bridge | noun (n.) A structure, usually of wood, stone, brick, or iron, erected over a river or other water course, or over a chasm, railroad, etc., to make a passageway from one bank to the other. |
| noun (n.) Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed. |
| noun (n.) The small arch or bar at right angles to the strings of a violin, guitar, etc., serving of raise them and transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument. |
| noun (n.) A device to measure the resistance of a wire or other conductor forming part of an electric circuit. |
| noun (n.) A low wall or vertical partition in the fire chamber of a furnace, for deflecting flame, etc.; -- usually called a bridge wall. |
| noun (n.) A card game resembling whist. |
| verb (v. t.) To build a bridge or bridges on or over; as, to bridge a river. |
| verb (v. t.) To open or make a passage, as by a bridge. |
| verb (v. t.) To find a way of getting over, as a difficulty; -- generally with over. |
ridge | noun (n.) The back, or top of the back; a crest. |
| noun (n.) A range of hills or mountains, or the upper part of such a range; any extended elevation between valleys. |
| noun (n.) A raised line or strip, as of ground thrown up by a plow or left between furrows or ditches, or as on the surface of metal, cloth, or bone, etc. |
| noun (n.) The intersection of two surface forming a salient angle, especially the angle at the top between the opposite slopes or sides of a roof or a vault. |
| noun (n.) The highest portion of the glacis proceeding from the salient angle of the covered way. |
| verb (v. t.) To form a ridge of; to furnish with a ridge or ridges; to make into a ridge or ridges. |
| verb (v. t.) To form into ridges with the plow, as land. |
| verb (v. t.) To wrinkle. |
dodge | noun (n.) The act of evading by some skillful movement; a sudden starting aside; hence, an artful device to evade, deceive, or cheat; a cunning trick; an artifice. |
| verb (v. i.) To start suddenly aside, as to avoid a blow or a missile; to shift place by a sudden start. |
| verb (v. i.) To evade a duty by low craft; to practice mean shifts; to use tricky devices; to play fast and loose; to quibble. |
| verb (v. t.) To evade by a sudden shift of place; to escape by starting aside; as, to dodge a blow aimed or a ball thrown. |
| verb (v. t.) Fig.: To evade by craft; as, to dodge a question; to dodge responsibility. |
| verb (v. t.) To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place. |
dredge | noun (n.) Any instrument used to gather or take by dragging; as: (a) A dragnet for taking up oysters, etc., from their beds. (b) A dredging machine. (c) An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea. |
| noun (n.) Very fine mineral matter held in suspension in water. |
| noun (n.) A mixture of oats and barley. |
| verb (v. t.) To catch or gather with a dredge; to deepen with a dredging machine. |
| verb (v. t.) To sift or sprinkle flour, etc., on, as on roasting meat. |
grudge | noun (n.) Sullen malice or malevolence; cherished malice, enmity, or dislike; ill will; an old cause of hatred or quarrel. |
| noun (n.) Slight symptom of disease. |
| verb (v. t.) To look upon with desire to possess or to appropriate; to envy (one) the possession of; to begrudge; to covet; to give with reluctance; to desire to get back again; -- followed by the direct object only, or by both the direct and indirect objects. |
| verb (v. t.) To hold or harbor with malicioua disposition or purpose; to cherish enviously. |
| verb (v. i.) To be covetous or envious; to show discontent; to murmur; to complain; to repine; to be unwilling or reluctant. |
| verb (v. i.) To feel compunction or grief. |
hedge | noun (n.) A thicket of bushes, usually thorn bushes; especially, such a thicket planted as a fence between any two portions of land; and also any sort of shrubbery, as evergreens, planted in a line or as a fence; particularly, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows to separate the parts of a garden. |
| verb (v. t.) To inclose or separate with a hedge; to fence with a thickly set line or thicket of shrubs or small trees; as, to hedge a field or garden. |
| verb (v. t.) To obstruct, as a road, with a barrier; to hinder from progress or success; -- sometimes with up and out. |
| verb (v. t.) To surround for defense; to guard; to protect; to hem (in). |
| verb (v. t.) To surround so as to prevent escape. |
| verb (v. i.) To shelter one's self from danger, risk, duty, responsibility, etc., as if by hiding in or behind a hedge; to skulk; to slink; to shirk obligations. |
| verb (v. i.) To reduce the risk of a wager by making a bet against the side or chance one has bet on. |
| verb (v. i.) To use reservations and qualifications in one's speech so as to avoid committing one's self to anything definite. |
judge | adjective (a.) To hear and determine, as in causes on trial; to decide as a judge; to give judgment; to pass sentence. |
| adjective (a.) To assume the right to pass judgment on another; to sit in judgment or commendation; to criticise or pass adverse judgment upon others. See Judge, v. t., 3. |
| verb (v. i.) A public officer who is invested with authority to hear and determine litigated causes, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for that purpose. |
| verb (v. i.) One who has skill, knowledge, or experience, sufficient to decide on the merits of a question, or on the quality or value of anything; one who discerns properties or relations with skill and readiness; a connoisseur; an expert; a critic. |
| verb (v. i.) A person appointed to decide in a/trial of skill, speed, etc., between two or more parties; an umpire; as, a judge in a horse race. |
| verb (v. i.) One of supreme magistrates, with both civil and military powers, who governed Israel for more than four hundred years. |
| verb (v. i.) The title of the seventh book of the Old Testament; the Book of Judges. |
| verb (v. t.) To compare facts or ideas, and perceive their relations and attributes, and thus distinguish truth from falsehood; to determine; to discern; to distinguish; to form an opinion about. |
| verb (v. t.) To hear and determine by authority, as a case before a court, or a controversy between two parties. |
| verb (v. t.) To examine and pass sentence on; to try; to doom. |
| verb (v. t.) To arrogate judicial authority over; to sit in judgment upon; to be censorious toward. |
| verb (v. t.) To determine upon or deliberation; to esteem; to think; to reckon. |
| verb (v. t.) To exercise the functions of a magistrate over; to govern. |
ledge | noun (n.) A shelf on which articles may be laid; also, that which resembles such a shelf in form or use, as a projecting ridge or part, or a molding or edge in joinery. |
| noun (n.) A shelf, ridge, or reef, of rocks. |
| noun (n.) A layer or stratum. |
| noun (n.) A lode; a limited mass of rock bearing valuable mineral. |
| noun (n.) A piece of timber to support the deck, placed athwartship between beams. |
lodge | noun (n.) A shelter in which one may rest; as: (a) A shed; a rude cabin; a hut; as, an Indian's lodge. |
| noun (n.) A small dwelling house, as for a gamekeeper or gatekeeper of an estate. |
| noun (n.) A den or cave. |
| noun (n.) The meeting room of an association; hence, the regularly constituted body of members which meets there; as, a masonic lodge. |
| noun (n.) The chamber of an abbot, prior, or head of a college. |
| noun (n.) The space at the mouth of a level next the shaft, widened to permit wagons to pass, or ore to be deposited for hoisting; -- called also platt. |
| noun (n.) A collection of objects lodged together. |
| noun (n.) A family of North American Indians, or the persons who usually occupy an Indian lodge, -- as a unit of enumeration, reckoned from four to six persons; as, the tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals. |
| noun (n.) To give shelter or rest to; especially, to furnish a sleeping place for; to harbor; to shelter; hence, to receive; to hold. |
| noun (n.) To drive to shelter; to track to covert. |
| noun (n.) To deposit for keeping or preservation; as, the men lodged their arms in the arsenal. |
| noun (n.) To cause to stop or rest in; to implant. |
| noun (n.) To lay down; to prostrate. |
| verb (v. i.) To rest or remain a lodge house, or other shelter; to rest; to stay; to abide; esp., to sleep at night; as, to lodge in York Street. |
| verb (v. i.) To fall or lie down, as grass or grain, when overgrown or beaten down by the wind. |
| verb (v. i.) To come to a rest; to stop and remain; as, the bullet lodged in the bark of a tree. |
pledge | noun (n.) The transfer of possession of personal property from a debtor to a creditor as security for a debt or engagement; also, the contract created between the debtor and creditor by a thing being so delivered or deposited, forming a species of bailment; also, that which is so delivered or deposited; something put in pawn. |
| noun (n.) A person who undertook, or became responsible, for another; a bail; a surety; a hostage. |
| noun (n.) A hypothecation without transfer of possession. |
| noun (n.) Anything given or considered as a security for the performance of an act; a guarantee; as, mutual interest is the best pledge for the performance of treaties. |
| noun (n.) A promise or agreement by which one binds one's self to do, or to refrain from doing, something; especially, a solemn promise in writing to refrain from using intoxicating liquors or the like; as, to sign the pledge; the mayor had made no pledges. |
| noun (n.) A sentiment to which assent is given by drinking one's health; a toast; a health. |
| noun (n.) To deposit, as a chattel, in pledge or pawn; to leave in possession of another as security; as, to pledge one's watch. |
| noun (n.) To give or pass as a security; to guarantee; to engage; to plight; as, to pledge one's word and honor. |
| noun (n.) To secure performance of, as by a pledge. |
| noun (n.) To bind or engage by promise or declaration; to engage solemnly; as, to pledge one's self. |
| noun (n.) To invite another to drink, by drinking of the cup first, and then handing it to him, as a pledge of good will; hence, to drink the health of; to toast. |
sledge | noun (n.) A strong vehicle with low runners or low wheels; or one without wheels or runners, made of plank slightly turned up at one end, used for transporting loads upon the snow, ice, or bare ground; a sled. |
| noun (n.) A hurdle on which, formerly, traitors were drawn to the place of execution. |
| noun (n.) A sleigh. |
| noun (n.) A game at cards; -- called also old sledge, and all fours. |
| verb (v. i. & t.) To travel or convey in a sledge or sledges. |
| verb (v. t.) A large, heavy hammer, usually wielded with both hands; -- called also sledge hammer. |
smudge | noun (n.) A suffocating smoke. |
| noun (n.) A heap of damp combustibles partially ignited and burning slowly, placed on the windward side of a house, tent, or the like, in order, by the thick smoke, to keep off mosquitoes or other insects. |
| noun (n.) That which is smeared upon anything; a stain; a blot; a smutch; a smear. |
| verb (v. t.) To stifle or smother with smoke; to smoke by means of a smudge. |
| verb (v. t.) To smear; to smutch; to soil; to blacken with smoke. |
wedge | noun (n.) A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical. |
| noun (n.) A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends. |
| noun (n.) A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike form. |
| noun (n.) Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form. |
| noun (n.) The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos; -- so called after a person (Wedgewood) who occupied this position on the first list of 1828. |
| verb (v. t.) To cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to rive. |
| verb (v. t.) To force or drive as a wedge is driven. |
| verb (v. t.) To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way. |
| verb (v. t.) To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something. |
| verb (v. t.) To fasten with a wedge, or with wedges; as, to wedge a scythe on the snath; to wedge a rail or a piece of timber in its place. |
| verb (v. t.) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc. |
riddle | noun (n.) A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand. |
| noun (n.) A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it. |
| noun (n.) Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling. |
| verb (v. t.) To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel. |
| verb (v. t.) To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot. |
| verb (v. t.) To explain; to solve; to unriddle. |
| verb (v. i.) To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. |
riding | noun (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Ride |
| noun (n.) One of the three jurisdictions into which the county of York, in England, is divided; -- formerly under the government of a reeve. They are called the North, the East, and the West, Riding. |
| noun (n.) The act or state of one who rides. |
| noun (n.) A festival procession. |
| noun (n.) Same as Ride, n., 3. |
| noun (n.) A district in charge of an excise officer. |
| adjective (a.) Employed to travel; traveling; as, a riding clerk. |
| adjective (a.) Used for riding on; as, a riding horse. |
| adjective (a.) Used for riding, or when riding; devoted to riding; as, a riding whip; a riding habit; a riding day. |
ride | noun (n.) The act of riding; an excursion on horseback or in a vehicle. |
| noun (n.) A saddle horse. |
| noun (n.) A road or avenue cut in a wood, or through grounds, to be used as a place for riding; a riding. |
| verb (v. i.) To be carried on the back of an animal, as a horse. |
| verb (v. i.) To be borne in a carriage; as, to ride in a coach, in a car, and the like. See Synonym, below. |
| verb (v. i.) To be borne or in a fluid; to float; to lie. |
| verb (v. i.) To be supported in motion; to rest. |
| verb (v. i.) To manage a horse, as an equestrian. |
| verb (v. i.) To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast. |
| verb (v. t.) To sit on, so as to be carried; as, to ride a horse; to ride a bicycle. |
| verb (v. t.) To manage insolently at will; to domineer over. |
| verb (v. t.) To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. |
| verb (v. t.) To overlap (each other); -- said of bones or fractured fragments. |
rider | noun (n.) One who, or that which, rides. |
| noun (n.) Formerly, an agent who went out with samples of goods to obtain orders; a commercial traveler. |
| noun (n.) One who breaks or manages a horse. |
| noun (n.) An addition or amendment to a manuscript or other document, which is attached on a separate piece of paper; in legislative practice, an additional clause annexed to a bill while in course of passage; something extra or burdensome that is imposed. |
| noun (n.) A problem of more than usual difficulty added to another on an examination paper. |
| noun (n.) A Dutch gold coin having the figure of a man on horseback stamped upon it. |
| noun (n.) Rock material in a vein of ore, dividing it. |
| noun (n.) An interior rib occasionally fixed in a ship's hold, reaching from the keelson to the beams of the lower deck, to strengthen her frame. |
| noun (n.) The second tier of casks in a vessel's hold. |
| noun (n.) A small forked weight which straddles the beam of a balance, along which it can be moved in the manner of the weight on a steelyard. |
| noun (n.) A robber. |