Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
RAINBOW — RAPE
RAINBOW, n. A bow, or an arch of a circle, consisting of all the colors formed by the refraction and reflection of rays of light from drops of rain or vapor, appearing in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun. When the sun is at the horizon, the rainbow is a semicircle. The rainbow is called also iris.
The moon sometimes forms a bow or arch of light, more faint than that formed by the sun, and called lunar rainbow. Similar bows at sea are called marine rainbows or sea bows.
RAIN-DEER, n.
The rane, a species of the cervine genus. [See Rane.]
RAININESS, n. [from rainy.] The state of being rainy.
RAIN-WATER, n. Water that has fallen from the clouds.
RAINY, a. Abounding with rain; wet; showery; as rainy weather; a rainy day or season.
RAISE, v.t. raze. [This word occurs often in the Gothic version of the gospels, Luke 3:8; John 6:40, 44. These verbs appear to be the L. gradior, gressus, without the prefix. L. to go to walk, to pass.]
1. To lift; to take up; to heave; to lift from a low or reclining posture; as, to raise a stone or weight; to raise the body in bed.
The angel smote Peter on the side and raised him up. Acts 12:7.
2. To set upright; as, to raise a mast.
3. To set up; to erect; to set on its foundations and put together; as, to raise the frame of a house.
4. To build; as, to raise a city, a fort, a wall, etc.
I will raise forts against thee. Isaiah 29:3; Amos 9:11.
5. To rebuild.
They shall raise up the former desolations. Isaiah 61:4.
6. To form to some height by accumulation; as, to raise a heap of stones. Joshua 8:29.
7. To make; to produce; to amass; as, to raise a great estate out of small profits.
8. To enlarge; to amplify.
9. To exalt; to elevate in condition; as, to raise one from a low estate.
10. To exalt; to advance; to promote in rank or honor; as, to raise one to an office of distinction.
This gentleman came to be raised to great titles.
11. To enhance; to increase; as, to raise the value of coin; to raise the price of goods.
12. To increase in current value.
The plate pieces of eight were raised three pence in the piece.
13. To excite; to put in motion or action; as, to raise a tempest or tumult.
He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind. Psalm 107:25.
14. To excite to sedition, insurrection, war or tumult; to stir up. Acts 13:50.
AEneas then employs his pains in parts remote to raise the Tuscan swains.
15. To rouse; to awake; to stir up.
They shall not awake, not be raised out of their sleep. Job 14:12.
16. To increase in strength; to excite from languor or weakness. The pulse is raised by stimulants, sometimes by venesection.
17. To give beginning of importance to; to elevate into reputation; as, to raise a family.
18. To bring into being.
God vouchsafes to raise another word for him.
19. To bring from a state of death to life.
He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:15-17.
20. To call into view from the state of separate spirits; as, to raise a spirit by spells and incantations.
21. To invent and propagate; to originate; to occasion; as, to raise a report or story.
22. To set up; to excite; to begin by loud utterance; as, to raise a shout or cry.
23. To utter loudly; to begin to sound or clamor. He raised his voice against the measures of administration.
24. To utter with more strength or elevation; to swell. Let the speaker raise his voice.
25. To collect; to obtain; to bring into a sum or fund. Government raises money by taxes, excise and imposts. Private persons and companies raise money for their enterprises.
26. To levy; to collect; to bring into service; as, to raise troops; to raise an army.
27. To give rise to.
28. To cause to grow; to procure to be produced, bred or propagated; as, to raise wheat, barley, hops, etc.; to raise horses, oxen or sheep.
[The English now use grow in regard to crops; as, to grow wheat. This verb intransitive has never been used in New England in a transitive sense, until recently some persons have adopted it from the English books. We always use raise, but in New England it is never applied to the breeding of the human race, as it is in the southern states.]
29. To cause to swell, heave and become light; as, to raise dough or paste by yeast or leaven.
Miss Liddy can dance a jig and raise paste.
30. To excite; to animate with fresh vigor; as, to raise the spirits or courage.
31. To ordain; to appoint; or to call to and prepare; to furnish with gifts and qualification suited to a purpose; a Scriptural sense.
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. Deuteronomy 18:18.
For this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power. Exodus 9:16; Judges 2:16, 18.
32. To keep in remembrance. Ruth 4:5, 10.
33. To cause to exist by propagation. Matthew 22:24.
34. To incite; to prompt. Ezra 1:5.
35. To increase in intensity or strength; as, to raise the heat of a furnace.
36. In seamen’s language, to elevate, as an object by a gradual approach to it; to bring to be seen at a greater angle; opposed to laying; as, to raise the land; to raise a point.
To raise a purchase, in seamen’s language, is to dispose instruments or machines in such a manner as to exert any mechanical force required.
To raise a siege, is to remove a besieging army and relinquish an attempt to take the place by that mode of attack, or to cause the attempt to be relinquished.
RAISED, pp. Lifted; elevated; exalted; promoted; set upright; built; made or enlarged; produced; enhanced; excited; restored to life; levied; collected; roused; invented and propagated; increased.
RAISER, n. One who raises; that which raises; one that builds; one that levies or collects; one that begins, produces or propagates.
RAISIN, n. razn.
A dried grape. Grapes are suffered to remain on the vines till they are perfectly ripe, and then dried in an oven, or by exposure to the heat of the sun. Those dried in the sun are the sweetest.
RAISING, ppr. Lifting; elevating; setting upright; exalting; producing; enhancing; restoring to life; collecting; levying; propagating, etc.
RAISING, n.
1. The act of lifting, setting up, elevating, exalting, producing, or restoring to life.
2. In New England, the operation or work of setting up the frame of a building.
RAJAH, RAJA, n. [L. rex, regis.] In India, a prince. some of the rajahs are said to be independent princes; others are tributary to the Mogul.
RAJAHSHIP, n. The dignity or principality of a rajah.
RAKE, n.
An instrument consisting of a head-piece in which teeth are inserted, and a long handle; used for collecting hay or other light things which are spread over a large surface, or in gardens for breaking and smoothing the earth.
RAKE, n.
A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a man addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices.
RAKE, n.
1. The projection of the upper parts of a ship, at the height of the stem and stern, beyond the extremities of the keel. The distance between a perpendicular line from the extremity of stem or stern to the end of the keel, is the length of the rake; one the fore-rake, the other the rake-aft.
2. The inclination of a mast from a perpendicular direction.
RAKE, v.t. [L. frico.]
1. Properly, to scrape; to rub or scratch with something rough; as, to rake the ground.
2. To gather with a rake; as, to rake hay or barley.
3. To clear with a rake; to smooth with a rake; as, to rake a bed in a garden; to rake land.
4. To collect or draw together something scattered; to gather by violence; as, to rake together wealth; to rake together slanderous tales; to rake together the rabble of a town.
5. To scour; to search with eagerness all corners of a place.
The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.
6. In the military art, to enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length of any thing; particularly in naval engagement, to rake is to cannonade a ship on the stern or head, so that the balls range the whole length of the deck. Hence the phrase, to rake a ship fore and aft.
To rake up, applied to fire, is to cover the fire with ashes.
RAKE, v.i.
1. To scrape; to scratch into for finding something; to search minutely and meanly; as, to rake into a dunghill.
2. To search with minute inspection into every part.
One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words.
3. To pass with violence or rapidity.
Pas could not stay, but over him did rake.
4. To seek by raking; as, to rake for oysters.
5. To lead a dissolute, debauched life.
6. To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
RAKED, pp. Scraped; gathered with a rake; cleaned with a rake; cannonaded fore and aft.
RAKEHELL, n.
A lewd, dissolute fellow; a debauchee; a rake.
RAKEHELLY, a. Dissolute; wild.
RAKER, n. One that rakes.
RAKESHAME, n. A vile dissolute wretch.
RAKING, ppr.
1. Scraping; gathering with a rake; cleaning and smoothing with a rake; cannonading in the direction of the length; inclining.
And raking chase-guns through our sterns they send.
2. a. That rakes; as a raking fire or shot.
RAKING, n.
1. The act of using a rake; the act or operation of collecting with a rake, or of cleaning and smoothing with a rake.
2. The space of ground raked at once; or the quantity of hay, etc. collected by once passing the rake.
RAKISH, a. Given to a dissolute life; lewd; debauched.
RAKISHNESS, n. Dissolute practices.
RALLY, v.t. [This seems to be a compound of re, ra, and lier, L. ligo, to unite.]
1. To reunite; to collect and reduce to order troops dispersed or thrown into confusion.
2. To collect; to unite; as things scattered.
RALLY, v.t. [See Raillery.]
To treat with good humor and pleasantry, or with slight contempt or satire, according to the nature of the case.
Honeycomb rallies me upon a country life.
Strephon had long confess’d his am’rous pain, which gay Corinna rallied with disdain.
RALLY, v.i.
1. To assemble; to unite.
Innumerable parts of matter chanced then to rally together and to form themselves into this new world.
2. To come back to order.
The Grecians rally and their pow’rs unite.
3. To use pleasantry or satirical merriment.
RALLY, n.
1. The act of bringing disordered troops to their ranks.
2. Exercise of good humor or satirical merriment.
RAM, n. [See the Verb.]
1. The male of the sheep or ovine genus; in some parts of England called a tup. In the United States, the word is applied, I believe, to no other male, except in the compound ram-cat.
2. In astronomy, Aries, the sign of the zodiac which the sun enters on the 21st of March, or a constellation of fixed stars in the figure of a ram. It is considered the first of the twelve signs.
3. An engine of war, used formerly for battering and demolishing the walls of cities; called a battering-ram. [See Battering-ram.]
RAM, v.t. [L. ramus, a branch that is a shoot or thrust. Heb. See Cram.]
1. To thrust or drive with violence; to force in; to drive down or together; as, to ram down a cartridge; to ram piles into the earth.
2. To drive, as with a battering ram.
3. To stuff; to cram.
RAMADAN, n. Among the Mohammedans, a solemn season of fasting.
RAMAGE, n. [L. ramus, a branch.]
1. Branches of trees. [Not in use.]
2. The warbling of birds sitting on boughs.
3. [See Rummage.]
RAMBLE, v.i.
1. To rove; to wander; to walk, ride or sail from place to place, without any determinate object in view; or to visit many places; to rove carelessly or irregularly; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the country.
Never ask leave to go abroad, for you will be thought an idle rambling fellow.
2. To go at large without restraint and without direction.
3. To move without certain direction.
O’re his ample sides, the rambling sprays luxuriant shoot.
RAMBLE, n. a roving; a wandering; a going or moving from place to place without any determinate business or object; an irregular excursion.
Coming home after a short Christmas ramble, I found a letter upon my table.
RAMBLER, n. One that rambles; a rover; a wanderer.
RAMBLING, ppr. Roving; wandering; moving or going irregularly.
RAMBLING, n. A roving; irregular excursion.
RAMBOOZE, RAMBUSE, n. a drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter, or of wine, milk, sugar and rose water in summer.
RAMEKIN, RAMEQUINS, n. In cookery, small slices of bread covered with a farce of cheese and eggs.
RAMENTS, n. [L. ramenta, a chip.]
1. Scrapings; shavings;. [Not used.]
2. In botany, loose scales on the stems of plants.
RAMEOUS, a. [L. ramus, a branch.] In botany, belonging to a branch; growing on or shooting from a branch.
RAMIFICATION, n. [L. ramus, a branch.]
1. The process of branching or shooting branches from a stem.
2. A branch; a small division proceeding from a main stock or channel; as the ramifications of a family; the ramifications of an artery.
3. A division or subdivision; as the ramifications of a subject or scheme.
4. In botany, the manner in which a tree produces its branches or boughs.
5. The production of figures resembling branches.
RAMIFIED, pp. divided into branches.
RAMIFY, v.t. [L. ramus, a branch, and facio, to make.]
To divide into branches or parts; as, to ramify an art, a subject or scheme.
RAMIFY, v.i.
1. To shoot into branches, as the stem of a plant.
When the asparagus begins to ramify -
2. To be divided or subdivided; as a main subject or scheme.
RAMIFYING, ppr. shooting into branches or divisions.
RAMISH, a.
Rank; strong scented.
RAMISHNESS, n. [from ram.] Rankness; a strong scent.
RAMMED, pp. [See Ram.] Driven forcibly.
RAMMER, n.
1. One that rams or drives.
2. An instrument for driving any thing with force; as a rammer for driving stones or piles, or for beating the earth to more solidity.
3. A gun-stick; a ramrod; a rod for forcing down the charge of a gun.
RAMMING, ppr. Driving with force.
RAMOON, n. A tree of America.
RAMOUS, a. [L. ramosus, from ramus, a branch.]
1. In botany, branched, as a stem or root; having lateral divisions.
2. Branchy; consisting of branches; full of branches.
RAMP, v.i. [See Ramble and Romance.]
1. To climb, as a plant; to creep up.
Plants furnished with tendrils catch hold, and so ramping on trees, they mount to a great height.
2. To spring; to leap; to bound; to prance; to frolic.
Their bridles they would champ - and trampling the fine element, would fiercely ramp.
Sporting the lion ramp’d.
[In the latter sense, the word is usually written and pronounced romp; the word being originally pronounced with a broad.]
RAMP, n. A leap; a spring; a bound.
RAMPALLIAN, n. A mean wretch. [Not in use.]
RAMPANCY, n. [from rampant.] Excessive growth or practice; excessive prevalence; exuberance; extravagance; as the rampancy of vice.
RAMPANT, a. [See Ramp and Ramble.]
1. Overgrowing the usual bounds; rank in growth; exuberant; as rampant weeds.
2. Overleaping restraint; as rampant vice.
3. In heraldry, applied to the lion, leopard or other beast, rampant denotes the animal reared and standing on his hind legs, in the posture of climbing. It differs from saliant, which indicates the posture of springing or making a sally.
The lion rampant shakes his brinded mane.
RAMPART, n. [Hence we see rampart is from L. reparo; re and paro. See Parry and Repair.]
1. In fortification, an elevation or mound of earth round a place, capable of resisting cannon shot, and formed into bastions, curtains, etc.
No standards from the hostile ramparts torn.
2. That which fortifies and defends from assault; that which secures safety.
RAMPART, v.t. To fortify with ramparts. [Not in use.]
RAMPION, n. [from ramp.] The name of several plants; as the common esculent rampion, a species of Campanula; the crested rampion, a species of Lobelia; the horned rampion, a species of Phyteuma.
RAMPIRE, n. The same as rampart; but obsolete.
RAMSONS, n. A plant, a species of Allium.
RAN, the pret. of run. In old writers, open robbery.
RANCESCENT, a. [L. ranceo, to be rank.] Becoming rancid or sour.
RANCH, v.t. [corrupted from wrench.] To sprain; to injure by violent straining or contortion. [Not used.]
RANCID, a. [L. rancidus, from ranceo, to be rank. This is the Eng. rank, luxuriant in growth.]
Having a rank smell; strong scented; sour; musty; as rancid oil.
RANCIDITY, RANCIDNESS, n. The quality of being rancid; a strong, sour scent, as of old oil.
The rancidity of oils may be analogous to the oxidation of metals.
RANCOR, n. [L. from ranceo, to be rank.]
1. The deepest malignity or spite; deep seated and implacable malice; inveterate enmity. [This is the strongest term for enmity which the English language supplies.]
It issues from the rancor of a villain.
2. Virulence; corruption.
RANCOROUS, a. Deeply malignant; implacably spiteful or malicious; intensely virulent.
So flam’d his eyes with rage and ranc’rous ire.
Rancorous opposition to the gospel of Christ.
RANCOROUSLY, adv. With deep malignity or spiteful malice.
RAND, n.
A border; edge; margin; as the rand of a shoe.
RANDOM, n.
1. A roving motion or course without direction; hence, want of direction, rule or method; hazard; chance; used in the phrase, at random, that is, without a settled point of direction; at hazard.
2. Course; motion; progression; distance of a body thrown; as the furthest random of a missile weapon.
RANDOM, a.
1. Done at hazard or without settled aim or purpose; left to chance; as a random blow.
2. Uttered or done without previous calculation; as a random guess.
RANDOM-SHOT, n. A shot not directed to a point, or a shot with the muzzle of the gun elevated above a horizontal line.
RANDY, a. Disorderly; riotous. [Not used or local.]
RANE, RANEDEER, n.
A species of deer found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. He has large branched palmated horns, and travels with great speed. Among the Laplanders, he is a substitute for the horse, the cow, the goat and the sheep, as he furnishes food, clothing and the means of conveyance. This animal will draw a sled on the snow more than a hundred miles in a day.
RANFORCE, n. The ring of a gun next to the vent.
[I do not find this word in modern books.]
RANG, the old pret. of ring. [Nearly obsolete.]
RANGE, v.t.
1. To set in a row or in rows; to place in a regular line, lines or ranks; to dispose in the proper order; as, to range troops in a body; to range men or ships in the order of battle.
2. To dispose in proper classes, orders or divisions; as, to range plants and animals in genera and species.
3. To dispose in a proper manner; to place in regular method; in a general sense. Range and arrange are used indifferently in the same sense.
4. To rove over; to pass over.
Teach him to range the ditch and force the brake.
[This use is elliptical, over being omitted.]
5. To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near; as, to range the coast, that is, along the coast.
RANGE, v.i.
1. To rove at large; to wander without restraint or direction.
As a roaring lion and a ranging bear. Proverbs 28:15.
2. To be placed in order; to be ranked.
‘Tis better to be lowly born, and range with humble livers in content -
[In this sense, rank is now used.]
3. To lie in a particular direction.
Which way thy forests range -
We say, the front of a house ranges with the line of the street.
4. To sail or pass near or in the direction of; as, to range along the coast.
RANGE, n. [See Rank.]
1. A row; a rank; things in a line; as a range of buildings; a range of mountains; ranges of colors.
2. A class; an order.
The next range of beings above him are the immaterial intelligences -
3. A wandering or roving; excursion.
He may take a range all the world over.
4. Space or room for excursion.
A man has not enough range of thought -
5. Compass or extent of excursion; space taken in by any thing extended or ranked in order; as the range of Newton’s thought. No philosopher has embraced a wider range.
Far as creation’s ample range extends.
6. The step of a ladder. [Corrupted in popular language to rung.]
7. A kitchen grate.
8. A bolting sieve to sift meal.
9. In gunnery, the path of a bullet or bomb, or the line it describes from the mouth of the piece to the point where it lodges; or the whole distance which it passes. When a cannon lies horizontally, it is called the right level, or point blank range; when the muzzle is elevated to 45 degrees, it is called the utmost range. To this may be added the ricochet, the rolling or bounding shot, with the piece elevated from three to six degrees.
RANGED, pp. Disposed in a row or line; placed in order; passed in roving placed in a particular direction.
RANGER, n.
1. One that ranges; a rover; a robber. [Now little used.]
2. A dog that beats the ground.
3. In England, a sworn officer of a forest, appointed by the king’s letters patent, whose business is to walk through the forest, watch the deer, present trespasses, etc.
RANGERSHIP, n. The office of the keeper of a forest or park.
RANGING, ppr. Placing in a row or line; disposing in order, method or classes; roving; passing near and in the direction of.
RANGING, n. The act of placing in lines or in order; a roving, etc.
RANK, n. [Heb.]
1. A row or line, applied to troops; a line of men standing abreast or side by side, and as opposed to file, a line running the length of a company, battalion or regiment. Keep your ranks; dress your ranks.
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds in ranks and squadrons and right form of war.
2. Ranks, in the plural, the order of common soldiers; as, to reduce an officer to the ranks.
3. A row; a line of things, or things in a line; as a rank of osiers.
4. Degree; grade; in military affairs; as the rank of captain, colonel or general; the rank of vice-admiral.
5. Degree of elevation in civil life or station; the order of elevation or of subordination. We say, all ranks and orders of men; every man’s dress and behavior should correspond with his rank; the highest and the lowest ranks of men or of other intelligent beings.
6. Class; order; division; any portion or number of things to which place, degree or order is assigned. Profligate men, by their vices, sometimes degrade themselves to the rank of brutes.
7. Degree of dignity, eminence or excellence; as a writer of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank.
These are all virtues of a meaner rank.
8. Dignity; high place or degree in the orders of men; as a man of rank.
Rank and file, the order of common soldiers. Ten officers and three hundred rank and file fell in the action.
To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number.
To take rank, to enjoy precedence, or to have the right of taking a higher place. In Great Britain, the king’s sons take rank of all the other nobles.
RANK, a. [L. rancidus, from ranceo, to smell strong. The primary sense of the root is to advance, to shoot forward, to grow luxuriantly, whence the sense of strong, vigorous.]
1. Luxuriant in growth; being of vigorous growth; as rank grass; rank weeds.
Seven ears came up upon one stalk, rank and good. Genesis 41:5.
2. Causing vigorous growth; producing luxuriantly; very rich and fertile; as, land is rank.
3. Strong scented; as rank smelling rue.
4. Rancid; musty; as oil of a rank smell.
5. Inflamed with venereal appetite.
6. Strong to the taste; high tasted.
Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they feed.
7. Rampant; high grown; raised to a high degree; excessive; as rank pride; rank idolatry.
I do forgive thy rankest faults.
8. Gross; coarse.
9. Strong; clinching. Take rank hold. Hence,
10. Excessive; exceeding the actual value; as a rank modus in law.
To set rank, as the iron of a plane, to set it so as to take off a thick shaving.
RANK, v.t.
1. To place abreast or in a line.
2. To place in a particular class, order or division.
Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.
Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.
3. To dispose methodically; to place in suitable order.
Who now shall rear you to the sun, or rank your tribes?
Ranking all things under general and special heads.
RANK, v.i.
1. To be ranged; to be set or disposed; as in a particular degree, class, order or division.
Let that one article rank with the rest.
2. To be placed in a rank or ranks.
Go, rank in tribes, and quit the savage wood.
3. To have a certain grade or degree of elevation in the orders of civil or military life. He ranks with a major. He ranks with the first class of poets. He ranks high in public estimation.
RANKED, pp. Placed in a line; disposed in an order or class; arranged methodically.
RANKER, n. One that disposes in ranks; one that arranges.
RANKING, ppr. Placing in ranks or lines; arranging; disposing in orders or classes; having a certain rank or grade.
RANKLE, v.i. [from rank.]
1. To grow more rank or strong; to be inflamed; to fester; as a rankling wound.
A malady that burns and rankles inward.
2. To become more violent; to be inflamed; to rage; as rankling malice; rankling envy. Jealousy rankles in the breast.
RANKLY, adv.
1. With vigorous growth; as, grass or weeks grow rankly.
2. Coarsely; grossly.
RANKNESS, n.
1. Vigorous growth; luxuriance; exuberance; as the rankness of plants or herbage.
2. Exuberance; excess; extravagance; as the rankness of pride; the rankness of joy.
3. Extraordinary strength.
The crane’s pride is in the rankness of her wing.
4. Strong taste; as the rankness of flesh or fish.
5. Rancidness; rank smell; as the rankness of oil.
6. Excessiveness; as the rankness of a composition or modus.
RANNY, n. The shrew-mouse.
RANSACK, v.t. [Eng. rand, and ran is rapine. The last syllable coincides with the English verb to sack, to pillage.]
1. To plunder; to pillage completely; to strip by plundering; as, to ransack a house or city.
Their vow is made to ransack Troy.
2. To search thoroughly; to enter and search every place or part. It seems often to convey the sense of opening doors and parcels, and turning over things in search; as, to ransack files of papers.
I ransack the several caverns.
3. To violate; to ravish; to deflower; as ransacked chastity. [Not in use.]
RANSACKED, pp. Pillaged; search narrowly.
RANSACKING, ppr. Pillaging; searching narrowly.
RANSOM, n.
1. The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner or slave, or for goods captured by an enemy; that which procures the release of a prisoner or captive, or of captured property, and restores the one to liberty and the other to the original owner.
By his captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty, Richard was hindered from pursuing the conquest of Ireland.
2. Release from captivity, bondage or the possession of an enemy. They were unable to procure the ransom of the prisoners.
3. In law, a sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; or a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
4. In Scripture, the price paid for a forfeited life, or for delivery or release from capital punishment.
Then he shall give for the ransom of his life, whatever is laid upon him. Exodus 21:30.
5. The price paid for procuring the pardon of sins and the redemption of the sinner from punishment.
Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom. Job 33:24.
The Son of man came - to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45.
RANSOM, v.t.
1. To redeem from captivity or punishment by paying an equivalent; applied to persons; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.
2. To redeem from the possession of an enemy by paying a price deemed equivalent; applied to goods or property.
3. In Scripture, to redeem from the bondage of sin, and from the punishment to which sinners are subjected by the divine law.
The ransomed of the Lord shall return. Isaiah 35:10.
4. To rescue; to deliver. Hosea 13:14.
RANSOMED, pp. Redeemed or rescued from captivity, bondage or punishment by the payment of an equivalent.
RANSOMER, n. One that redeems.
RANSOMING, ppr. Redeeming from captivity, bondage or punishment by giving satisfaction to the possessor; rescuing; liberating.
RANSOMLESS, a. Free from ransom.
RANT, v.i. [Heb.]
To rave in violent, high sounding or extravagant language, without correspondent dignity of thought; to be noisy and boisterous in words or declamation; as a ranting preacher.
Look where my ranking host of the garter comes.
RANT, n. High sounding language without dignity of thought; boisterous, empty declamation; as the rant of fanatics.
This is stoical rant, without any foundation in the nature of man, or reason of things.
RANTER, n. A noisy talker; a boisterous preacher.
RANTING, ppr. Uttering high sounding words without solid sense; declaiming or preaching with boisterous empty words.
RANTIPOLE, a. [from rant.] Wild; roving; rakish. [A low word.]
RANTIPOLE, v.i. To run about wildly. [Low.]
RANTISM, n. The practice or tenets of ranters.
RANTY, a. Wild; noisy; boisterous.
RANULA, n. [L. rana, a frog; dim. a little frog.]
A swelling under the tongue, similar to the encysted tumors in different parts of the body.
RANUNCULUS, n. [L. from rana, a frog.]
In botany, crowfoot, a genus of plants of many species, some of them beautiful flowering plants, particularly the Asiatic, or Turkey and Persian ranunculus, which is diversified with many rich colors.
RAP, v.i. [L. rapio, rapidus, rapid.]
To strike with a quick sharp blow; to knock; as, to rap on the door.
RAP, v.t. To strike with a quick blow; to knock.
With one great peal they rap the door.
To rap out, to utter with sudden violence; as, to rap out an oath. [In the popular language of the United States, it is often pronounced rip, to rip out an oath; L. crepo.]
RAP, v.t.
1. to seize and bear away, as the mind or thoughts; to transport out of one’s self; to affect with ecstasy or rapture; as rapt into admiration.
I’m rapt with joy to see my Marcia’s tears.
Rapt into future times the bar begun.
2. To snatch or hurry away.
And rapt with whirling wheels.
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.
3. To seize by violence.
4. To exchange; to truck. [Low and not used.]
To rap and rend, to seize and tear or strip; to fall on and plunder; to snatch by violence. They brought off all they could rap and rend. [See Rend.]
RAP, n. a quick smart blow; as a rap on the knuckles.
RAPACIOUS, a. [L. rapax, from rapio, to seize. See Rap.]
1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force; as a rapacious enemy.
Well may thy lord, appeas’d redeem thee quite from death’s rapacious claim.
2. Accustomed to seize for food; subsisting on prey or animals seized by violence; as a rapacious tiger; a rapacious fowl.
RAPACIOUSLY, adv. By rapine; by violent robbery or seizure.
RAPACIOUSNESS, n. The quality of being rapacious; disposition to plunder or to exact by oppression.
RAPACITY, n. [L. rapacitas, from rapax, rapio.]
1. Addictedness to plunder; the exercise of plunder; the act or practice of seizing by force; as the rapacity of a conquering army; the rapacity of pirates; the rapacity of a Turkish pashaw; the rapacity of extortioners.
2. Ravenousness; as the rapacity of animals.
3. The act or practice of extorting or exacting by oppressive injustice.
RAPE, n. [L. rapio, raptus. See Rap.]
1. In a general sense, a seizing by violence; also, a seizing and carrying away by force, as females.
2. In law, the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will.
3. Privation; the act of seizing or taking away.
And ruin’d orphans of thy rapes complain.
4. something taken or seized and carried away.
Where now are all my hopes? oh, never more shall they revive, nor death her rapes restore.
5. Fruit plucked from the cluster.
6. A division of a county in Sussex, in England; or an intermediate division between a hundred and a shire, and containing three or four hundreds.
RAPE, n. [L. rapa, Gr.]
A plant of the genus Brassica, called also cole-rape and cole-seed, and of which the navew or French turnip is a variety.
The broom-rape is of the genus Orobanche.