werca, Latin.] Having the manner of a step-mother; beseeming a step-mother.

When the whole tribe of birds by incubation, produce their young, it is a wonderful deviation that some few families should do it in a more novercal way. Derbam. NOUGHT. H.S. [ne auhe, not any thing, Sax. as therefore we write aught not ought for any thing, we should, according to analogy, write naubgt not nought for nothing; but a custom has irreversibly prevailed of using naught for bad, and nought for nothing.] 1. Not any thing; nothing.

Who cannot see this palpable device; Yet who so bold, but says he sees it not?

Bad is the world, and it will come to nought, When such ill dealings must be seen in thought. Shakspeare. Such smiling rogues as these sooth ev'ry passion;

Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks With ev'ry gale and vary of their masters, As knowing nought, like dogs, but following.

Shakspeare.

Ye are of nothing, and your work of nought.
Isaiab.

Be frustrate all ye stratagems of hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.
Milton.

2. In no degree. A kind of adverbial signification, which nothing has sometimes.

In young Rinaldo fierce desires he spy'd, And noble heart of rest impatient,

To wealth or sovereign power he nought apply'd. Fairfax. 3. To set at NOUGHT. Not to value; to slight; to scorn; to disregard.

Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. Proverbs.

NO VICE. n. s. [novice, Fr. novitius, Lat.] 1. One not acquainted with any thing; a fresh man; one in the rudiments of any knowledge.

Triple-twin'd whore! 'tis thou

Hast sold me to this novice.

Shakspeare.

Bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place.

Shakspeare.

You are novices; 'tis a world to see How tame, when men and women are alone, A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. Shakspeare.

We have novices and apprentices, that the succession of the former employed men do not fail. Bacon.

If any unexperienced young novice happens into the fatal neighbourhood of such pests, presently they are plying his full purse and his empty pate.

South.

I am young, a novice in the trade, The fool of love, unpractis'd to persuade; And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, But caught myself lie struggling in the snare. And she I love, or laughs at all my pain, Or knows her worth too well, and pays me with disdain. Dryden.

In these experiments I have set down such circumstances, by which either the phenomenon might be rendered more conspicuous, or a novice might more easily try them, or by which I did try them only. Newton. 2. One who has entered a religious house,

but not yet taken the vow; a probationer.

NOVITIATE. n. s. [noviciat, Fr.]

1. The state of a novice; the time in which the rudiments are learned.

This is so great a masterpiece in sin, that he must have passed his tyrocinium or novitiate in sinning, before he come to this, be he never so quick a proficient. South.

2. The time spent in a religious house, by way of trial, before the vow is taken.' No'VITY. n. s. [novitas, Lat.] Newness; novelty.

Some conceive she might not yet be certain. that only man was privileged with speech, and being in the novity of the creation and unexperience of all things, might not be affrighted to hear a serpent speak. Brown,

NoUL. The crown of the head. See NOLL. Spenser. NOULD. Ne would; would not. Spens. NOUN, n. s. [noun, old Fr. nomen, Lat.] The name of any thing in grammar.

A noun is the name of a thing, whether substance, mode or relation, which in speech is used to signify the same when there is occasion to affirm or deny any thing about it, or to express any relation it has to any other thing. Clarke.

Thou hast men about thee, that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no christian ear can endure to hear. Shaksp. This boy, who scarce has paid his entrance down,

To his proud pedant, or declin'd a noun. Dryd. To NOU'RISH. v. a. [nourir, Fr. nutrio, Latin.]

1. To increase or support by food, or aliment of any kind.

He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Isaiah. Through her nourish'd powers enlarg'd by thee, She springs aloft. Thomson.

You are to honour, improve, and perfect the spirit that is within you: you are to prepare it for the kingdom of heaven, to nourish it with the love of God and of virtue, to adorn it with good works, and to make it as holy and heavenly as you can. Lar.

2. To support; to maintain.

Whilst I in Ireland nourish a mighty band, I will stir up in England some black storm.

Shakspeare. Chapman.

Him will I follow, and this house forego That nourisht me a maid.

Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

Acts.

3. To encourage; to foment. Out of use.

4.

What madness was it with such proofs to nourish their contentions, when there were such effectual means to end all controversy? Hooker. In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion. Shakspeare.

Yet to nourish and advance the early virtue of young persons was his more chosen desire. Fell. Gorgias hired soldiers, and nourished war continually with the Jews. 2 Maccabees. To train, or educate.

Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith. 1 Timothy. I travel not, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. İsaiub.

5.

To promote growth or strength, as food.

In vegetables there is one part more nourish

NOURISHER. n. s. [from nourish.] person or thing that nourishes. Sleep, chief nourisher in life's feast. Shaksp. A restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age. Ruth. Milk warm from the cow is a great nourisher, and a good remedy in consumptions. Bacon.

tree.

Please to taste

Bran and swine's dung laid up together to rot, is a very great nourisher and comforter to a fruit Bacon. These bounties, which our nourisher hath caus'd The earth to yield. Milton. NOURISHMENT. n. s. [nourissement, Fr.] 1. That which is given or received, in order to the support or increase of growth or strength; food; sustenance; nutriment.

When the nourishment grows unfit to be assimilated, or the central heat grows too feeble to assimilate it, the motion ends in confusion, putrefaction, and death. Nervion. 2. Nutrition; support of strength. By temperance taught, In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from thence

Due nourishment, no gluttonous delight. Milton.

The limbs are exhausted by what is called an atrophy, and grow lean and thin by a defect of nourishment, occasioned by an inordinate scorbutick or erratick heat. Blackmore.

3. Sustentation; supply of things needful.

He instructeth them, that as in the one place they use to refresh their bodies, so they may in the other learn to seek the nourishment of their souls. Hooker. NOU ́RSLING, n. s. The creature nursed; nursling. Spenser. NOU RITURE. n. s. [nourriture, French: this was afterward contracted to nurture.] Education; institution.

Thither the great magician Merlin came,

As was his use, oftentimes to visit me;

For he had charge my discipline to frame, And tutors nouriture to oversee.

Spenser.

Bald friars and knavish shavelings sought to housel the common people in ignorance, lest being once acquainted with the truth of things, they would in time smell out the untruth of their packed pelf and masspenny religion. Spens. To NOU'SEL. v. a. [nuzzle, noozle, noose, or nosel; from nose.] To entrap; to ensnare; as in a noose or trap. They nuzzle hogs to prevent their digging, that is, put a ring in their noses.

NOW. adv. [nu, Sax. nun, German.] 1. At this time; at the time present.

2.

3.

Thy servants trade hath been about cattle, from our youth even until now. Genesis.

Refer all the actions of this short and dying life to that state which will shortly begin, but never have an end; and this will approve itself to be wisdom at last, whatever the world judge of it now. Tillotson.

Now that languages abound with words standing for such combinations, an usual way of getting these complex ideas, is by the explication of those terms that stand for them. Locke.

A patient of mine is now living, in an advanced age, that thirty years ago did, at several times, cast up from the lungs a large quantity of blood. Blackmore.

A little while ago; almost at the present time.

Now the blood of twenty thousand men Did triumph in my face, and they are fled.

How frail our passions!

Shakspeare.

They that but now for honour and for plate,
Made the sea blush, with blood resign their hate.
Waller.

At one time; at another time.
Now high, now low, ποτο master up, ποτε
miss.
Pope

4. It is sometimes a particle of connection, like the French or, and Latin autem as, if this be true, he is guilty; now this is true, therefore he is guilty.

Now whatsoever he did or suffered, the end thereof was to open the doors of the kingdom of heaven, which our iniquities had shut up.

Hooker.

He seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him. Now to affect the malice of the people, is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them.

Shaksp.

Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man but Barabbas; now Barabbas was a robber. Jobn.

Natural reason persuades man to love his neighbour, because of similitude of kind; because mutual love is necessary for man's welfare and preservation, and every one desires another should love him. Now it is a maxim of Nature, that one do to others, according as he would himself be done to. White.

Pheasants which are granivorous birds, the young live mostly upon ants eggs. Now birds, being of a hot nature, are very voracious, therefore there had need be an infinite number of insects produced for their sustenance.

Ray.

The other great and undoing mischief, which befalls men, is by their being misrepresented. Now by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander and detraction. South.

Helim bethought himself, that the first day of the full moon of the month Tizpa, was near at hand. Now it is a received tradition among the Persians, that the souls of the royal family, who are in a state of b'iss, do, on the first full moon after their decease, pass through the eastern gate of the black palace. Addison.

The praise of doing well Is to the ear, as ointment to the smell. Now if some flies, perchance, however small, Into the alabaster urn should fall, The odours die.

Prier.

The only motives that can be imagined of obedience to laws, are either the value and certainty of rewards, or an apprehension of justice and severity. Now neither of these, exclusive

of the other, is the true principle of our obedience to God. Rogers. A human body a forming in such a fluid in any imaginable posture, will never be reconcilable to this hydrostatical law. There will be always something lighter beneath, and something heavier above. Now what can make the heavier particles of bone ascend above the lighter ones of flesh, or depress these below those, against the tendency of nature. Bentley. 5. After this; since things are so: in familiar speech.

How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honour, where hypocrisy and interest look so like duty and affection?

L'Estrange. 6. Now and then; at one time and another, uncertainly. This word means, with regard to time, what is meant by here and there, with respect to place.

Now and then they ground themselves on human authority, even when they most pretend divine. Hooker.

Now and then something of extraordinary, that is any thing of your production, is requisite to refresh your character. Dryden.

A most effectual argument against spontaneous generation is, that there is no new species produced, which would now and then happen, were there any such thing. Ray. He who resolves to walk by the gospel rule of forbearing all revenge, will have opportun ties every now and then to exercise his forgiving temper. Atterbury. They now and then appear in the offices of religion, and avoid some scandalous enormities. Rogers. 7. Now and then are applied to places considered as they rise to notice in succession.

A mead here, there a heath, and now and then a wood. Drayton. Now. n.s. Present moment. A poetical

age.

"Not so great as it was wont of yore, It's nowadays, ne half so strait and sore. Spens. Reason, and love keep little company together nowadays. Shaksp.

It was a vestal and a virgin fire, and differed as much from that which passes by this name nowadays, as the vital heat from the burning of a fever. South

Such are those principles, which by reason of the bold cavils of perverse and unreasonable men, we are nowadays put to defend. Tillotson. What men of spirit nowadays, Come to give sober judgment of new plays. Gar. No'wED. adj. [noué, Fr.] Knotted; inwreathed.

Reuben is conceived to bear three barres waved,

Judah a lion rampant, Dan a serpent norved. Brown.

NowES. n. 5. [from nou, old Fr.] The marriage knot. Out of use.

Thou shalt look round about and see Thousands of crown'd souls throng to be Themselves thy crown, sons of thy nowes; The virgin births with which they spouse Made fruitful thy fair soul.

Crasbary.

NOWHERE, adv. [no and where.], Not in any place.

Some men, of whom we think very reverently, have in their books and writings nowhere mentioned or taught that such things should be in the church. Hooker.

True pleasure and perfect freedom are nowhere to be found but in the practice of virtue. Tillotson

No'WISE. adv. [no and wise: this is commonly spoken and written by ignorant barbarians, noways.] Not in any manner or degree.

A power of natural gravitation, without contact or impulse, can in no wise be attributed to Bentley. NOXIOUS. adj. [noxius, Lat.]

mere matter.

1. Hurtful; harmful; baneful; mischie. vous; destructive; pernicious; unwholesome.

Preparation and correction, is not only by addition of other bodies, but separation of noxious parts from their own. Brown. Kill noxious creatures, where 'tis sin to save, This only just prerogative we have. Dryden.

See pale Orion sheds unwholesome dews, Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey.

Pope.

Noxious seeds of the disease are contained in a
Blackmore.

smaller quantity in the blood.

2. Guilty; criminal.

Those who are noxious in the eye of the law, are justly punished by them to whom the exe cution of the law is committed.

3. Unfavourable; unkindly.

Bramball.

Too frequent an appearance in places of much resort, is noxious to spiritual promotions. Swift. NO XIOUSLY, adv. [from noxious.] Hurtfully; perniciously.

No'xIOUSNESS. n. s. [from noxious.] Hurtfulness; insalubrity.

The writers of politicks have warned us of the noxiousness of this doctrine to all civil governments, which the christian religion is very far from disturbing. Hammond. No'zLE. n. s. [from nose.] The nose; the snout; the end.

It is nothing but a paultry old sconce, with the nosle broke off. Arbuthnot and Pope. To NUBBLE. V. a. [properly to knubble, or knobble, from knob, for a clenched fist.] To bruise with handy cuffs. Ainsworth. NUBI FEROUS. adj. [nubifer, Latin.] Bringing clouds. Dict.

To NU BILATE. v. a. [nubilo, Lat.] To cloud. Dict. Nu'BILE. adj. [nubile, Fr. nubilis, Lat.] Marriageable; fit for marriage.

The cowslip smiles, in brighter yellow drest, Than that which veils the nubile virgin's breast. Prior.

NUCIFEROUS. adj. [nuces and fero, Lat.] Nutbearing.

Dicl.

NUCLEUS. n. s. [Lat.] A kernel; any thing about which matter is gathered or conglobated.

The crusts are each in all parts nearly of the same thickness, their figure suited to the nucleus, and the outer surface of the stone exactly of the same form with that of the nucleus. Woodward. NUDATION. n. s. [nudation, Fr. nudo, Lat.] The act of making bare or naked. NUDITY. n. s. [nudité, Fr. nudus, Latin.] Naked parts.

There are no such licences permitted in poetry, any more than in painting, to design and colour obscene nudities. Dryden.

NU EL. See NEWEL.

NUGA CITY. 2.s. [nugax, Lat.] Futility; trifling talk or behaviour.] NUGATION. n. s. [nugor, Lat.] The act or practice of trifling.

The opinion, that putrefaction is caused either by cold, or peregrine and preternatural heat, is but nugation.

Bacon.

NU GATORY. adj. [nugatorius, Latin.] Trifling; futile; insignificant.

Some great men of the last age, before the mechanical philosophy was revived, were too much addicted to this nugatory art: when occult quality, and sympathy and antipathy, were admitted for satisfactory explications of things. Bentley

NUISANCE. 7. s. [nuisance, Fr.] 1. Something noxious or offensive.

This is the liar's lot, he is accounted a pest and a nuisance; a person marked out for infamy and scorn. South

A wise man who does not assist with his counsels, a rich man with his charity, and a poor man with his labour, are perfect nuisances in a commonwealth. Swift. 2. [In law.] Something that incommodes the neighbourhood.

Nuisances, as necessary to be swept away, as dirt out of the streets. Kelllewell To NULL. v. a. [nullus, Lat.] To annul; to annihilate; to deprive of efficacy or existence.

Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms, No more on me have power, their force is null'd. Milton.

Reason hath the power of nulling or governing all other operations of bodies. Grea. NULL. adj. [nullus, Lat.] Void; of no force; ineffectual.

With what impatience must the muse behold The wife, by her procuring husband sold?

For tho' the law makes null th' adultrous deed Of lands to her, the cuckold may succeed. Dry. Their orders are accounted to be null and invalid by many. Lesley.

The pope's confirmation of the church lands to those who held them by king Henry's donation, was null and fraudulent. Swift. NULL. n. 5. Something of no power, or no meaning. Marks in ciphered writing which stand for nothing, and are inserted only to puzzle, are called nulls. If part of the people be somewhat in the election, you cannot make them nulls or ciphers in the privation or translation. Bacon. NULLIBIETY. n. s. [from nullibi, Lat.] The state of being nowhere.

To NULLITY. v. a. [from nullus, Lat.]
To annul; to make void.
NU'LLITY. n. s. [nullité, Fr.]
1. Want of force or efficacy.

It can be no part of my business to overthrow this distinction, and to shew the nullity of it; which has been solidly done by most of our po lemick writers. South.

The jurisdiction is opened by the party, in default of justice from the ordinary, as by appeals or nullities. Ayliffe.

2. Want of existence.

A hard body struck against another hard body, will yield an exteriour sound, insomuch 25 if the percussion be over soft, it may induce a nullity of sound; but never an interiour sound.

Bacon.

NUMB. adj. [benumen, benumed, Sax.] 1. Torpid; deprived in a great measure of the power of motion and sensation; chill; motionless.

Like a stony statue, cold and numb. Shaksp. Leaning long upon any part maketh it numb and asleep; for that the compression of the part suffereth not the spirits to have free access; and therefore when we come out of it, we feel a stinging or pricking, which is the reentrance of the spirits. Bacon.

2. Producing chillness; benumbing. When we both lay in the field, Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me Ev'n in his garments, and did give himself All thin and naked to the numb cold night. Shakspeare. TO NUMB. v. a. To make torpid; to make dull of motion or sensation; to deaden; to stupify.

Bedlam beggars, with roaring voices Strike in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms, Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; And with this horrible object, from low farms, Inforce their charity. Shaksp.

She can unlock The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell. Millon.

Plough naked, swain, and naked sow the land, For lazy winter numbs the lab'ring hand. Dryd Nought shall avail

The pleasing song, or well repeated tale, When the quick spirits their warm march for bear,

And numbing coldness has embrac'd the ear.

Prier.

NU MBEDNESS. n. s. [from numbed.] Torpor; interruption of sensation.

If the nerve be quite divided, the pain is little, only a kind of stupor or numbedness. Wisem. To NUMBER. v. a. [nombrer, Fr. numero, Latin.]

1. To count; to tell; to reckon how many.

If a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Genesis. I will number you to the sword. Isaiah. The gold, the vest, the tripods number'd o'er, All these he found. Pope. 2. To reckon as one of the same kind." He was numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sin of many. NUMBER. n.s. [nombre, Fr. numerus, Lat.] 1. The species of quantity by which it is computed how many.

Isaiah.

Hye thee from this slaughter-house, Lest thou increase the number of the dead. Shakspearte

3. Many; more than one.

Much of that we are to speak may seem to a zumber perhaps tedious, perhaps obscure, dark, and intricate. Hooker.

Water lilly hath a root in the ground; and so have a number of other herbs that grow in ponds. Bacon.

Ladies are always of great use to the party they espouse, and never fail to win over numbers. Addison.

4. Multitude that may be counted.

Of him came nations and tribes out of number. 2 Esdras. Loud as from numbers without number. Milt.

5. Comparative multitude.

Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the people are of weak courage: for, as Virgil says, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. Bacon.

C. Aggregated multitude.

If you will, some few of you shall see the place; and then you may send for your sick, and the rest of your number, which ye will bring on land. Bacon.

Sir George Summers, sent thither with nine ships and five hundred men, lost a great part of their numbers in the isle of Bermudas. Heylin. 7. Harmony; proportions; calculated by number.

To a contemptible old age obscure. Cold numbness strait bereaves

Milton.

Her corps of sense, and th' air her soul receives.
Denham.

Silence is worse than the fiercest and loudest accusations; since it may proceed from a kind of numbness or stupidity of conscience, and an absolute dominion obtained by sin over the soul, so that it shall not so much as dare to complain, or make a stig. South. NUMERABLE. adj. [numerabilis, Latin.] Capable to be numbered. NUMERAL. adj. [numeral, Fr. from numerus, Lat.] Relating to number; consisting of number.

Some who cannot retain the several combinations of numbers in their distinct orders, and the dependance of so long a train of numeral progressions, are not able all their lifetime regularly to go over any moderate series of numbers.

Locke. Nu ́MERALLY.adv. [from numeral.] According to number.

The blasts and undulary breaths thereof, maintain no certainty in their course; nor are Brown they numerally fear'd by navigators. NUMERARY. adj. [numerus, Lat.] Belonging to a certain number.

A supernumerary canon, when he obtains prebend, becomes a numerary canon. Ayliffe. NUMERATION. n. s. [numeration, Fr. numeratio, Latin.]

1. The art of numbering.

Numeration is but still the adding of one unite more, and giving to the whole a new name or sign, whereby to know it from those before and Locke

after. 2. Number contained.

In the legs or organs of progression in animals, we may observe an equality of length, and parity of numeration. Brown. 3. The rule of arithmetick which teaches the notation of numbers, and method of NUMERATOR n. s. [Lat.] reading numbers regularly noted.

1. He that numbers.

2. [numerateur, Fr.] That number which serves as the common measure to others. NUMERICAL. adj. [from numerus, Lat.] 1. Numeral; denoting number; pertaining to numbers.

The numerical characters are helps to the memory, to record and retain the several ideas about which the demonstration is made. Locke. 2. The same not only in kind or species, but number.

Contemplate upon his astonishing works, particularly in the resurrection and reparation of the same numerical body, by a re-union of all the scattered parts. South. NUMERICALLY, adv. [from numerical.] With respect to sameness in number, I must think it improbable, that the sulphur