| Ajar | Slightly turned or opened; as, the door was standing ajar. – In a state of discord; out of harmony; as, he is ajar with the world. |
| Barge | A pleasure boat; a vessel or boat of state, elegantly furnished and decorated. – A large, roomy boat for the conveyance of passengers or goods; as, a ship’s barge; a charcoal barge. – A large boat used by flag officers. – A double-decked passenger or freight vessel, towed by a steamboat. – A large omnibus used for excursions. |
| Blunt | Having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; dull; not sharp. – Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; stupid; — opposed to acute. – Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech. – Hard to impress or penetrate. – To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt. – To repress or weaken, as any appetite, desire, or power of the mind; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of; as, to blunt the feelings. – A fencer’s foil. – A short needle with a strong point. See Needle. – Money. |
| Bolt | A shaft or missile intended to be shot from a crossbow or catapult, esp. a short, stout, blunt-headed arrow; a quarrel; an arrow, or that which resembles an arrow; a dart. – Lightning; a thunderbolt. – A strong pin, of iron or other material, used to fasten or hold something in place, often having a head at one end and screw thread cut upon the other end. – A sliding catch, or fastening, as for a door or gate; the portion of a lock which is shot or withdrawn by the action of the key. – An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter. – A compact package or roll of cloth, as of canvas or silk, often containing about forty yards. – A bundle, as of oziers. – To shoot; to discharge or drive forth. – To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out. – To swallow without chewing; as, to bolt food. – To refuse to support, as a nomination made by a party to which one has belonged or by a caucus in which one has taken part. – To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge, as conies, rabbits, etc. – To fasten or secure with, or as with, a bolt or bolts, as a door, a timber, fetters; to shackle; to restrain. – To start forth like a bolt or arrow; to spring abruptly; to come or go suddenly; to dart; as, to bolt out of the room. – To strike or fall suddenly like a bolt. – To spring suddenly aside, or out of the regular path; as, the horse bolted. – To refuse to support a nomination made by a party or a caucus with which one has been connected; to break away from a party. – In the manner of a bolt; suddenly; straight; unbendingly. – A sudden spring or start; a sudden spring aside; as, the horse made a bolt. – A sudden flight, as to escape creditors. – A refusal to support a nomination made by the party with which one has been connected; a breaking away from one’s party. – To sift or separate the coarser from the finer particles of, as bran from flour, by means of a bolter; to separate, assort, refine, or purify by other means. – To separate, as if by sifting or bolting; — with out. – To discuss or argue privately, and for practice, as cases at law. – A sieve, esp. a long fine sieve used in milling for bolting flour and meal; a bolter. |
| Cluck | To make the noise, or utter the call, of a brooding hen. – To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens. – The call of a hen to her chickens. – A click. See 3d Click, 2. |
| Crush | To press or bruise between two hard bodies; to squeeze, so as to destroy the natural shape or integrity of the parts, or to force together into a mass; as, to crush grapes. – To reduce to fine particles by pounding or grinding; to comminute; as, to crush quartz. – To overwhelm by pressure or weight; to beat or force down, as by an incumbent weight. – To oppress or burden grievously. – To overcome completely; to subdue totally. – To be or become broken down or in, or pressed into a smaller compass, by external weight or force; as, an eggshell crushes easily. – A violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin. – Violent pressure, as of a crowd; a crowd which produced uncomfortable pressure; as, a crush at a perception. |
| Cuff | To strike; esp., to smite with the palm or flat of the hand; to slap. – To buffet. – To fight; to scuffle; to box. – A blow; esp.,, a blow with the open hand; a box; a slap. – The fold at the end of a sleeve; the part of a sleeve turned back from the hand. – Any ornamental appendage at the wrist, whether attached to the sleeve of the garment or separate; especially, in modern times, such an appendage of starched linen, or a substitute for it of paper, or the like. |
| Dew | Moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces, particularly at night. – Figuratively, anything which falls lightly and in a refreshing manner. – An emblem of morning, or fresh vigor. – To wet with dew or as with dew; to bedew; to moisten; as with dew. – Same as Due, or Duty. |
| Elf | An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. – A very diminutive person; a dwarf. – To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do. |
| Hire | See Here, pron. – The price, reward, or compensation paid, or contracted to be paid, for the temporary use of a thing or a place, for personal service, or for labor; wages; rent; pay. – A bailment by which the use of a thing, or the services and labor of a person, are contracted for at a certain price or reward. – To procure (any chattel or estate) from another person, for temporary use, for a compensation or equivalent; to purchase the use or enjoyment of for a limited time; as, to hire a farm for a year; to hire money. – To engage or purchase the service, labor, or interest of (any one) for a specific purpose, by payment of wages; as, to hire a servant, an agent, or an advocate. – To grant the temporary use of, for compensation; to engage to give the service of, for a price; to let; to lease; — now usually with out, and often reflexively; as, he has hired out his horse, or his time. |
| Pike | A foot soldier’s weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet. – A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target. – A hayfork. – A pick. – A pointed or peaked hill. – A large haycock. – A turnpike; a toll bar. – A large fresh-water fish (Esox lucius), found in Europe and America, highly valued as a food fish; — called also pickerel, gedd, luce, and jack. |
| Slid | imp. & p. p. of Slide. – Especially, to move over snow or ice with a smooth, uninterrupted motion, as on a sled moving by the force of gravity, or on the feet. – To pass inadvertently. – To pass along smoothly or unobservedly; to move gently onward without friction or hindrance; as, a ship or boat slides through the water. – To slip when walking or standing; to fall. – To pass from one note to another with no perceptible cassation of sound. – To pass out of one’s thought as not being of any consequence. – To cause to slide; to thrust along; as, to slide one piece of timber along another. – To pass or put imperceptibly; to slip; as, to slide in a word to vary the sense of a question. – The act of sliding; as, a slide on the ice. – Smooth, even passage or progress. – That on which anything moves by sliding. – An inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity, esp. one constructed on a mountain side for conveying logs by sliding them down. – A surface of ice or snow on which children slide for amusement. – That which operates by sliding. – A cover which opens or closes an aperture by sliding over it. – A moving piece which is guided by a part or parts along which it slides. – A clasp or brooch for a belt, or the like. – A plate or slip of glass on which is a picture or delineation to be exhibited by means of a magic lantern, stereopticon, or the like; a plate on which is an object to be examined with a microscope. – The descent of a mass of earth, rock, or snow down a hill or mountain side; as, a land slide, or a snow slide; also, the track of bare rock left by a land slide. – A small dislocation in beds of rock along a line of fissure. – A grace consisting of two or more small notes moving by conjoint degrees, and leading to a principal note either above or below. – An apparatus in the trumpet and trombone by which the sounding tube is lengthened and shortened so as to produce the tones between the fundamental and its harmonics. – A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound. – Same as Guide bar, under Guide. – A slide valve. |
| Wren | Any one of numerous species of small singing birds belonging to Troglodytes and numerous allied of the family Troglodytidae. – Any one of numerous species of small singing birds more or less resembling the true wrens in size and habits. |
