(n.) A coarse or stupid fellow.

(a.) Stupid; churlish.

(n.) Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.

(n.) The back part of the neck; the scruff.

(v. i.) To walk without lifting the feet; to proceed with a scraping or dragging movement; to shuffle.

(n.) Thin dry scales or scabs upon the body; especially, thin scales exfoliated from the cuticle, particularly of the scalp; dandruff.

(n.) Hence, the foul remains of anything adherent.

(n.) Anything like flakes or scales adhering to a surface.

(n.) Minute membranous scales on the surface of some leaves, as in the goosefoot.

(n.) The head or leader of any body of men; a commander, as of an army; a head man, as of a tribe, clan, or family; a person in authority who directs the work of others; the principal actor or agent.

(n.) The principal part; the most valuable portion.

(n.) The upper third part of the field. It is supposed to be composed of the dexter, sinister, and middle chiefs.

(a.) Highest in office or rank; principal; head.

(a.) Principal or most eminent in any quality or action; most distinguished; having most influence; taking the lead; most important; as, the chief topic of conversation; the chief interest of man.

(a.) Very intimate, near, or close.

(n.) Refuse; lees; dregs; the wash given to swine or cows; hogwash; waste matter.

(n.) The act of drawing; also, the thing drawn. Same as Draught.

(n.) A selecting or detaching of soldiers from an army, or from any part of it, or from a military post; also from any district, or any company or collection of persons, or from the people at large; also, the body of men thus drafted.

(n.) An order from one person or party to another, directing the payment of money; a bill of exchange.

(n.) An allowance or deduction made from the gross veight of goods.

(n.) A drawing of lines for a plan; a plan delineated, or drawn in outline; a delineation. See Draught.

(n.) The form of any writing as first drawn up; the first rough sketch of written composition, to be filled in, or completed. See Draught.

(n.) A narrow border left on a finished stone, worked differently from the rest of its face.

(n.) A narrow border worked to a plane surface along the edge of a stone, or across its face, as a guide to the stone-cutter.

(n.) The slant given to the furrows in the dress of a millstone.

(n.) Depth of water necessary to float a ship. See Draught.

(n.) A current of air. Same as Draught.

(v. t.) To draw air audibly up the nose; to snuff; -- sometimes done as a gesture of suspicion, offense, or contempt.

(v. t.) To draw in with the breath through the nose; as, to sniff the air of the country.

(v. t.) To perceive as by sniffing; to snuff, to scent; to smell; as, to sniff danger.

(n.) The act of sniffing; perception by sniffing; that which is taken by sniffing; as, a sniff of air.

(v. t.) To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts.

(v. i.) To drink largely or luxuriously.

(n.) Same as Alewife.

(adv.) At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.

(adv.) Without sympathy; unfavorably.

(prep.) Away from; clear from.

(a.) Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship.

(a.) Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.

(a.) Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.

(a.) Abrupt; roughly frank; unceremonious; blunt; brusque; as, a bluff answer; a bluff manner of talking; a bluff sea captain.

(n.) A high, steep bank, as by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.

(n.) An act of bluffing; an expression of self-confidence for the purpose of intimidation; braggadocio; as, that is only bluff, or a bluff.

(n.) A game at cards; poker.

(v. t.) To deter (an opponent) from taking the risk of betting on his hand of cards, as the bluffer does by betting heavily on his own hand although it may be of less value.

(v. t.) To frighten or deter from accomplishing a purpose by making a show of confidence in one's strength or resources; as, he bluffed me off.

(v. i.) To act as in the game of bluff.

(n.) Alt. of Califate

(n.) A cormorant.

(n.) An article of dress of a light and decorative character, worn loosely over the shoulders or about the neck or the waist; a light shawl or handkerchief for the neck; also, a cravat; a neckcloth.

(v. t.) To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.

(v. t.) To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.

(v. t.) To form a scarf on the end or edge of, as for a joint in timber, metal rods, etc.

(v. t.) To unite, as two pieces of timber or metal, by a scarf joint.

(n.) In a piece which is to be united to another by a scarf joint, the part of the end or edge that is tapered off, rabbeted, or notched so as to be thinner than the rest of the piece.

(n.) A scarf joint.

(n.) Derision; ridicule; mockery; derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.

(n.) An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.

(n.) To show insolent ridicule or mockery; to manifest contempt by derisive acts or language; -- often with at.

(v. t.) To treat or address with derision; to assail scornfully; to mock at.

(n.) The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc.

(n.) Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything.

(n.) Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.

(n.) Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.

(n.) The scales or bracts on the receptacle, which subtend each flower in the heads of many Compositae, as the sunflower.

(v. i.) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.

(v. t.) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.

(a.) Pain of mind on account of something in the past; mental suffering arising from any cause, as misfortune, loss of friends, misconduct of one's self or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness.

(a.) Cause of sorrow or pain; that which afficts or distresses; trial; grievance.

(a.) Physical pain, or a cause of it; malady.

(n.) Grasp; reach.

(n.) An arrangement of parallel bars for lifting the hooked wires which raise the warp threads in a loom for weaving figured goods.

(superl.) Of a rough or stern manner, voice, or countenance; sour; surly; severe; harsh.

(v. i.) To grow languid; to faint.

(n.) The grit worn away from grindstones in grinding cutlery wet.

(n.) One of a faction in Germany and Italy, in the 12th and 13th centuries, which supported the House of Guelph and the pope, and opposed the Ghibellines, or faction of the German emperors.

(v. t.) The part of a candle wick charred by the flame, whether burning or not.

(v. t.) To crop the snuff of, as a candle; to take off the end of the snuff of.

(v. i.) To draw in, or to inhale, forcibly through the nose; to sniff.

(v. i.) To perceive by the nose; to scent; to smell.

(v. i.) To inhale air through the nose with violence or with noise, as do dogs and horses.

(v. i.) To turn up the nose and inhale air, as an expression of contempt; hence, to take offense.

(n.) The act of snuffing; perception by snuffing; a sniff.

(n.) Pulverized tobacco, etc., prepared to be taken into the nose; also, the amount taken at once.

(n.) Resentment, displeasure, or contempt, expressed by a snuffing of the nose.

(n.) A high, steep rock; a precipice.

(n.) See Clef.

(n.) Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundred weight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.

(n.) An animal or plant which is much below the ordinary size of its species or kind; especially, a diminutive human being.

(v. t.) To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.

(v. i.) To become small; to diminish in size.

(n.) A long piece of wood; a stick; the long handle of an instrument or weapon; a pole or srick, used for many purposes; as, a surveyor's staff; the staff of a spear or pike.

(n.) A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds.

(n.) A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff.

(n.) A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.

(n.) The round of a ladder.

(n.) A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.

(n.) The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called stave.

(n.) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.

(n.) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.

(n.) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution. See Etat Major.

(n.) Hence: A body of assistants serving to carry into effect the plans of a superintendant or manager; as, the staff of a newspaper.

(v. t.) To invest with a fee or feud; to give or grant a corporeal hereditament to; to enfeoff.

(n.) A fief. See Fief.

(n.) A small, light boat.

(v. t.) To navigate in a skiff.

(superl.) Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.

(superl.) Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.

(superl.) Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.

(superl.) Not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; as, a stiff adversary.

(superl.) Not natural and easy; formal; constrained; affected; starched; as, stiff behavior; a stiff style.

(superl.) Harsh; disagreeable; severe; hard to bear.

(superl.) Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; -- opposed to crank.

(superl.) Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price.

(n.) A sheave.

(n.) A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

(n.) Any collection of things bound together; a bundle; specifically, a bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer, -- usually twenty-four.

(v. t.) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.

(v. i.) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.

(v. i.) A flat tablet or ledge of any material set horizontally at a distance from the floor, to hold objects of use or ornament.

(v. i.) A sand bank in the sea, or a rock, or ledge of rocks, rendering the water shallow, and dangerous to ships.

(v. i.) A stratum lying in a very even manner; a flat, projecting layer of rock.

(v. i.) A piece of timber running the whole length of a vessel inside the timberheads.

(v. i.) To divide; to distribute.

(v. i.) To make a change or changes; to change position; to move; to veer; to substitute one thing for another; -- used in the various senses of the transitive verb.

(v. i.) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.

(v. i.) To practice indirect or evasive methods.

(v. i.) To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.

(n.) Straw.

(v. t.) Material which is to be worked up in any process of manufacture.

(v. t.) The fundamental material of which anything is made up; elemental part; essence.

(v. t.) Woven material not made into garments; fabric of any kind; specifically, any one of various fabrics of wool or worsted; sometimes, worsted fiber.

(v. t.) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.

(v. t.) A medicine or mixture; a potion.

(v. t.) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.

(v. t.) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.

(v. t.) Paper stock ground ready for use.

(n.) To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess; as, to stuff a bedtick.

(n.) To thrust or crowd; to press; to pack.

(n.) To fill by being pressed or packed into.

(n.) To fill with a seasoning composition of bread, meat, condiments, etc.; as, to stuff a turkey.

(n.) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.

(n.) To fill the skin of, for the purpose of preserving as a specimen; -- said of birds or other animals.

(n.) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.

(n.) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.

(n.) To put fraudulent votes into (a ballot box).

(v. i.) To feed gluttonously; to cram.

(n.) A transient glance; an unexpected view of something that startles one; a sudden fear.

(n.) A moment: as, for a gliff.

(n.) A steward; an overseer.

(n. & v.) See Graft.

(n.) Firmness of mind; stability not to be shaken.

(n.) A trial impression, as from type, taken for correction or examination; -- called also proof sheet.

(n.) A process for testing the accuracy of an operation performed. Cf. Prove, v. t., 5.

(v. t.) Armor of excellent or tried quality, and deemed impenetrable; properly, armor of proof.

(a.) Used in proving or testing; as, a proof load, or proof charge.

(a.) Firm or successful in resisting; as, proof against harm; waterproof; bombproof.

(a.) Being of a certain standard as to strength; -- said of alcoholic liquors.

(n.) Any effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; a test; a trial.

(n.) That degree of evidence which convinces the mind of any truth or fact, and produces belief; a test by facts or arguments that induce, or tend to induce, certainty of the judgment; conclusive evidence; demonstration.

(n.) The quality or state of having been proved or tried; firmness or hardness that resists impression, or does not yield to force; impenetrability of physical bodies.

(n. f.) Alt. of Metive

(n.) A structure or platform of timber, masonry, iron, earth, or other material, built on the shore of a harbor, river, canal, or the like, and usually extending from the shore to deep water, so that vessels may lie close alongside to receive and discharge cargo, passengers, etc.; a quay; a pier.

(n.) The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea.

(v. t.) To guard or secure by a firm wall of timber or stone constructed like a wharf; to furnish with a wharf or wharfs.

(v. t.) To place upon a wharf; to bring to a wharf.

(n.) A sudden expulsion of air from the mouth; a quick puff or slight gust, as of air or smoke.

(n.) A glimpse; a hasty view.

(n.) The marysole, or sail fluke.

(v. t.) To throw out in whiffs; to consume in whiffs; to puff.

(v. t.) To carry or convey by a whiff, or as by a whiff; to puff or blow away.

(v. i.) To emit whiffs, as of smoke; to puff.

(n.) Motive.

(v. t.) To throw out, as smoke, dust, etc., in puffs.

(n.) A puff, as of smoke from a pipe, or of dust from a puffball; a slight explosion, as of a small quantity of gunpowder.

(n.) A hairdresser's powder puff; also, the act of using it.

(n.) See Caliph.

(n.) A glen; a ravine closed at its upper end.