. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. bimestris; bis twice + mensis month. ] Continuing two months. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ NL. See Boa, and Constrictor. ] (Zool.) A large and powerful serpent of tropical America, sometimes twenty or thirty feet long. See Illustration in Appendix. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It has a succession of spots, alternately black and yellow, extending along the back. It kills its prey by constriction. The name is also loosely applied to other large serpents which crush their prey, particularly to those of the genus Python, found in Asia and Africa. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The string of a bow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A string used by the Turks for strangling offenders. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bowstring bridge, a bridge formed of an arch of timber or iron, often braced, the thrust of which is resisted by a tie forming a chord of the arch. --
Bowstring girder, an arched beam strengthened by a tie connecting its two ends. --
Bowstring hemp (Bot.), the tenacious fiber of the Sanseviera Zeylanica, growing in India and Africa, from which bowstrings are made. Balfour. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bowstringed r Bowstrung p. pr. & vb. n. Bowstringing. ] To strangle with a bowstring. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. a. 1. Furnished with bowstring. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Put to death with a bowstring; strangled. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. kako`s bad + &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_; stomach. ] Troubled with bad digestion. [ R. ] Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. campester, fr. campus field. ] Relating to an open field; growing in a field, or open ground. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. (Geography) The capital city of St. Lucia. Population (2000) = 13, 600. [ PJC ]

n. A cord by which a person in a carriage or horse car may signal to the driver. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. clostridia 1. spindle-shaped bacterial cell esp. one swollen at the center by an endospore.
Syn. -- clostridia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. [ capitalized ] a genus of anaerobic, spore-forming motile bacteria of the family Bacillaceae, including several pathogenic species, such as the causative agents of gas gangrene (Clostridium perfringens), botulism (Clostridium botulinum), and tetanus (Clostridium tetani). [ PJC ]

n. [ Prob. from OF. coustillier groom or lad. Cf. Custrel. ] 1. An inferior groom or lad employed by an esquire to carry the knight's arms and other necessaries. [ Written also coistrel. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A mean, paltry fellow; a coward. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a brief sequence of drawings, usually with characters drawn only sketchily, as in a cartoon, with dialog written in “balloons” over a character's head, and depicting a fictional and usually comical incident; -- also called a cartoon. Each comic strip contains typically from four to six panels arranged horizontally, but widely varying arrangements are published. In modern newspapers, weekly comic strips are in color, and daily strips are usually in black and white. In some, the story depicted may be serialized and continuous, carried over from day to day or week to week. Stories of adventure, drama, mystery or an otherwise non-comical nature depicted in the same style are also called comic strips. [ PJC ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Constricted; p. pr. & vb. n. Constricting. ] [ L. constrictus, p. p. of constringere. See Constrain. ] To draw together; to render narrower or smaller; to bind; to cramp; to contract or cause to shrink. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such things as constrict the fibers. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

Membranous organs inclosing a cavity which their contraction serves to constrict. Todd & Bowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Drawn together; bound; contracted; cramped. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) Contracted or compressed so as to be smaller in certain places or parts than in others. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. hindering freedom of movement.
Syn. -- binding. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. being reduced in width.
Syn. -- constrictive, narrowing. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. constrictio: cf. F. constriction. ] 1. The act of constricting by means of some inherent power or by movement or change in the thing itself, as distinguished from compression. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being constricted; the point where a thing is constricted; a narrowing or binding. [ 1913 Webster ]

A constriction of the parts inservient to speech. Grew. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Serving or tending to bind or constrict. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. That which constricts, draws together, or contracts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Anat.) A muscle which contracts or closes an orifice, or which compresses an organ; a sphincter. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A serpent that kills its prey by inclosing and crushing it with its folds; as, the boa constrictor. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Constringed p. pr. & vb. n. Constringing. ] [ L. constringere. See onstrain. ] To dawn together; to contract; to force to contract itself; to constrict; to cause to shrink. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Strong liquors . . . intoxicate, constringe, harden the fibers, and coagulate the fluids. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. constringens, p. pr. ] Having the quality of contracting, binding, or compressing. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To destroy. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. di- = di`s- twice + &unr_; belly: cf. F. digastrique. ] (Anat.) (a) Having two bellies; biventral; -- applied to muscles which are fleshy at each end and have a tendon in the middle, and esp. to the muscle which pulls down the lower jaw. (b) Pertaining to the digastric muscle of the lower jaw; as, the digastric nerves. [ 1913 Webster ]