Webster's Dictionary, 1913
English adjective [ Anglo-Saxon
Englisc , from
Engle ,
Angle , Engles, Angles, a tribe of Germans from the southeast of Sleswick, in Denmark, who settled in Britain and gave it the name of
England . Confer
Anglican .]
Of or pertaining to England, or to its inhabitants, or to the present so-called Anglo-Saxon race. English bond (Architecture) See 1st Bond , noun , 8. --
English breakfast tea .
See Congou . --
English horn .
(Mus.) See Corno Inglese . --
English walnut .
(Botany) See under Walnut .
English noun 1. Collectively, the people of England; English people or persons. 2. The language of England or of the English nation, and of their descendants in America, India, and other countries. » The English language has been variously divided into periods by different writers. In the division most commonly recognized, the first period dates from about 450 to 1150. This is the period of full inflection, and is called
Anglo-Saxon , or, by many recent writers,
Old English . The second period dates from about 1150 to 1550 (or, if four periods be recognized, from about 1150 to 1350), and is called
Early English ,
Middle English , or more commonly (as in the usage of this book),
Old English . During this period most of the inflections were dropped, and there was a great addition of French words to the language. The third period extends from about 1350 to 1550, and is
Middle English . During this period orthography became comparatively fixed. The last period, from about 1550, is called
Modern English .
3. A kind of printing type, in size between Pica and Great Primer. See Type . The type called English . 4. (Billiards) A twist or spinning motion given to a ball in striking it that influences the direction it will take after touching a cushion or another ball. The King's, or Queen's ,
English .
See under King .
English transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Englished ;
present participle & verbal noun Englishing .]
1. To translate into the English language; to Anglicize; hence, to interpret; to explain. Those gracious acts . . . may be Englished more properly, acts of fear and dissimulation.
Milton. Caxton does not care to alter the French forms and words in the book which he was Englishing .
T. Latin K. Oliphant. 2. (Billiards) To strike (the cue ball) in such a manner as to give it in addition to its forward motion a spinning motion, that influences its direction after impact on another ball or the cushion. [ U.S.]
Englishable adjective Capable of being translated into, or expressed in, English.
Englishism noun
1. A quality or characteristic peculiar to the English. M. Arnold. 2. A form of expression peculiar to the English language as spoken in England; an Anglicism.
Englishman (-m
a n)
noun ;
plural Englishmen (-m
e n).
A native or a naturalized inhabitant of England.
Englishry noun 1. The state or privilege of being an Englishman. [ Obsolete]
Cowell. 2. A body of English or people of English descent; -- commonly applied to English people in Ireland. A general massacre of the Englishry .
Macaulay.
Englishwoman noun ;
plural Englishwomen Fem. of Englishman . Shak.
Engloom transitive verb To make gloomy. [ R.]
Englue transitive verb [ Prefix en- + glue : confer French engluer to smear with birdlime.] To join or close fast together, as with glue; as, a coffer well englued . Gower.
Englut transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Englutted ;
present participle & verbal noun Englutting .] [ Prefix
en- +
glut : confer French
engloutir .]
1. To swallow or gulp down. [ Obsolete]
Shak. 2. To glut. [ Obsolete] "
Englutted with vanity."
Ascham.
Engore transitive verb 1. To gore; to pierce; to lacerate. [ Obsolete]
Deadly engored of a great wild boar.
Spenser. 2. To make bloody. [ Obsolete]
Chapman.
Engorge transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engorged ;
present participle & verbal noun Engorging .] [ Prefix
en- +
gorge : confer French
engorger to obstruct, cram.]
1. To gorge; to glut. Mir. for Mag. 2. To swallow with greediness or in large quantities; to devour. Spenser.
Engorge intransitive verb To feed with eagerness or voracity; to stuff one's self with food. Beaumont.
Engorged p. adjective
1. Swallowed with greediness, or in large draughts. 2. (Medicine) Filled to excess with blood or other liquid; congested.
Engorgement noun [ Confer French engorgement .]
1. The act of swallowing greedily; a devouring with voracity; a glutting. 2. (Medicine) An overfullness or obstruction of the vessels in some part of the system; congestion. Hoblyn. 3. (Metal.) The clogging of a blast furnace.
Engouled adjective (Her.) Partly swallowed; disappearing in the jaws of anything; as, an infant engouled by a serpent; said also of an ordinary, when its two ends to issue from the mouths of lions, or the like; as, a bend engouled .
Engoulée adjective [ French, past participle of
engouler to swallow up; prefix
en- (L.
in ) +
gueule mouth.]
(Her.) Same as Engouled .
Engraff transitive verb [ See
Ingraft .]
To graft; to fix deeply. [ Obsolete]
Engraft transitive verb See Ingraft . Shak.
Engraftation, Engraftment noun The act of ingrafting; ingraftment. [ R.]
Engrail transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engrailed ;
present participle & verbal noun Engrailing .] [ French
engrêler ; prefix
en- (L.
in ) +
grêle hail. See
Grail gravel.]
1. To variegate or spot, as with hail. A caldron new engrailed with twenty hues.
Chapman. 2. (Her.) To indent with small curves. See Engrailed .
Engrail intransitive verb To form an edging or border; to run in curved or indented lines. Parnell.
Engrailed adjective (Her.) Indented with small concave curves, as the edge of a bordure, bend, or the like.
Engrailment noun
1. The ring of dots round the edge of a medal, etc. Brande & C. 2. (Her.) Indentation in curved lines, as of a line of division or the edge of an ordinary.
Engrain transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engrained ;
present participle & verbal noun Engraining .] [ Prefix
en- +
grain . Confer
Ingrain .]
1. To dye in grain, or of a fast color. See Ingrain . Leaves engrained in lusty green.
Spenser. 2. To incorporate with the grain or texture of anything; to infuse deeply. See Ingrain . The stain hath become engrained by time.
Sir W. Scott. 3. To color in imitation of the grain of wood; to grain. See Grain , transitive verb , 1.
Engrapple transitive verb & i. To grapple. [ Obsolete]
Engrasp transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engrasped ;
present participle & verbal noun Engrasping .]
To grasp; to grip. [ R.]
Spenser.
Engrave transitive verb [ Prefix
en- +
grave a tomb. Confer
Engrave to carve.]
To deposit in the grave; to bury. [ Obsolete] "Their corses to
engrave ."
Spenser.
Engrave transitive verb [
imperfect Engraved ;
past participle Engraved or
Engraven ;
present participle & verbal noun Engraving .] [ Prefix
en- +
grave to carve: confer Old French
engraver .]
1. To cut in; to make by incision. [ Obsolete]
Full many wounds in his corrupted flesh
He did engrave .
Spenser. 2. To cut with a graving instrument in order to form an inscription or pictorial representation; to carve figures; to mark with incisions. Like . . . . a signet thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel.
Ex. xxviii. 11. 3. To form or represent by means of incisions upon wood, stone, metal, or the like; as, to engrave an inscription. 4. To impress deeply; to infix, as if with a graver. Engrave principles in men's minds.
Locke.
Engraved adjective
1. Made by engraving or ornamented with engraving. 2. (Zoology) Having the surface covered with irregular, impressed lines.
Engravement noun
1. Engraving. 2. Engraved work. [ R.] Barrow.
Engraver noun One who engraves; a person whose business it is to produce engraved work, especially on metal or wood.
Engravery noun The trade or work of an engraver. [ R.] Sir T. Browne.
Engraving noun
1. The act or art of producing upon hard material incised or raised patterns, characters, lines, and the like; especially, the art of producing such lines, etc., in the surface of metal plates or blocks of wood. Engraving is used for the decoration of the surface itself; also, for producing an original, from which a pattern or design may be printed on paper. 2. That which is engraved; an engraved plate. 3. An impression from an engraved plate, block of wood, or other material; a print. » Engraving on wood is called xylography ; on copper, chalcography ; on stone lithography . Engravings or prints take from wood blocks are usually called wood cuts , those from stone, lithographs .
Engregge transitive verb [ Old French
engregier , from (assumed) Late Latin
ingreviare ;
in + (assumed)
grevis heavy, for Latin
gravis . Confer
Aggravate .]
To aggravate; to make worse; to lie heavy on. [ Obsolete]
Chaucer.
Engrieve transitive verb To grieve. [ Obsolete] Spenser.
Engross transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engrossed ;
present participle & verbal noun Engrossing .] [ French, from prefix
en- (L.
in ) +
gros gross,
grosse ,
noun , an engrossed document: confer Old French
engrossir ,
engroissier , to make thick, large, or gross. See
Gross .]
1. To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity. [ Obsolete]
Waves . . . engrossed with mud.
Spenser. Not sleeping, to engross his idle body.
Shak. 2. To amass. [ Obsolete]
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf.
Shak. 3. To copy or write in a large hand ( en gross , i. e. , in large); to write a fair copy of in distinct and legible characters; as, to engross a deed or like instrument on parchment. Some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials.
Hawthorne. Laws that may be engrossed on a finger nail.
De Quincey. 4. To seize in the gross; to take the whole of; to occupy wholly; to absorb; as, the subject engrossed all his thoughts. 5. To purchase either the whole or large quantities of, for the purpose of enhancing the price and making a profit; hence, to take or assume in undue quantity, proportion, or degree; as, to engross commodities in market; to engross power. Engrossed bill (Legislation) ,
one which has been plainly engrossed on parchment, with all its amendments, preparatory to final action on its passage. --
Engrossing hand (Penmanship) ,
a fair, round style of writing suitable for engrossing legal documents, legislative bills, etc. Syn. -- To absorb; swallow up; imbibe; consume; exhaust; occupy; forestall; monopolize. See
Absorb .
Engrosser noun
1. One who copies a writing in large, fair characters. 2. One who takes the whole; a person who purchases such quantities of articles in a market as to raise the price; a forestaller. Locke.
Engrossment noun 1. The act of engrossing; as, the engrossment of a deed. Engrossments of power and favor.
Swift. 2. That which has been engrossed, as an instrument, legislative bill, goods, etc.
Enguard transitive verb To surround as with a guard. [ Obsolete] Shak.
Engulf transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Engulfed ;
present participle & verbal noun Engulfing .] [ Prefix
en- +
gulf : confer Old French
engolfer . Confer
Ingulf .]
To absorb or swallow up as in a gulf. It quite engulfs all human thought.
Young. Syn. -- See
Absorb .
Engulfment noun A swallowing up as if in a gulf. [ R.]
Engyn Variant of Engine . [ Obsolete]
Chaucer.
Enhalo transitive verb To surround with a halo.
Enhance transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Enhanced ;
present participle & verbal noun Enhancing .] [ Norm. French
enhauncer ,
enhaucer , Old French
enhaleier ,
enhaucier ; prefix
en- (L.
in ) +
haucier to lift, raise up, from an assumed Latin
altiare , from Latin
altus high; confer Pr.
enansar ,
enanzar , to advance, exalt, and English
advance . See
Altitude , and confer
Hawser .]
1. To raise or lift up; to exalt. [ Obsolete]
Wyclif. Who, naught aghast, his mighty hand enhanced .
Spenser. 2. To advance; to augment; to increase; to heighten; to make more costly or attractive; as, to enhance the price of commodities; to enhance beauty or kindness; hence, also, to render more heinous; to aggravate; as, to enhance crime. The reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated.
Southey.
Enhance intransitive verb To be raised up; to grow larger; as, a debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.
Enhancement noun The act of increasing, or state of being increased; augmentation; aggravation; as, the enhancement of value, price, enjoyments, crime.
Enhancer noun One who enhances; one who, or that which, raises the amount, price, etc.