Humectation noun [ Latin humectatio : confer French humectation .] A moistening. [ Obsolete] Bacon.

Humective adjective Tending to moisten. [ Obsolete]

Humeral adjective [ Latin humerus the shoulder: confer French huméral .] (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the humerus, or upper part of the arm; brachial.

Humeral veil (R. C. Ch.) , a long, narrow veil or scarf of the same material as the vestments, worn round the shoulders by the officiating priest or his attendant at Mass, and used to protect the sacred vessels from contact with the hands.

Humerus noun ; plural Humeri . [ Latin ] (Anat.) (a) The bone of the brachium, or upper part of the arm or fore limb. (b) The part of the limb containing the humerus; the brachium.

Humic adjective [ Latin humus the earth, ground: confer French humique .] (Chemistry) Pertaining to, or derived from, vegetable mold; as, humic acid. See Humin .

Humicubation noun [ Latin humus the ground + cubare to lie down.] The act or practice of lying on the ground. [ Obsolete] Abp. Bramhall.

Humid (hū"mĭd) adjective [ Latin humidus , umidus , from humere , umere , to be moist; akin to uvidus moist, Greek "ygro`s , Sanskrit uksh to wet, sprinkle, and Icelandic vökr moist, and perhaps to English ox : confer French humide .] Containing sensible moisture; damp; moist; as, a humid air or atmosphere; somewhat wet or watery; as, humid earth; consisting of water or vapor.

Evening cloud, or humid bow.

Milton.

Humidity noun [ Confer French humidité .] Moisture; dampness; a moderate degree of wetness, which is perceptible to the eye or touch; -- used especially of the atmosphere, or of anything which has absorbed moisture from the atmosphere, as clothing.

» In hygrometrical reports (as of the United States Signal Service) complete saturation of the air is designated by Humidity 100, and its partial saturation by smaller numbers.

Humidness noun Humidity.

Humifuse adjective [ Latin humus ground + fusus , past participle of fundere to spread.] (Botany) Spread over the surface of the ground; procumbent. Gray.

Humiliant adjective [ Latin humilians , present participle of humiliare .] Humiliating; humbling. " Humiliant thoughts." [ R.] Mrs. Browning.

Humiliate transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Humiliated ; present participle & verbal noun Humiliating .] [ Latin humiliatus , past participle of humiliare . See Humble .] To reduce to a lower position in one's own eyes, or in the eyes of others; to humble; to mortify.

We stand humiliated rather than encouraged.

M. Arnold.

Humiliation noun [ Latin humiliatio : confer French humiliation .]
1. The act of humiliating or humbling; abasement of pride; mortification. Bp. Hopkins.

2. The state of being humiliated, humbled, or reduced to lowliness or submission.

The former was a humiliation of Deity; the latter a humiliation of manhood.

Hooker.

Humility noun ; plural Humilities . [ Middle English humilite , Old French humilité , humelité , French humilité , from Latin humiliatis . See Humble .]
1. The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of one's own worth; a sense of one's own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness; self-abasement; humbleness.

Serving the Lord with all humility of mind.

Acts xx. 19.

2. An act of submission or courtesy.

With these humilities they satisfied the young king.

Sir J. Davies.

Syn. -- Lowliness; humbleness; meekness; modesty; diffidence. -- Humility , Modesty , Diffidence . Diffidence is a distrust of our powers, combined with a fear lest our failure should be censured, since a dread of failure unconnected with a dread of censure is not usually called diffidence . It may be carried too far, and is not always, like modesty and humility, a virtue. Modesty , without supposing self-distrust, implies an unwillingness to put ourselves forward, and an absence of all over-confidence in our own powers. Humility consists in rating our claims low, in being willing to waive our rights, and take a lower place than might be our due. It does not require of us to underrate ourselves.

Humin noun [ Latin humus the earth, ground.] (Chemistry) A bitter, brownish yellow, amorphous substance, extracted from vegetable mold, and also produced by the action of acids on certain sugars and carbohydrates; -- called also humic acid , ulmin , gein , ulmic or geic acid , etc.

Humiri noun [ From native name.] (Botany) A fragrant balsam obtained from Brazilian trees of the genus Humirium .

Humite noun [ Named after Sir A. Hume .] (Min.) A mineral of a transparent vitreous brown color, found in the ejected masses of Vesuvius. It is a silicate of iron and magnesia, containing fluorine.

Hummel transitive verb [ Confer Hamble .] To separate from the awns; -- said of barley. [ Scot.]

Hummel adjective Having no awns or no horns; as, hummel corn; a hummel cow. [ Scot.]

Hummeler noun [ Written also hummeller .] One who, or a machine which, hummels.

Hummer noun
1. One who, or that which, hums; one who applauds by humming. Ainsworth.

2. (Zoology) A humming bird.

Humming adjective Emitting a murmuring sound; droning; murmuring; buzzing.

Humming noun A sound like that made by bees; a low, murmuring sound; a hum.

Hummingale , lively or strong ale. Dryden. -- Humming bird (Zoology) , any bird of the family Trochilidæ , of which over one hundred genera are known, including about four hundred species. They are found only in America and are most abundant in the tropics. They are mostly of very small size, and are noted for their very brilliant colors and peculiar habit of hovering about flowers while vibrating their wings very rapidly with a humming noise. They feed both upon the nectar of flowers and upon small insects. The common humming bird or ruby-throat of the Eastern United States is Trochilus colubris . Several other species are found in the Western United States. See Calliope , and Ruby-throat . -- Humming-bird moth (Zoology) , a hawk moth. See Hawk moth , under Hawk , the bird.

Hummock noun [ Prob. a dim. of hump . See Hump .]
1. A rounded knoll or hillock; a rise of ground of no great extent, above a level surface.

2. A ridge or pile of ice on an ice field.

3. Timbered land. See Hammock . [ Southern U.S.]

Hummocking noun The process of forming hummocks in the collision of Arctic ice. Kane.

Hummocky adjective Abounding in hummocks.

Hummum noun [ Persian or Arabic hammān .] A sweating bath or place for sweating. Sir T. Herbert.

Humor noun [ Middle English humour , Old French humor , umor , French humeur , Latin humor , umor , moisture, fluid, from humere , umere , to be moist. See Humid .] [ Written also humour .]
1. Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc.

» The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended.

2. (Medicine) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors ." Sir W. Temple.

3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor ; ill humor .

Examine how your humor is inclined,
And which the ruling passion of your mind.

Roscommon.

A prince of a pleasant humor .

Bacon.

I like not the humor of lying.

Shak.

4. plural Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims.

Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured?

South.

5. That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness.

For thy sake I admit
That a Scot may have humor , I'd almost said wit.

Goldsmith.

A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host.

W. Irving.

Aqueous humor , Crystalline humor or lens , Vitreous humor . (Anat.) See Eye . -- Out of humor , dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind.

Syn. -- Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit .

Humor transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Humored ; present participle & verbal noun Humoring .]
1. To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind.

It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention.

Dryden.

2. To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please.

You humor me when I am sick.

Pope.

Syn. -- To gratify; to indulge. See Gratify .

Humoral adjective [ Confer French humoral .] Pertaining to, or proceeding from, the humors; as, a humoral fever.

Humoral pathology (Medicine) , the pathology, or doctrine of the nature of diseases, which attributes all morbid phenomena to the disordered condition of the fluids or humors of the body.

Humoralism noun
1. (Medicine) The state or quality of being humoral.

2. (Medicine) The doctrine that diseases proceed from the humors; humorism. [ Obsolete]

Humoralist noun One who favors the humoral pathology or believes in humoralism.

Humorism noun
1. (Medicine) The theory founded on the influence which the humors were supposed to have in the production of disease; Galenism. Dunglison.

2. The manner or disposition of a humorist; humorousness. Coleridge.

Humorist noun [ Confer French humoriste .]
1. (Medicine) One who attributes diseases of the state of the humors.

2. One who has some peculiarity or eccentricity of character, which he indulges in odd or whimsical ways.

He [ Roger de Coverley] . . . was a great humorist in all parts of his life.

Addison.

3. One who displays humor in speaking or writing; one who has a facetious fancy or genius; a wag; a droll.

The reputation of wits and humorists .

Addison.

Humoristic adjective Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a humorist.

Humorize transitive verb To humor. Marston.

Humorless adjective Destitute of humor.

Humorous adjective [ Confer Latin humorosus , umorosus , moist. See Humor .]
1. Moist; humid; watery. [ Obsolete]

All founts wells, all deeps humorous .

Chapman.

2. Subject to be governed by humor or caprice; irregular; capricious; whimsical. Hawthorne.

Rough as a storm and humorous as the wind.

Dryden.

3. Full of humor; jocular; exciting laughter; playful; as, a humorous story or author; a humorous aspect.

Syn. -- Jocose; facetious; witty; pleasant; merry.

Humorously adverb
1. Capriciously; whimsically.

We resolve rashly, sillily, or humorously .

Calamy.

2. Facetiously; wittily.

Humorousness noun
1. Moodiness; capriciousness.

2. Facetiousness; jocularity.

Humorsome adjective
1. Moody; whimsical; capricious. Hawthorne.

The commons do not abet humorsome , factious arms.

Burke.

2. Jocose; witty; humorous. Swift.

Humorsomely adverb Pleasantly; humorously.

Humorsomeness noun Quality of being humorsome.

Hump noun [ Confer Dutch homp a lump, LG. hump heap, hill, stump, possibly akin to English heap . Confer Hunch .]
1. A protuberance; especially, the protuberance formed by a crooked back.

2. (Zoology) A fleshy protuberance on the back of an animal, as a camel or whale.

Hump transitive verb
1. To form into a hump; to make hump-shaped; to hunch; -- often with up .

The cattle were very uncomfortable, standing humped up in the bushes.

T. Roosvelt.

2. To put or carry on the (humped) back; to shoulder; hence, to carry, in general. [ Slang, Australia]

Having collected a sufficient quantity, we humped it out of the bush.

C. Latin Money.

3. To bend or gather together for strenuous effort, as in running; to do or effect by such effort; to exert; -- usually reflexively or with it ; as, you must hump yourself. [ Slang, U. S.]

A half dozen other negroes, some limping and all scared, were humping it across a meadow.

McClure's Mag.

Humpback noun [ Confer Hunchback .]
1. A crooked back; a humped back. Tatler.

2. A humpbacked person; a hunchback.

3. (Zoology) (a) Any whale of the genus Megaptera , characterized by a hump or bunch on the back. Several species are known. The most common ones in the North Atlantic are Megaptera longimana of Europe, and M. osphyia of America; that of the California coasts is M. versabilis . (b) A small salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ), of the northwest coast of America.

Humpbacked adjective Having a humped back.

Humpbacked salmon A small salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ) which ascends the rivers of the Pacific coast from California to Alaska, and also on the Asiatic side. In the breeding season the male has a large dorsal hump and distorted jaws.

Humped adjective Having a hump, as the back.

Humph interj. [ Of imitative origin.] An exclamation denoting surprise, or contempt, doubt, etc.