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An American Dictionary of the English Language

Revised and enlarged (Goodrich & Porter)

Springfield, Mass. · G. & C. Merriam · 1865

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95,912
Pages
1,538
Illustrations
2,133

Look up a word as the writers of the time used it.

  1. Zā'e'cho, n.p. 1536(Arch.) The lowest part of the pedestal of a column.
  2. Zāf'fer, n.p. 1536(Chem.) Impure oxide of cobalt; the residuum of cobalt, after the sulphur, arsenic, and other volatile matters have been expelled by calcination, being a gray or dark-gray substance, consisting of…
  3. Zaīm, n.p. 1536A Turkish chief who supports a mounted militia bearing the same name. Smart.
  4. Zāïm'et, n.p. 1536A district whence a Zaim draws his revenue. Smart.
  5. Zāin, n.p. 1536A horse of a dark color, neither gray nor white, and having no spots. Smart.
  6. Zăm’bo, n.p. 1536The child of a mulatto and a negro; a sambo; also, sometimes, the child of an Indian and a negro.
  7. Zā′mi-ă, n.p. 1536(Bot.) A genus of plants, possessing nearly equal affinities with palms and tree-ferns, and bearing heads of flowers like pine-cones.
  8. Zā'mite, n.p. 1536(Paleon.) A fossil plant of the genus Zamia. Brande.
  9. Zān'te-wood, n.p. 1536(Bot.) (a.) A plant of the genus Rhus (R. cotinus). (b.) A plant of the genus Chloroxylon (C. Swietenia). Simmonds.
  10. Zăn′ti-ot, n.p. 1536(Geog.) A native or inhabitant of Zante.
  11. Zā'ny, n.p. 1536A merry-andrew; a buffoon. “Preacher at once and zany of thy age.” Pope. Then write that I may follow, and so be Thy echo, thy debtor, thy fool, thy zany. Donne.
  12. Zā'ny, v. t.p. 1536To mimic. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
  13. Zā'ny-ïsm, n.p. 1536The state or character of a zany.
  14. Zāph'a-rā, n.p. 1536A mineral used by potters to produce a blue tint or sky-color in their wares; zaffer.
  15. Zăp'o-tĭl'lă, n.p. 1536See SAPOTILLA.
  16. Zär'nich, n.p. 1536Native sulphuret of arsenic; sandarach or realgar; orpiment.
  17. Zāx, n.p. 1536An instrument for cutting slate.
  18. Zā'gat, n.p. 1536A Burman caravansary, or resting-place for travelers.
  19. Zē'ia, n.p. 1536A genus of plants of which only two species are known, namely, Z. mays and Z. caragua. The former is common Indian corn; the latter is quite different as respects the ear and seeds.
  20. Zēal, n.p. 1536Passionate ardor in the pursuit of any thing; eagerness in favor of a person or cause; ardent and active interest; engagedness. “Ambition varnished o’er with zeal.” Milton. “Zeal, the blind conductor…
  21. Zēal, v. i.p. 1536To be zealous. [Obs. and rare.]
  22. Zēal'ant, n.p. 1536One who is zealous; a zealot or enthusiast. [Obs. and rare.] To certain zealants, all speech of pacification is odious. Bacon.
  23. Zēaled, p. a.p. 1536Full of zeal; characterized by zeal. [Obs.] “Zealed religion.” Beau. & Fl.
  24. Zēal'less, a.p. 1536Wanting zeal. Hammond.
  25. Zēal′ot, n.p. 1536One who is zealous; one who engages warmly in any cause, and pursues his object with earnestness and ardor; especially, one who is overzealous, or carried away by his zeal; one absorbed in devotion…
  26. Zea-lôt'ic-al, a.p. 1536Like, or suitable to, a zealot; ardently zealous. [Rare.]
  27. Zēal'ot-ism, n.p. 1536The character or conduct of a zealot; zealotry. [Rare.]
  28. Zēal'ot-ist, n.p. 1536A zealot. [Obs.]
  29. Zēal'ot-ry, n.p. 1536The character and behavior of a zealot; excess of zeal; fanatical devotion to a cause. Enthusiasm, visionariness, seems the tendency of the German; zeal, zealotry, of the English; fanaticism, of the…
  30. Zēal'ous, a.p. 1536Filled with zeal; warmly engaged or ardent in behalf of an object. Being thus saved himself, he may be zealous in the salvation of souls. Law.
  31. Zēal'ōus-ly, adv.p. 1536In a zealous manner; with passionate ardor; with eagerness. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. Gal. iv. 18. 2. Religiously. [Obs. and rare.] A father or a brother may be…
  32. Zēal'oüs-ness, n.p. 1536The state or quality of being zealous; zeal.
  33. Zē'bee, n.p. 1536The same as XEBEC. See XEBEC.
  34. Zē'bră, n.p. 1536(Zoöl.) A solidungulate mammal (the Equus zebra), a quadruped of Southern Africa, nearly as large as a horse, white, with numerous brownish-black bands of greater or less intensity, and lighter down…
  35. Zē'brā-wood, n.p. 1536A kind of wood from South America, used in cabinet-making, having stripes of brown and black on a white ground, resembling those of a zebra. It is obtained from the Omphalobium Lamberti.
  36. Zē'bū, n.p. 1536(Zoöl.) A ruminant mammal of the bovine tribe (the Bos Indicus), small in size, and remarkable for its long, pendulous ears, and a fatty excrescence or hump on the shoulders, which is valued for…
  37. Zē'bub, n.p. 1536(Entom.) A large, noxious fly of Abyssinia.
  38. Zē'chin, n.p. 1536An Italian gold coin; a sequin. See SEQUIN.
  39. Zēch'stein, n.p. 1536(Geol.) A magnesian limestone of the Permian period. Dana.
  40. Zēd, n.p. 1536The letter Z;— called also izzard. [Obs.] Shak.
  41. Zēd'o-a-ry, n.p. 1536(Med.) A medicinal substance obtained in the East Indies, having a fragrant smell, and a warm, bitter, aromatic taste, used in medicine as a stimulant. ☞ It is the root of a species of Cucuma, and…
  42. Zē'ine, n.p. 1536(Chem.) The gluten of maize; a substance of a yellowish color, soft, insipid, and elastic, procured from the seeds of the Zea mays, or Indian corn. Gorham.
  43. Zēm'in-dār', n.p. 1536A feudatory or landholder under the government, with the right of underletting the land, and certain other privileges, leading to much oppression. [India.] Malcom.
  44. Zēm’in-da-ry, n.p. 1536The jurisdiction of a zemindar.
  45. Zēm'-zēm, n.p. 1536The holy well in Mecca.
  46. Ze-nā'nā, n.p. 1536The part of a dwelling appropriated to women in the East Indies. Burke.
  47. Zēnd, n.p. 1536Properly, the translation into the Huzvāresh, or Pehlevi, language, of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian scriptures; as commonly used, the language, an ancient Persian dialect, in which the Avesta is…
  48. Zēnd' a-vĕs'tā, n.p. 1536The Scriptures of the ancient Persian religion, attributed to Zoroaster, but in fact chiefly or altogether of a later date.
  49. Zēn'dīk, n.p. 1536An atheist or unbeliever;—a name given, in the East, to those charged with atheism, or rather with disbelief of any revealed religion, or accused of magical heresies. Brande.
  50. Zē'nik, n.p. 1536(Zoöl.) A certain African quadruped; the suricate. See SURICATE.
  51. Zē'nith, n.p. 1536That point in the visible celestial hemisphere which is vertical to the spectator; the point of the heavens directly overhead;—opposed to nadir. From morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A…
  52. Zē'nith-al, a.p. 1536Of, or pertaining to, the zenith. “The deep zenithal blue.” Tyndall.
  53. Zē'o-lite, n.p. 1536(Min.) A mineral species in the early works on mineralogy, now subdivided into several, both on chemical and crystallographical grounds. Some of them are stilbite, natrolite, apophyllite, scolecite…
  54. Zē'o-lit'ic, a.p. 1536Of, or pertaining to, zeolite; consisting of zeolite, or resembling it.
  55. Zē'o-lit'i-fōrm, a.p. 1536Having the form of zeolite.
  56. Zēph'yr, n.p. 1536The west wind; and poetically, any soft, mild, gentle breeze. As gentle As zephyrs blowing below the violet. Shak. Zephyr cloth, a kind of kerseymere made in Belgium; a water-proof fabric.—Zephyr…
  57. Zēph'y-rŭs, n.p. 1536The west wind, or zephyr;—personified by the poets, and made the most mild and gentle of all the sylvan deities. Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes. Milton.
  58. Zēr'dā, n.p. 1536(Zoöl.) A canine quadruped of Africa, with large, ears; fennec; the Canis (or Megalotis) zerda.
  59. Zē′ro, n.p. 1537Cipher; nothing; naught; the point from which the graduation, as of a thermometer, commences. Zero, in the thermometers of Celsius and Réaumur, is at the point at which water congeals. The zero of…
  60. Zĕst, n.p. 1537A piece of orange or lemon peel, used to give flavor to liquor, or the fine, thin oil that spurts out of it when squeezed. 2. Hence, something that gives or enhances a pleasant taste, or the taste…