Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
SISE — SKIRTED
SISE, for assize. [Not used.]
SISKIN, n. A bird, the green finch; another name of the aberdavine. The siskin or aberdavine is the Fringilla spinus; the green finch, the Fr. chloris, a different species.
SISS, v.i. To hiss; a legitimate word in universal popular use in New England.
SISTER, n.
1. A female born of the same patents; correlative to brother.
2. A woman of the same faith; a female fellow christian. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food. James 2:15.
3. A female of the same kind.
4. One of the same kind, or of the same condition; as sister-fruits.
5. A female of the same society; as the nuns of a convent.
SISTER, v.t. To resemble closely.
SISTER, v.i. To be akin; to be near to. [Little used.]
SISTERHOOD, n.
1. Sisters collectively, or a society of sisters; or a society of females united in one faith or order.
2. The officer of duty of a sister. [Little used.]
SISTER-IN-LAW, n. A husband’s or wife’s sister.
SISTERLY, a. Like a sister; becoming a sister; affectionate; as sisterly kindness.
SIT, v.i. pret. sat; old pp. sitten [L. sedeo.]
1. To rest upon the buttocks, as animals; as, to sit on a sofa or on the ground.
2. To perch; to rest on the feet; as fowls.
3. To occupy a seat or place in an official capacity. The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Matthew 23:2.
4. To be in a state of rest or idleness. Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? Numbers 32:6.
5. To rest, lie or bear on, as a weight or burned; as, grief sits heavy on his heart.
6. To settle; to rest; to abide. Pale horror sat on each Arcadian face.
7. To incubate; to cover and warm eggs for hatching; as a fowl. As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not- Jeremiah 17:11.
8. To be adjusted; to be, with respect to fitness or unfitness; as, a coat sits well or ill. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, sits not so easy on me as you think.
9. To be placed in order to be painted; as, to sit for one’s picture.
10. To be in any situation or condition. Suppose all the church lands to be thrown up to the laity; would the tenants sit easier in their rents than now?
11. To hold a session; to be officially engaged in public business; as judges, legislators or officers of any kind. The house of commons sometimes sits till late at night. The judges or the courts sit in Westminster hall. The commissioners sit every day.
12. To exercise authority; as, to sit in judgment. One council sits upon life and death.
13. To be in any assembly or council as a member; to have a seat.
14. To be in a local position. The wind sits fair. [Unusual]
To sit at meat, to be at table for eating.
To sit down,
1. to place one’s self on a chair or other seat; as, to sit down at a meal.
2. To begin a siege. The enemy sat down before the town.
3. To settle; to fix a permanent abode.
4. To rest; to cease as satisfied. Here we cannot sit down, but still proceed in our search.
To sit out, to be without engagement or employment. [Little used.]
To sit up,
1. To rise or be raised from a recumbent posture. He that was dead sat up, and began to speak. Luke 7:15.
2. Not to go to bed; as, to sit up late at night; also, to watch; as, to sit up with a sick person.
SIT, v.t.
1. To keep the seat upon. He sits a horse well. [This phrase is elliptical.]
2. To sit me down, To sit him down, to sit them down, equivalent to I seated myself, etc. are familiar phrases used by good writers, though deviation from strict propriety. They sat them down to weep.
3. “The court was sat,” an expression of Addison, is a gross impropriety.
SITE, n. [L. silus.]
1. Situation; local position; as the site of a city or of a house.
2. A seat or ground-plot; as a mill-site. But we usually say, mill-seat, by which we understand the place where a mill stands, or a place convenient for a mill.
3. The posture of a thing with respect of itself. The semblance of a lover fix’d in melancholy site. [This is improper.]
SITED, a. Placed; situated. [Not in use.]
SITFAST, n. A hard knob growing on a horse’s back under the saddle.
SITH, adv. Since; in later times.
SITHE, n. Time.
SITHE, [See Sythe.]
SITHENCE, SITHES, adv. Since; in later times.
SITTER, n. [from sit.]
1. One that sits. The Turks are great sitters.
2. A bird that sits or incubates.
SITTING, ppr.
1. Resting on the buttocks, or on the feet, as fowls; incubating; brooding; being in the actual exercise of authority, or being assembled for that purpose.
2. a. In botany, sessile.
SITTING, n.
1. The posture of being on a seat.
2. The act of placing one’s self on a seat; as a sitting down.
3. The act or time of resting in a posture for a painter or take the likeness. For a portrait, six or seven sittings may be required.
4. A session; the actual presence or meeting of any body of men in their seats, clothed with authority to transact business; as a sitting of the judges of the king’s bench; a sitting of the house of commons; during the sitting of the supreme court.
5. An uninterrupted application to business or study for a time; course of study unintermitted. For the understanding of any one of Paul’s epistles, I read it through at one sitting.
6. A time for which one sits, as at play, at work or on a visit.
7. Incubation; a resting on eggs for hatching; as fowls. The male bird amuses the female with his songs, during the whole time of her sitting.
SITUATE, a. [L. situs, sedeo.]
1. Placed, with respect to any other object; as a town situate on a hill or on the sea shore.
2. Placed; consisting. Pleasure situate in hill and dale
[Note. In the United States, this word is less used than situated, but both are well authorized.]
SITUATED, a. [See Situate.]
1. Seated, placed or standing with respect to any other object; as a city situated on a declivity, or in front of a lake; a town well situated for trade or manufactures; an observatory well situated for observation of the stars. New York is situated in the forty first degree of N. latitude.
2. Placed or being in any state or condition with regard to men or things. Observe how the executor is situated with respect to the heirs.
SITUATION, n.
1. Position; seat; location in respect to something else. The situation of London is more favorable for foreign commerce than that of Paris. The situation of a stranger among people of habits differing from his own, cannot be pleasant.
2. State; condition. He enjoys a situation of ease and tranquility.
3. Circumstances; temporary state; used of persons in a dramatic scene.
4. Place; office. He has a situation in the war department, or under government.
SIVAN, n. The third month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, answering to part of our May and part of June.
SIX, a. [L. sex;] Twice three; one more than five.
SIX, n. The number of six or twice three. To be at six and seven, or as more generally used, at sixes and sevens, is to be in disorder.
SIXFOLD, a. [six and fold.] Six times repeated; six double; six times as much.
SIXPENCE, n. [six and pence.]
1. An English silver coin of the value of six pennies; half a shilling.
2. The value of six pennies or half a shilling.
SIX-PENNY, a. Worth sixpence; as a six-penny loaf.
SIX-PETALED, a. In botany, having six distinct petals or flower leaves.
SIXSCORE, a. [six and score.] Six times twenty; one hundred and twenty.
SIXTEEN, a. Six and ten; noting the sum of six and ten.
SINTEENTH, a. The sixth after the tenth; the ordinal of sixteen.
SIXTH, a. The first after the fifth; the ordinal of six.
SIXTH, n.
1. The sixth part.
2. In music, a hexachord, as interval of two kinds; the minor sixth, consisting of three tones and two semitones major, and the major sixth, composed of four tones and a major semitone.
SIXTHLY, adv. In the sixth place.
SIXTIETH, a. The ordinal of sixty.
SIXTY, a. Ten times six.
SIXTY, n. The number of six times ten.
SIZABLE, a. [from size.]
1. Of considerable bulk.
2. Being of reasonable of suitable size; as sizable timber.
SIZE, n. [either contracted from assize, or from the L. scissus. I take it to be from the former, and from the sense of setting, as we apply the word to the assize of bread.]
1. Bulk; bigness; magnitude; extent of superficies. Size particularly expresses thickness; as the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock. A man may be tall, with little size of body.
2. A settled quantity of allowance. [contracted from assize.]
3. Figurative bulk; condition as to rank and character; as men of less size and quality. [Not much used.]
SIZE, v.t.
1. To adjust or arrange according to size or bulk.
2. To settle; to fix the standard of; as, to size weights and measures. [Now little used.]
3. To cover with size; to prepare with size.
4. To swell; to increase the bulk or.
5. Among Cornish miners, to separate the finer firm the coarser parts of a metal by sifting them through a wire sieve.
SIZED, pp.
1. Adjusted according to size; prepared with size.
2. a. Having a particular magnitude. And as my love is siz’d my fear is so. [Note. This word is used in compounds; as large-sized, common-sized, middle-sized, etc.]
SIZEL, n. In coining, the residue of bars of silver, after pieces are cut out for coins.
SIZIER, n. In the university of Cambridge, a student of the rank nest below that of a pensioner.
SIZINESS, n. [from sizy.] Glutinousness; viscousness; the quality of size; as the siziness of blood.
SIZY, a. [from size.] Glutinous; thick and viscous; ropy; having the adhesiveness of size; as sizy blood.
SKADDLE, n. Hurt; damage. [Not in use.]
SKADDLE, a. Hurtful; mischievous. [Not in use.]
SKADDONS, n. The embryos of bees. [Not in use.]
SKAIN, n. A knot of thread, yarn or silk, or a number of knots collected.
SKAINSMATE, n. A messmate; a companion.
SKALD, n. An ancient Scandinavian poet or bard.
SKATE, n. A sort or shoe furnished with a smooth iron for sliding on ice.
SKATE, v.i. To slide or move on skates.
SKATE, n. [L. squatus, squatina.] A fish of the ray kind, (Raia Batis;) called the variegated ray-fish, It is a flat fish, the largest and thinnest of the genus, some of them weighing nearly two hundred pounds.
SKATER, n. One who skates on ice.
SKEAN, n. A short sword, or a knife. [Not in use.]
SKEED. [See Skid.]
SKEEL, n. A shallow wooden vessel for holding milk or cream.
SKEET, n. A long scoop used to wet the sides of ships or the sails.
SKEG, n. A little salmon.
SKELETON, n. [L. calleo, callus.]
1. The bones of an animal body, separated from the flesh and retained in their natural position or connections. When the bones are connected by the natural ligaments, it is called a natural skeleton; when by wires, or any foreign substance, an artificial skeleton.
2. The compages, general structure or frame of any thing; the principal parts that support the rest, but without the appendages.
3. A very thin or lean person.
SKELLUM, n. A scoundrel. [Not in use.]
SKEP, n. A sort of basket, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. [Not used in America.]
SKEPTIC. [See Sceptic.]
SKETCH, n. [L. scateo.] An outline or general delineation of any thing; a first rough or incomplete draught of a plan or any design; as the sketch of a building; the sketch of an essay.
SKETCH, v.t.
1. To draw the outline or general figure of a thing; to make a rough draught.
2. To plan by giving the principal points or ideas.
SKETCHED, pp. Having the outline drawn.
SKETCHING, ppr. Drawing the outline.
SKEW, adv. Awry; obliquely. [See Askew.]
SKEW, v.t.
1. To look obliquely upon; to notice slightly. [Not in use.]
2. To shape or form in an oblique way. [Not in use.]
SKEW, v.i. To walk obliquely.
SKEWER, n. A pin of wood or iron for fastening meat to a spit, or for keeping it in form while roasting.
SKEWER, v.t. To fasten with skewers.
SKID, n.
1. A curving timber to preserve a ship’s side from injury by heavy bodies hoisted or lowered against it; a slider.
2. A chain used for fastening the wheel of a wagon, to prevent its turning when descending a steep hill.
SKIFF, n. [L. schapha;] A small light boar resembling a yawl.
SKIFF, v.t. To pass over in a light boat.
SKILL, n. Calleo, that is to strain, stretch, reach, and with to perfect, that is, to make sound, or to reach the utmost limit. The sense of folly, error, sin, preverseness, is from wandering, deviation.
1. The familiar knowledge of any art or science, united with readiness and dexterity in execution or performance, or in the application of the art or science to practical purposes. Thus we speak of the skill of a mathematician, of a surveyor, of a physician or surgeon, of a mechanic or seaman. So we speak of skill in management or negotiation.
2. Any particular art.
SKILL, v.t. To know; to understand.
SKILL, v.i.
1. To be knowing in; to be dextrous in performance.
2. To differ; to make difference; to matter or be of interest.
SKILLED, a. Having familiar knowledge united with readiness and dexterity in the application of it; familiarly acquainted with; followed by in; as a professor skilled in logic or geometry; one skilled in the art of engraving.
SKILLESS, a. Wanting skill; artless.
SKILLFUL, a.
1. Knowing; well versed in any art; hence, dextrous; able in management; able to perform nicely any manual operation in the arts or professions; as a skillful mechanic; a skillful operator in surgery.
2. Well versed in practice; as a skillful physician.
It is followed by at or in; as skillful at the organ; skillful in drawing.
SKILLFULLY, adv. With skill; with nice art; dextrously; as a machine skillfully made; a ship skillfully managed.
SKILLFULNESS, n. The quality of possessing skill; dextrousness; ability to perform well in any art or business, or to manage affairs with judgement and exactness, or according to good taste or just rules; knowledge and ability derived from experience.
SKILLING, n. An isle or bay of a barn; also, a skight addition to a cottage
SKILT, n. [See Skill.] Difference.
SKIM, n. [a different orthography of scum;]
Scum; the thich matter that forms on the surface of a liquor.
SKIM, v.t.
1. To take off the thick gross matter which separates from any liquid substance and collects on the surface; as, to skim milk by taking off the cream.
2. To take off by skimming; as, to skim cream.
3. To pass near the surface; to brush the surface slightly.
SKIM, v.i.
1. To pass lightly; to glide along in an even smooth course, or without flapping; as, an eagle or hawk skims along the etherial regions.
2. To glide along near the surface; to pass lightly.
3. To hasten over superficially or with slight attention.
They skim over a science in a superficial survey.
SKIMBLE-SCAMBLE, a. [a duplication of scamble.] Wandering; disorderly.
SKIM-COULTER, n. A coulter for paring off the surface of land.
SKIMMER, n.
1. An utensil in the form of a scoop; used for skimming liquors.
2. One that skims over a subject.
3. A sea fowl, the cut-water.
SKIM-MILK, n. Milk from which the cream has been taken.
SKIMMINGS, n. plu. Matter skimmed from the surface of liquors.
SKIN, n.
1. The natural covering of animal bodies, consisting of the cuticle or scarf-skin, the rete mucosum, and the cutis or hide. The cuticle is very thin and insensible; the cutis is thicker and very sensible.
2. A hide; a pelt; the skin of an animal separated from the body, whether green, dry or tanned.
3. The body; the person; in ludicrous language
4. The bark or husk of a plant; the exterior coat of fruits and plants.
SKIN, v.t.
1. To strip off the skin or hide; to flay; to peel.
2. To cover with skin.
3. to cover superficially.
SKIN, v.i. To be covered with skin; as a wound skins over.
SKINDEEP, a. Superficial; not deep; slight.
SKINFLINT, n. [skin and flint] A very niggardly person.
SKINK, n.
1. Drink; pottage.
2. [L. scincus] A small lizard of Egypt; also, the common name of a genus of lizards, with a long body entirely covered with rounded imbricate scales, all natives of warm climates.
SKINK, v.i. To bestow, to make a present. To serve drink.
SKINKER, n. One that serves liquors.
SKINLESS, a. [from skin] Having a thin skin; as skinless fruit.
SKINNED, pp.
1. Stripped of the skin; flayed
2. Covered with skin.
SKINNER, n.
1. One that skins.
2. One that deals in skins, plets or hides.
SKINNINESS, n. The quality of being skinny.
SKINNY, a. Consisting of skin, or of skin only; wanting flesh.
SKIP, v.i. To leap; to bound; to spring; as a goat or lamb.
To skip over, to pass without notice; to omit.
SKIP, v.t. To pass over or by; to omit; to miss.
SKIP, n. A leap; a bound; a spring.
SKIP-JACK, n. An upstart.
SKIP-KENNEL, n. A lackey; a footboy.
SKIPPER, n.
1. The master of a small trading vessel.
2. [from skip.] A dancer.
3. A youngling; a young thoughtless person.
4. The hornfish, so called.
5. The cheese maggot.
SKIPPET, n. [See Ship and Skiff.] A small boat.
SKIPPING, ppr. Leaping; bounding. Skipping notes, in music, are notes that are not in regular course, but separate.
SKIPPINGLY, adv. by leaps.
SKIRMISH, n.
1. A slight fight in war; a light combat by armies at a great distance from each other, or between detachments and small parties.
2. A contest; a contention.
They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit.
SKIRMISH, v.i. To fight slightly or in small parties.
SKIRMISHER, n. One that skirmishes.
SKIRMISHING, ppr. Fighting slightly or in detached parties.
SKIRMISHING, n. The act of fighting in a loose or slight encounter.
SKIRR, v.t. To scour; to ramble over in order to clear.
SKIRR, v.i. To scour; to scud; to run hastily.
SKIRRET, n. A plant of the genus Sium.
SKIRRUS. [See Scirrus.]
SKIRT, n.
1. The lower and loose part of a coat or other garment; the part below the waist; as the skirt of a coat or mantle. 1 Samuel 15:27.
2. The edge of any part of dress.
3. Border; edge; margin; extreme part; as the skirt of a forest; the skirt of a town.
4. A woman’s garment like a petticoat.
5. The diaphragm or midriff in animals.
To spread the skirt over, in Scripture, to take under one’s care and protection Ruth 3:9.
SKIRT, v.t. To border; to form the border or edge; or to run along the edge; as a plain skirted by rows of trees; a circuit skirted round with wood.
SKIRT, v.i. To be on the border; to live near the extremity.
Savages--who skirt along our western frontiers.