ditch | noun (n.) A trench made in the earth by digging, particularly a trench for draining wet land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a moat or a fosse. |
| noun (n.) Any long, narrow receptacle for water on the surface of the earth. |
| verb (v. t.) To dig a ditch or ditches in; to drain by a ditch or ditches; as, to ditch moist land. |
| verb (v. t.) To surround with a ditch. |
| verb (v. t.) To throw into a ditch; as, the engine was ditched and turned on its side. |
| verb (v. i.) To dig a ditch or ditches. |
hitch | noun (n.) A catch; anything that holds, as a hook; an impediment; an obstacle; an entanglement. |
| noun (n.) The act of catching, as on a hook, etc. |
| noun (n.) A stop or sudden halt; a stoppage; an impediment; a temporary obstruction; an obstacle; as, a hitch in one's progress or utterance; a hitch in the performance. |
| noun (n.) A sudden movement or pull; a pull up; as, the sailor gave his trousers a hitch. |
| noun (n.) A knot or noose in a rope which can be readily undone; -- intended for a temporary fastening; as, a half hitch; a clove hitch; a timber hitch, etc. |
| noun (n.) A small dislocation of a bed or vein. |
| verb (v. t.) To become entangled or caught; to be linked or yoked; to unite; to cling. |
| verb (v. t.) To move interruptedly or with halts, jerks, or steps; -- said of something obstructed or impeded. |
| verb (v. t.) To hit the legs together in going, as horses; to interfere. |
| verb (v. t.) To hook; to catch or fasten as by a hook or a knot; to make fast, unite, or yoke; as, to hitch a horse, or a halter. |
| verb (v. t.) To move with hitches; as, he hitched his chair nearer. |
itch | noun (n.) An eruption of small, isolated, acuminated vesicles, produced by the entrance of a parasitic mite (the Sarcoptes scabei), and attended with itching. It is transmissible by contact. |
| noun (n.) Any itching eruption. |
| noun (n.) A sensation in the skin occasioned (or resembling that occasioned) by the itch eruption; -- called also scabies, psora, etc. |
| noun (n.) A constant irritating desire. |
| verb (v. i.) To have an uneasy sensation in the skin, which inclines the person to scratch the part affected. |
| verb (v. i.) To have a constant desire or teasing uneasiness; to long for; as, itching ears. |
pitch | noun (n.) A thick, black, lustrous, and sticky substance obtained by boiling down tar. It is used in calking the seams of ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc., to preserve them. |
| noun (n.) See Pitchstone. |
| noun (n.) To cover over or smear with pitch. |
| noun (n.) Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure. |
| noun (n.) A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand; as, a good pitch in quoits. |
| noun (n.) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled. |
| noun (n.) A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound. |
| noun (n.) Height; stature. |
| noun (n.) A descent; a fall; a thrusting down. |
| noun (n.) The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant; as, a steep pitch in the road; the pitch of a roof. |
| noun (n.) The relative acuteness or gravity of a tone, determined by the number of vibrations which produce it; the place of any tone upon a scale of high and low. |
| noun (n.) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out. |
| noun (n.) The distance from center to center of any two adjacent teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; -- called also circular pitch. |
| noun (n.) The length, measured along the axis, of a complete turn of the thread of a screw, or of the helical lines of the blades of a screw propeller. |
| noun (n.) The distance between the centers of holes, as of rivet holes in boiler plates. |
| noun (n.) The distance between symmetrically arranged or corresponding parts of an armature, measured along a line, called the pitch line, drawn around its length. Sometimes half of this distance is called the pitch. |
| verb (v. t.) To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to cast; to hurl; to toss; as, to pitch quoits; to pitch hay; to pitch a ball. |
| verb (v. t.) To thrust or plant in the ground, as stakes or poles; hence, to fix firmly, as by means of poles; to establish; to arrange; as, to pitch a tent; to pitch a camp. |
| verb (v. t.) To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway. |
| verb (v. t.) To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune. |
| verb (v. t.) To set or fix, as a price or value. |
| verb (v. i.) To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. |
| verb (v. i.) To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight. |
| verb (v. i.) To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon. |
| verb (v. i.) To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or slope; as, to pitch from a precipice; the vessel pitches in a heavy sea; the field pitches toward the east. |
switch | noun (n.) A small, flexible twig or rod. |
| noun (n.) A movable part of a rail; or of opposite rails, for transferring cars from one track to another. |
| noun (n.) A separate mass or trees of hair, or of some substance (at jute) made to resemble hair, worn on the head by women. |
| noun (n.) A mechanical device for shifting an electric current to another circuit. |
| noun (n.) A device for shifting an electric current to another circuit, or for making and breaking a circuit. |
| verb (v. t.) To strike with a switch or small flexible rod; to whip. |
| verb (v. t.) To swing or whisk; as, to switch a cane. |
| verb (v. t.) To trim, as, a hedge. |
| verb (v. t.) To turn from one railway track to another; to transfer by a switch; -- generally with off, from, etc.; as, to switch off a train; to switch a car from one track to another. |
| verb (v. t.) To shift to another circuit. |
| verb (v. i.) To walk with a jerk. |
stitch | noun (n.) An arrangement of stitches, or method of stitching in some particular way or style; as, cross-stitch; herringbone stitch, etc. |
| verb (v. i.) A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made. |
| verb (v. i.) A single turn of the thread round a needle in knitting; a link, or loop, of yarn; as, to let down, or drop, a stitch; to take up a stitch. |
| verb (v. i.) A space of work taken up, or gone over, in a single pass of the needle; hence, by extension, any space passed over; distance. |
| verb (v. i.) A local sharp pain; an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle; as, a stitch in the side. |
| verb (v. i.) A contortion, or twist. |
| verb (v. i.) Any least part of a fabric or dress; as, to wet every stitch of clothes. |
| verb (v. i.) A furrow. |
| verb (v. t.) To form stitches in; especially, to sew in such a manner as to show on the surface a continuous line of stitches; as, to stitch a shirt bosom. |
| verb (v. t.) To sew, or unite together by stitches; as, to stitch printed sheets in making a book or a pamphlet. |
| verb (v. t.) To form land into ridges. |
| verb (v. i.) To practice stitching, or needlework. |
twitch | noun (n.) The act of twitching; a pull with a jerk; a short, sudden, quick pull; as, a twitch by the sleeve. |
| noun (n.) A short, spastic contraction of the fibers or muscles; a simple muscular contraction; as, convulsive twitches; a twitch in the side. |
| noun (n.) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse. By twisting the stick the compression is made sufficiently painful to keep the animal quiet during a slight surgical operation. |
| verb (v. t.) To pull with a sudden jerk; to pluck with a short, quick motion; to snatch; as, to twitch one by the sleeve; to twitch a thing out of another's hand; to twitch off clusters of grapes. |
witch | noun (n.) A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat, and used as a taper. |
| noun (n.) One who practices the black art, or magic; one regarded as possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or sorceress; -- now applied chiefly or only to women, but formerly used of men as well. |
| noun (n.) An ugly old woman; a hag. |
| noun (n.) One who exercises more than common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person; also, one given to mischief; -- said especially of a woman or child. |
| noun (n.) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera. |
| noun (n.) The stormy petrel. |
| verb (v. t.) To bewitch; to fascinate; to enchant. |
botch | noun (n.) A swelling on the skin; a large ulcerous affection; a boil; an eruptive disease. |
| noun (n.) A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner. |
| noun (n.) Work done in a bungling manner; a clumsy performance; a piece of work, or a place in work, marred in the doing, or not properly finished; a bungle. |
| noun (n.) To mark with, or as with, botches. |
| noun (n.) To repair; to mend; esp. to patch in a clumsy or imperfect manner, as a garment; -- sometimes with up. |
| noun (n.) To put together unsuitably or unskillfully; to express or perform in a bungling manner; to spoil or mar, as by unskillful work. |
catch | noun (n.) Act of seizing; a grasp. |
| noun (n.) That by which anything is caught or temporarily fastened; as, the catch of a gate. |
| noun (n.) The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to lay hold of, or of watching he opportunity to seize; as, to lie on the catch. |
| noun (n.) That which is caught or taken; profit; gain; especially, the whole quantity caught or taken at one time; as, a good catch of fish. |
| noun (n.) Something desirable to be caught, esp. a husband or wife in matrimony. |
| noun (n.) Passing opportunities seized; snatches. |
| noun (n.) A slight remembrance; a trace. |
| noun (n.) A humorous canon or round, so contrived that the singers catch up each other's words. |
| verb (v. t.) To lay hold on; to seize, especially with the hand; to grasp (anything) in motion, with the effect of holding; as, to catch a ball. |
| verb (v. t.) To seize after pursuing; to arrest; as, to catch a thief. |
| verb (v. t.) To take captive, as in a snare or net, or on a hook; as, to catch a bird or fish. |
| verb (v. t.) Hence: To insnare; to entangle. |
| verb (v. t.) To seize with the senses or the mind; to apprehend; as, to catch a melody. |
| verb (v. t.) To communicate to; to fasten upon; as, the fire caught the adjoining building. |
| verb (v. t.) To engage and attach; to please; to charm. |
| verb (v. t.) To get possession of; to attain. |
| verb (v. t.) To take or receive; esp. to take by sympathy, contagion, infection, or exposure; as, to catch the spirit of an occasion; to catch the measles or smallpox; to catch cold; the house caught fire. |
| verb (v. t.) To come upon unexpectedly or by surprise; to find; as, to catch one in the act of stealing. |
| verb (v. t.) To reach in time; to come up with; as, to catch a train. |
| verb (v. i.) To attain possession. |
| verb (v. i.) To be held or impeded by entanglement or a light obstruction; as, a kite catches in a tree; a door catches so as not to open. |
| verb (v. i.) To take hold; as, the bolt does not catch. |
| verb (v. i.) To spread by, or as by, infecting; to communicate. |
clutch | noun (n.) A gripe or clinching with, or as with, the fingers or claws; seizure; grasp. |
| noun (n.) The hands, claws, or talons, in the act of grasping firmly; -- often figuratively, for power, rapacity, or cruelty; as, to fall into the clutches of an adversary. |
| noun (n.) A device which is used for coupling shafting, etc., so as to transmit motion, and which may be disengaged at pleasure. |
| noun (n.) Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle. |
| noun (n.) The nest complement of eggs of a bird. |
| noun (n.) To seize, clasp, or gripe with the hand, hands, or claws; -- often figuratively; as, to clutch power. |
| noun (n.) To close tightly; to clinch. |
| verb (v. i.) To reach (at something) as if to grasp; to catch or snatch; -- often followed by at. |
crotch | noun (n.) The angle formed by the parting of two legs or branches; a fork; the point where a trunk divides; as, the crotch of a tree. |
| noun (n.) A stanchion or post of wood or iron, with two arms for supporting a boom, spare yards, etc.; -- called also crane and crutch. |
| noun (n.) In the three-ball carom game, a small space at each corner of the table. See Crotched, below. |
| verb (v. t.) To provide with a crotch; to give the form of a crotch to; as, to crotch the ends of ropes in splicing or tying knots. |
| verb (v. t.) To notch (a log) on opposite sides to provide a grip for the dogs in hauling. |
fetch | noun (n.) A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice. |
| noun (n.) The apparation of a living person; a wraith. |
| verb (v. t.) To bear toward the person speaking, or the person or thing from whose point of view the action is contemplated; to go and bring; to get. |
| verb (v. t.) To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for. |
| verb (v. t.) To recall from a swoon; to revive; -- sometimes with to; as, to fetch a man to. |
| verb (v. t.) To reduce; to throw. |
| verb (v. t.) To bring to accomplishment; to achieve; to make; to perform, with certain objects; as, to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap; to fetch a sigh. |
| verb (v. t.) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing. |
| verb (v. t.) To cause to come; to bring to a particular state. |
| verb (v. i.) To bring one's self; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward. |
hatch | noun (n.) The act of hatching. |
| noun (n.) Development; disclosure; discovery. |
| noun (n.) The chickens produced at once or by one incubation; a brood. |
| noun (n.) A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge. |
| noun (n.) A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish. |
| noun (n.) A flood gate; a a sluice gate. |
| noun (n.) A bedstead. |
| noun (n.) An opening in the deck of a vessel or floor of a warehouse which serves as a passageway or hoistway; a hatchway; also; a cover or door, or one of the covers used in closing such an opening. |
| noun (n.) An opening into, or in search of, a mine. |
| verb (v. t.) To cross with lines in a peculiar manner in drawing and engraving. See Hatching. |
| verb (v. t.) To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep. |
| verb (v. t.) To produce, as young, from an egg or eggs by incubation, or by artificial heat; to produce young from (eggs); as, the young when hatched. |
| verb (v. t.) To contrive or plot; to form by meditation, and bring into being; to originate and produce; to concoct; as, to hatch mischief; to hatch heresy. |
| verb (v. i.) To produce young; -- said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; -- said of the young of birds, fishes, insects, etc. |
| verb (v. t.) To close with a hatch or hatches. |
hutch | noun (n.) A chest, box, coffer, bin, coop, or the like, in which things may be stored, or animals kept; as, a grain hutch; a rabbit hutch. |
| noun (n.) A measure of two Winchester bushels. |
| noun (n.) The case of a flour bolt. |
| noun (n.) A car on low wheels, in which coal is drawn in the mine and hoisted out of the pit. |
| noun (n.) A jig for washing ore. |
| verb (v. t. & i.) To place in huts; to live in huts; as, to hut troops in winter quarters. |
| verb (v. t.) To hoard or lay up, in a chest. |
| verb (v. t.) To wash (ore) in a box or jig. |
match | noun (n.) Anything used for catching and retaining or communicating fire, made of some substance which takes fire readily, or remains burning some time; esp., a small strip or splint of wood dipped at one end in a substance which can be easily ignited by friction, as a preparation of phosphorus or chlorate of potassium. |
| verb (v.) A person or thing equal or similar to another; one able to mate or cope with another; an equal; a mate. |
| verb (v.) A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like |
| verb (v.) A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; an emulous struggle. |
| verb (v.) A matrimonial union; a marriage. |
| verb (v.) An agreement, compact, etc. |
| verb (v.) A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage. |
| verb (v.) Equality of conditions in contest or competition. |
| verb (v.) Suitable combination or bringing together; that which corresponds or harmonizes with something else; as, the carpet and curtains are a match. |
| verb (v.) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly imbedded when a mold is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mold. |
| verb (v. t.) To be a mate or match for; to be able to complete with; to rival successfully; to equal. |
| verb (v. t.) To furnish with its match; to bring a match, or equal, against; to show an equal competitor to; to set something in competition with, or in opposition to, as equal. |
| verb (v. t.) To oppose as equal; to contend successfully against. |
| verb (v. t.) To make or procure the equal of, or that which is exactly similar to, or corresponds with; as, to match a vase or a horse; to match cloth. |
| verb (v. t.) To make equal, proportionate, or suitable; to adapt, fit, or suit (one thing to another). |
| verb (v. t.) To marry; to give in marriage. |
| verb (v. t.) To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and a groove, at the edges; as, to match boards. |
| verb (v. i.) To be united in marriage; to mate. |
| verb (v. i.) To be of equal, or similar, size, figure, color, or quality; to tally; to suit; to correspond; as, these vases match. |
| () Alt. of race |
patch | noun (n.) A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, esp. upon an old garment to cover a hole. |
| noun (n.) A small piece of anything used to repair a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc. |
| noun (n.) A small piece of black silk stuck on the face, or neck, to hide a defect, or to heighten beauty. |
| noun (n.) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore. |
| noun (n.) Fig.: Anything regarded as a patch; a small piece of ground; a tract; a plot; as, scattered patches of trees or growing corn. |
| noun (n.) A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the effect of dispart, in sighting. |
| noun (n.) A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. |
| verb (v. t.) To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like; as, to patch a coat. |
| verb (v. t.) To mend with pieces; to repair with pieces festened on; to repair clumsily; as, to patch the roof of a house. |
| verb (v. t.) To adorn, as the face, with a patch or patches. |
| verb (v. t.) To make of pieces or patches; to repair as with patches; to arrange in a hasty or clumsy manner; -- generally with up; as, to patch up a truce. |
scotch | noun (n.) The dialect or dialects of English spoken by the people of Scotland. |
| noun (n.) Collectively, the people of Scotland. |
| noun (n.) A chock, wedge, prop, or other support, to prevent slipping; as, a scotch for a wheel or a log on inclined ground. |
| noun (n.) A slight cut or incision; a score. |
| adjective (a.) Of or pertaining to Scotland, its language, or its inhabitants; Scottish. |
| verb (v. t.) To shoulder up; to prop or block with a wedge, chock, etc., as a wheel, to prevent its rolling or slipping. |
| verb (v. t.) To cut superficially; to wound; to score. |
scratch | noun (n.) A break in the surface of a thing made by scratching, or by rubbing with anything pointed or rough; a slight wound, mark, furrow, or incision. |
| noun (n.) A line across the prize ring; up to which boxers are brought when they join fight; hence, test, trial, or proof of courage; as, to bring to the scratch; to come up to the scratch. |
| noun (n.) Minute, but tender and troublesome, excoriations, covered with scabs, upon the heels of horses which have been used where it is very wet or muddy. |
| noun (n.) A kind of wig covering only a portion of the head. |
| noun (n.) A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke. |
| noun (n.) In various sports, the line from which the start is made, except in the case of contestants receiving a distance handicap. |
| adjective (a.) Made, done, or happening by chance; arranged with little or no preparation; determined by circumstances; haphazard; as, a scratch team; a scratch crew for a boat race; a scratch shot in billiards. |
| verb (v. t.) To rub and tear or mark the surface of with something sharp or ragged; to scrape, roughen, or wound slightly by drawing something pointed or rough across, as the claws, the nails, a pin, or the like. |
| verb (v. t.) To write or draw hastily or awkwardly. |
| verb (v. t.) To cancel by drawing one or more lines through, as the name of a candidate upon a ballot, or of a horse in a list; hence, to erase; to efface; -- often with out. |
| verb (v. t.) To dig or excavate with the claws; as, some animals scratch holes, in which they burrow. |
| verb (v. i.) To use the claws or nails in tearing or in digging; to make scratches. |
| verb (v. i.) To score, not by skillful play but by some fortunate chance of the game. |
fit | noun (n.) In Old English, a song; a strain; a canto or portion of a ballad; a passus. |
| noun (n.) The quality of being fit; adjustment; adaptedness; as of dress to the person of the wearer. |
| noun (n.) The coincidence of parts that come in contact. |
| noun (n.) The part of an object upon which anything fits tightly. |
| noun (n.) A stroke or blow. |
| noun (n.) A sudden and violent attack of a disorder; a stroke of disease, as of epilepsy or apoplexy, which produces convulsions or unconsciousness; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness. |
| noun (n.) A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit melancholy, of passion, or of laughter. |
| noun (n.) A passing humor; a caprice; a sudden and unusual effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or insction; an impulse and irregular action. |
| noun (n.) A darting point; a sudden emission. |
| superlative (superl.) Adapted to an end, object, or design; suitable by nature or by art; suited by character, qualitties, circumstances, education, etc.; qualified; competent; worthy. |
| superlative (superl.) Prepared; ready. |
| superlative (superl.) Conformed to a standart of duty, properiety, or taste; convenient; meet; becoming; proper. |
| verb (v. t.) To make fit or suitable; to adapt to the purpose intended; to qualify; to put into a condition of readiness or preparation. |
| verb (v. t.) To bring to a required form and size; to shape aright; to adapt to a model; to adjust; -- said especially of the work of a carpenter, machinist, tailor, etc. |
| verb (v. t.) To supply with something that is suitable or fit, or that is shaped and adjusted to the use required. |
| verb (v. t.) To be suitable to; to answer the requirements of; to be correctly shaped and adjusted to; as, if the coat fits you, put it on. |
| verb (v. i.) To be proper or becoming. |
| verb (v. i.) To be adjusted to a particular shape or size; to suit; to be adapted; as, his coat fits very well. |
| () imp. & p. p. of Fight. |