Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
TAURUS — TELEGRAPHIC
TAURUS, n. [L.] The bull; one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the second in order, or that next to Aries. This constellation, according to the British catalogue, contains 141 stars.
TAUTOLOGIC, TAUTOLOGICAL, a. [See Tautology.] Repeating the same thing; having the same signification; as a tautological expression or phrase.
Tautological echo, an echo that repeats the same sound or syllable many times.
TAUTOLOGIST, n. One who uses different words or phrases in succession to express the same sense.
TAUTOLOGIZE, v.i. To repeat the same thing in different words.
TAUTOLOGY, n. [Gr. the same, and word or expression.]
A repetition of the same meaning in different words; needless repetition of a thing in different words or phrases; or a representation of any thing as the cause, condition of consequence of itself, as in the following lines.
The dawn in overcast, the morning low’rs,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day.
TAVERN, n. [L. taberna; tab, the root of table, a board.]
A house licensed to see liquors in small quantities, to be drank on the spot. In some of the United States, tavern is synonymous with inn or hotel, and denotes a house for the entertainment of travelers, as well as for the sale of liquors, licensed for that purpose.
TAVERNER, TAVERN-KEEPER, n. One who keeps a tavern. In the United States, one who is licensed to sell liquors to be drank in his house, and to entertain travelers and lodgers, together with the horses or oxen composing their teams. Taverners are by law to be provided with suitable beds for their guests, and with fodder for horses and cattle.
TAVERN-HAUNTER, n. [tavern and haunt.] One who frequents taverns; one who spends his time and substance in tippling in taverns.
TAVERNING, n. A feasting at taverns.
TAVERN-MAN, n. [tavern and man.] The keeper of a tavern. [Not in use.]
1. A tippler.
TAW, v.t. To dress white leather or alum leather; to dress and prepare skins in white, as the skins of sheep, lambs, goats and kids, for gloves and the like.
TAW, n. A marble to be played with.
TAWDRILY, adv. In a tawdry manner.
TAWDRINESS, n. [from tawdry.] Tinsel in dress; excessive finery; ostentatious finery without elegance.
A clumsy person makes his ungracefulness more ungraceful by tawdriness of dress.
TAWDRY, a. Very fine and showy in colors without taste or elegance; having an excess of showy ornaments without grace; as a tawdry dress; tawdry feathers; tawdry colors.
He rails from morning to night at essenced fops and tawdry courtiers.
TAWDRY, n. A slight ornament.
TAWED, pp. Dressed and made white, as leather.
TAWER, n. A dresser of white leather.
TAWING, ppr. Dressing, as white leather.
TAWING, n. The art and operation of preparing skins and forming them into white leather.
TAWNY, a. Of a yellowish dark color, like things tanned, or persons who are sun-burnt; as a tawny Moor or Spaniard; the tawny sons of Numidia; the tawny lion.
TAX, n. [L. taxo, to tax.]
1. A rate or sum of money assessed on the person or property of a citizen by government, for the use of the nation or state. Taxes, in free governments, are usually laid upon the property of citizens according to their income, or the value of their estates. Tax is a term of general import, including almost every species of imposition on persons or property for supplying the public treasury, as tolls, tribute, subsidy, excise, impost, or customs. But more generally, tax is limited to the sum laid upon polls, lands, houses, horses, cattle, professions and occupations. So we speak of a land tax, a window tax, a tax on carriages, etc. Taxes are annual or perpetual.
2. A sum imposed on the persons and property of citizens to defray the expenses of a corporation, society, parish or company; as a city tax, a county tax, a parish tax, and the like. So a private association may lay a tax on its members for the use of the association.
3. That which is imposed; a burden. The attention that he gives to public business is a heavy tax on his time.
4. Charge; censure.
5. Task.
TAX, v.t. [L. taxo.]
1. To law, impose or assess upon citizens a certain sum of money or amount of property, to be paid to the public treasury, or to the treasury of a corporation or company, to defray the expenses of the government or corporation, etc.
We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride and folly, than we are taxed by government.
2. To load with a burden or burdens.
The narrator--never taxes our faith beyond the obvious bounds of probability.
3. To assess, fix or determine judicially, as the amount of cost on actions in court; as, the court taxes bills of cost.
4. To charge; to censure; to accuse; usually followed by with; as, to tax a man with pride. He was taxed with presumption.
Men’s virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.
[To tax of a crime, is not in use, nor to tax for. Both are now improper.]
TAXABLE, a. That may be taxed; liable by law to the assessment of taxes; as taxable estate. By the laws of some states, polls are taxable after the age of seventy.
1. That may be legally charged by a court against the plaintiff or defendant in a suit; as taxable costs.
TAXATION, n. [L. taxatio.] A taxing; the act of laying a tax, or of imposing taxes on the subjects of a state by government, or on the members of a corporation or company by the proper authority. Taxation is probably the most difficult subject of legislation.
1. Tax; sum imposed. [Little used.]
He daily such taxations did exact--
2. Charge; accusation. [Little used.]
3. The act of taxing or assessing a bill of cost.
TAXED, pp. Rated; assessed; accused.
TAXER, n. One who taxes.
1. In Cambridge, two officers chosen yearly to see the true gauge of weights and measures observed.
TAXIARCH, n. [Gr. order, and chief.] An Athenian military officer commanding a taxis or battalion.
TAXIDERMY, n. [Gr. order, and skin.] The art of preparing and preserving specimens of animals.
TAXING, ppr. Imposing a tax; assessing, as a bill of cost; accusing.
TAXING, n. The act of laying a tax; taxation. Luke 2:2.
TAXONOMY, n. [Gr. order, and law.] Classification; a term used by a French author to denote the classification of plants.
TEA, n.
1. The leaves of the tea-tree as dried and imported. There are several kinds of tea, as imperial tea, hyson and young hyson, called green teas; souchong and bohea, called black teas, etc.
3. Any infusion or decoction of vegetables; as sage tea; camomile tea, etc.
TEA-BOARD, n. [tea and board.] A board to put tea furniture on.
TEA-CANISTER, n. [tea and canister.] A canister or box in which tea is kept.
TEA-CUP, n. [tea and cup.] A small cup in which tea is drank.
TEA-DRINKER, n. [tea and drinker.] One who drinks much tea.
TEA-PLANT, n. The tea-tree.
TEA-POT, n. [tea and pot.] A vessel with a spout, in which tea is made, and from which it is poured into tea-cups.
TEA-SAUCER, n. [tea and saucer.] A small saucer in which a tea-cup is set.
TEA-SPOON, n. [tea and spoon.] A small spoon used in drinking tea and coffee.
TEA-TABLE, n. [tea and table.] A table on which tea furniture is set, or at which tea is drank.
TEA-TREE, n. [tea and tree.] The tree or plant that produces the leaves which are imported and called tea. The generic name given to it by Linne, is thea. It is a native of China, Japan and Tonquin, but has recently been introduced into S. America.
TEACH, v.t. pret. and pp. taught. [L. doceo; dico, dicto, and both these and the Gr. to show, may be of one family; all implying sending, passing, communicating, or rather leading, drawing.]
1. To instruct; to inform; to communicate to another the knowledge of that of which he was before ignorant.
He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. Isaiah 2:3.
Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Luke 11:1.
2. To deliver any doctrine, art, principles or words for instruction. One sect of ancient philosophers taught the doctrines of stoicism, another those of epicureanism.
In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Matthew 15:9.
3. To tell; to give intelligence.
4. To instruct, or to practice the business of an instructor; to use or follow the employment of a preceptor; as, a man teaches school for a livelihood.
5. To show; to exhibit so as to impress on the mind.
If some men teach wicked things, it must be that others may practice them.
6. To accustom; to make familiar.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies. Jeremiah 9:5.
7. To inform or admonish; to give previous notice to.
For he taught his disciples, and said— Mark 9:31.
8. To suggest to the mind.
For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that same hour what ye ought to say. Luke 12:12.
9. To signify or give notice.
He teacheth with his fingers. Proverbs 6:13.
10. To counsel and direct. Habakkuk 2:19.
TEACH, v.i. To practice giving instruction; to perform the business of a preceptor.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire. Micah 3:11.
TEACH, n. In sugar works, the last boiler.
TEACHABLE, a. That may be taught; apt to learn; also, readily receiving instruction; docile.
We ought to bring our minds free, unbiased and teachable, to learn our religion from the word of God.
TEACHABLENESS, n. The quality of being capable of receiving instruction; more generally, a willingness or readiness to be informed and instructed; docility; aptness to learn.
TEACHER, n. One who teaches or instructs.
1. An instructor; a preceptor; a tutor; one whose business or occupation is to instruct others.
2. One who instructs others in religion; a preacher; a minister of the gospel.
The teachers in all the churches assembled themselves.
3. One who preaches without regular ordination.
TEACHING, ppr. Instructing; informing.
TEACHING, n. The act or business of instructing.
1. Instruction.
TEAD, TEDE, n. [L. toeda.] A torch; a flambeau. [Not in use.]
TEAGUE, n. teeg. An Irishman; in contempt.
TEAK, TEEK, n. A tree of the East Indies, which furnishes an abundance of ship timber. The generic name given to it by Linne, is Tectona.
TEAL, n. An aquatic fowl of the genus Anas, the smallest of the duck kind.
TEAM, n.
1. Two or more horses, oxen or other beasts harnessed together to the same vehicle for drawing, as to a coach, chariot, wagon, cart, sled, sleigh and the like. It has been a great question whether teams of horses or oxen are most advantageously employed in agriculture. In land free from stones and stumps and of easy tillage, it is generally agreed that horses are preferable for teams.
2. Any number passing in a line; a long line.
Like a long team of snowy swans on high.
[This is the primary sense, but is rarely used.]
TEAMSTER, n. [team and ster.] One who drives a team.
TEAM-WORK, n. [team and work.] Work done by a team, as distinguished from personal labor.
TEAR, n.
1. Tears are the limpid fluid secreted by the lacrymal gland, and appearing in the eyes, or flowing from them. A tear, in the singular, is a drop or a small quantity of that fluid. Tears are excited by passions, particularly by grief. This fluid is also called forth by any injury done to the eye. It serves to moisten the cornea and preserve its transparency, and to remove any dust or fine substance that enters the eye and gives pain.
2. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter.
TEAR, v.t. [L. tero.]
1. To separate by violence or pulling; to rend; to lacerate; as, to tear cloth; to tear a garment, to tear the skin or flesh. We use tear and rip in different senses. To tear is to rend or separate the texture of cloth; to rip is to open a seam, to separate parts sewed together.
2. To wound; to lacerate.
The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear.
3. To rend; to break; to form fissures by any violence; as, torrents tear the ground.
4. To divide by violent measures; to shatter; to rend; as a state or government torn by factions.
5. To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair.
6. To remove by violence; to break up.
Or on rough seas from their foundation torn.
7. To make a violent rent.
In the midst, a tearing groan did break
The name of Antony.
To tear from, to separate and take away by force; as an isle torn from its possessor.
The hand of fate
Has torn thee from me.
To tear off, to pull off by violence; to strip.
To tear out, to pull or draw out by violence; as, to tear out the eyes.
To tear up, to rip up; to remove from a fixed state by violence; as, to tear up a floor; to tear up the foundations of government or order.
TEAR, v.i. To rave; to rage; to rant; to move and act with turbulent violence; as a mad bull.
TEAR, n. A rent; a fissure. [Little used.]
TEARER, n. One who tears or rends any thing.
1. One that rages or raves with violence.
TEAR-FALLING, a. [tear and fall.] Shedding tears; tender; as tear-falling pity.
TEARFUL, a. [tear and full.] Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as tearful eyes.
TEARING, ppr. [from tear, to rend.] Rending; pulling apart; lacerating; violent; raging.
TEARLESS, a. Shedding no tears; without tears; unfeeling.
TEASE, v.t. s as z.
1. To comb or card, as wool or flax.
2. To scratch, as cloth in dressing, for the purpose of raising a nap.
3. To vex with importunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery. Parents are often teased by their children into unreasonable compliances.
My friends tease me about him, because he has no estate.
TEASED, pp. Carded.
1. Vexed; irritated or annoyed.
TEASEL, n. tee’zl. A plant of the genus Dipsacus, one kind of which bears a large burr which is used for raising a nap on woolen cloth. Hence,
1. The burr of the plant.
TEASELER, n. One who uses the teasel for raising a nap on cloth.
TEASER, n. One that teases or vexes.
TEASING, ppr. Combing; carding; scratching for the purpose of raising a nap; vexing with importunity.
TEAT, TIT, n. The projecting part of the female breast; the dug of a beast; the pap of a woman; the nipple. It consists of an elastic erectile substance, embracing the lactiferous ducts, which terminate on its surface, and thus serves to convey milk to the young of animals.
TEATHE, n. The soil or fertility left on lands by feeding them. [Local.]
TEATHE, v.t. To feed and enrich by live stock. [Local.]
TECHILY, adv. [from techy, so written for touchy.]
Peevishly; fretfully; forwardly.
TECHINESS, n. Peevishness; fretfulness.
TECNNIC, TECHNICAL, a. [L. technicus; Gr. art, artifice; to fabricate, make or prepare.]
1. Pertaining to art or the arts. A technical word is a word that belongs properly or exclusively to an art; as the verb to smelt, belongs to metallurgy. So we say, technical phrases, technical language. Every artificer has his technical terms.
2. Belonging to a particular profession; as, the words of an indictment must be technical.
It is of the utmost importance clearly to understand the technical terms used by the eastern theologians.
TECHNICALLY, adv. In a technical manner; according to the signification of terms of art or the professions.
TECHNICALNESS, TECHNICALITY, n. The quality or state of being technical or peculiar to the arts.
TECHNICS, n. The doctrine of arts in general; such branches of learning as respect the arts.
TECHNOLOGICAL, a. [See Technology.]
1. Pertaining to technology.
2. Pertaining to the arts; as technological institutes.
TECHNOLOGIST, n. One who discourses or treats of arts, or of the terms of art.
TECHNOLOGY, n. [Gr. art, and word or discourse.]
1. A description of arts; or a treatise on the arts.
2. An explanation of the terms of the arts.
TECHY, a. [so written for touchy.] Peevish; fretful; irritable. [More correctly touchy.]
TECTONIC, a. [Gr. to fabricate.] Pertaining to building.
TED, v.t. A spread; tedu, to distend. Among farmers, to spread; to turn new mowed grass from the swath, and scatter it for drying. [Local.]
TEDDED, pp. Spread from the swath; as tedded grass.
TEDDER, n.
1. A rope or chain by which an animal is tied that he may feed on the ground to the extent of the rope and no further. Hence the popular saying, a person has gone to the length of his tedder.
2. That by which one is restrained.
TEDDER, v.t. To tie with a tedder; to permit to feed to the length of a rope or chain.
1. To restrain to certain limits.
Te deum, a hymn to be sung in churches or on occasions of joy; so called from the first words.
Te deum was sung at St. Paul’s after the victory.
TEDIOUS, a. [L. toedium.]
1. Wearisome; tiresome from continuance, prolixity, or slowness which causes prolixity. We say, a man is tedious in relating a story; a minister is tedious in his sermon. We say also, a discourse is tedious, when it wearies by its length or dullness.
2. Slow; as a tedious course.
TEDIOUSLY, adv. In such a manner as to weary.
TEDIOUSNES, n. Wearisomeness by length of continuance or by prolixity; as the tediousness of an oration or argument.
1. Prolixity; length.
2. Tiresomeness; quality of wearying; as the tediousness of delay.
3. Slowness that wearies.
TEDIUM, n. [L. toedium.] Irksomeness; wearisomeness.
TEEM, v.i.
1. To bring forth, as young.
If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen--
2. To be pregnant; to conceive; to engender young.
Teeming buds and cheerful greens appear.
3. To be full; to be charged; as a breeding animal; to be prolific. Every head teems with politics.
4. To bring forth; to produce, particularly in abundance. The earth teems with fruits; the sea teems with fishes.
TEEM, v.t. To produce; to bring forth.
What’s the newest grief?
Each minute teems a new one.
[This transitive sense is not common.]
1. To pour. [Not in use.]
TEEMER, n. One that brings forth young.
TEEMFUL, a. Pregnant; prolific.
1. Brimful.
TEEMING, ppr. Producing young.
TEEMLESS, a. Not fruitful or prolific; barren; as the teemless earth.
TEEN, n. [infra.] Grief; sorrow. [Not in use.]
TEEN, v.t. To excite; to provoke., [Not in use.]
TEENS, n. [from teen, ten.] The years of one’s age reckoned by the termination teen. These years begin with thirteen, and end with nineteen. Miss is in her teens.
TEETH, plu. of tooth, which see.
In the teeth, directly; in direct opposition; in front.
Nor strive with all the tempest in my teeth.
TEETH, v.i. [from the noun.] To breed teeth.
TEETHING, ppr. Breeding teeth; undergoing dentition.
TEETHING, n. The operation or process of the first growth of teeth, or the process by which they make their way through the gums, called dentition.
TEGULAR, a. [L. tegula, a tile, from tego, to cover or make close.] Pertaining to a tile; resembling a tile; consisting of tiles.
TEGULARLY, adv. In the manner of tiles on a roof.
TEGUMENT, n. [L. tegumentum, from tego, to cover.]
A cover or covering; seldom used except in reference to the covering of a living body. [See Integument.]
TEHHEE, a sound made in laughing.
TEH-HEE, v.i. To laugh. [A cant word.]
TEIL, TEIL-TREE, n. [L. tilia.] The lime tree, otherwise called the linden.
TEINT, n. [L. tingo, to dye.] Color; tinge. [See Tint.]
TELARY, a. [L. tela, a web.] Pertaining to a web.
1. Spinning webs; as a telary spider. [Little used.]
TELEGRAPH, n. [Gr. at a distance, and to write.] A machine for communicating intelligence from a distance by various signals or movements previously agreed on; which signals represent letters, words or ideas which can be transmitted form one station to another, as far as the signals can be seen. This machine was invented by the French about the year 1793 or 1794, and is now adopted by other nations.
TELEGRAPHIC, a. Pertaining to the telegraph; made by a telegraph; as telegraphic movements or signals; telegraphic art.
1. Communicated by a telegraph; as telegraphic intelligence.