Any one of numerous species of large, handsome, tropical American butterflies, of the genus Morpho. They are noted for the very brilliant metallic luster and bright colors (often blue) of the upper surface of the wings. The lower surface is usually brown or gray, with eyelike spots.

History of the evolution of forms; that part of ontogeny that deals with the germ history of forms; -- distinguished from physiogeny.

Of, pertaining to, or according to, the principles of morphology.

One who is versed in the science of morphology.

That branch of biology which deals with the structure of animals and plants, treating of the forms of organs and describing their varieties, homologies, and metamorphoses. See Tectology, and Promorphology.

A morphological individual, characterized by definiteness of form, in distinction from bion, a physiological individual. See Tectology.

The laws of organic formation.

The tribal history of forms; that part of phylogeny which treats of the tribal history of forms, in distinction from the tribal history of functions.

The order or mode of development of an organ or part.

Connected with, or becoming an integral part of, a living unit or of the morphological framework; as, morphotic, or tissue, proteids.

A louse.

Dancing the morrice; dancing.

A morris dancer.

See Mormal.

A marine fish having a very slender, flat, transparent body. It is now generally believed to be the young of the conger eel or some allied fish.

A kind of easy-chair with a back which may be lowered or raised.

A Moorish pike.

A round hill or point of land; hence, Morro castle, a castle on a hill.

See Marrot.

Morning.

A clasp for fastening garments in front.

A little bite or bit of food.

The act of biting or gnawing.

The act of biting.

A variety of dummy whist for three players; also, the exposed or dummy hand in this game.

A being subject to death; a human being; man.

The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying.

To make mortal.

In a mortal manner; so as to cause death; as, mortally wounded.

Quality of being mortal; mortality.

A chamber lamp or light.

A small square board with a handle beneath, for holding mortar; a hawk; used by masons to hold or carry mortar.

To grant or convey, as property, for the security of a debt, or other engagement, upon a condition that if the debt or engagement shall be discharged according to the contract, the conveyance shall be void, otherwise to become absolute, subject, however, to the right of redemption.

burdened with legal or financial obligations; as, His house was mortgaged to the hilt.

The person to whom property is mortgaged, or to whom a mortgage is made or given.

One who gives a mortgage.

One who gives a mortgage.

Bringing or producing death; deadly; destructive; as, a mortiferous herb.

The act of mortifying, or the condition of being mortified The death of one part of an animal body, while the rest continues to live; loss of vitality in some part of a living animal; gangrene. Destruction of active qualities; neutralization. Subjection of the passions and appetites, by penance, abstinence, or painful severities inflicted on the body.

imp. p. p. of Mortify.

Deeply embarrased; painfully humiliated.

The state of being mortified; humiliation; subjection of the passions.

One who, or that which, mortifies.

To lose vitality and organic structure, as flesh of a living body; to gangrene.

Tending to mortify; affected by, or having symptoms of, mortification; as, a mortifying wound; mortifying flesh.

In a mortifying manner.

To cut or make a mortise in.

An animal, as a sheep, dead of disease or privation; a morling.

Possession of lands or tenements in, or conveyance to, dead hands, or hands that cannot alienate.

See Mormal.

Dead pay; the crime of taking pay for the service of dead soldiers, or for services not actually rendered by soldiers.

A dish of meats and other ingredients, cooked together; an ollapodrida.

Of or pertaining to the dead; as, mortuary monuments.

The sphere or globular mass of cells (blastomeres), formed by the clevage of the ovum or egg in the first stages of its development; -- called also mulberry mass, segmentation sphere, and blastosphere. See Segmentation.

The process of cleavage, or segmentation, of the ovum, by which a morula is formed.

A genus of trees, some species of which produce edible fruit; the mulberry. See Mulberry.

See Morrow.

Morning.

sing. of Mores.

Of or pertaining to Moses, the leader of the Israelites, or established through his agency; as, the Mosaic law, rites, or institutions.

In the manner of a mosaic.

Attachment to the system or doctrines of Moses; that which is peculiar to the Mosaic system or doctrines.

An order of large, extinct, marine reptiles, found in the Cretaceous rocks, especially in America. They were serpentlike in form and in having loosely articulated and dilatable jaws, with large recurved teeth, but they had paddlelike feet. Some of them were over fifty feet long. They are, essentially, fossil sea serpents with paddles. Called also Pythonomarpha, and Mosasauria.

One of an extinct order of reptiles, including Mosasaurus and allied genera. See Mosasauria.

A genus of extinct marine reptiles allied to the lizards, but having the body much elongated, and the limbs in the form of paddles. The first known species, nearly fifty feet in length, was discovered in Cretaceous beds near Maestricht, in the Netherlands.

A plant of the genus Adoxa (Adoxa moschatellina), the flowers of which are pale green, and have a faint musky smell. It is found in woods in all parts of Europe, and is called also hollow root and musk crowfoot.

Of or pertaining to Moschus, a genus including the musk deer.

See Muzzle.

A light wine, usually white, produced in the vicinity of the river Moselle.

A large flatboat, used in the West Indies for taking freight from shore to ship.

To go, or move (in a certain manner); -- usually with out, off, along, etc.

See Mosque.

Of or pertaining to the Muslims; Islamic; as, Moslem lands; the Moslem faith.

Thin shreds of leather shaved off in dressing skins.

Same as Mosasaurus.

A Muslim church or place of religious worship.

Any one of various species of gnats of the genus Culex and allied genera. The females have a proboscis containing, within the sheathlike labium, six fine, sharp, needlelike organs with which they puncture the skin of man and animals to suck the blood. These bites, when numerous, cause, in many persons, considerable irritation and swelling, with some pain. The larvae and pupae, called wigglers, are aquatic.

A silvery topminnow (Gambusia affinis) with rows of black spots of tropical North America and West Indies; important in mosquito control.

To cover or overgrow with moss.

A veteran partisan; one who is so conservative in opinion that he may be likened to a stone or old tree covered with moss.

The menhaded.

Overgrown with moss; mossy.

The state of being mossy.

One of a class of marauders or bandits that formerly infested the border country between England and Scotland; -- so called in allusion to the mossy or boggy character of much of the border country.

Overgrown with moss; abounding with or edged with moss; as, mossy trees; mossy streams.

In the greatest or highest degree.

See Mustaiba.

imp. of Mote.

A painter's maul-stick.

For the greatest part; for the most part; chiefly; in the main.

See Direct, n.

For the most part.

A word; hence, a motto; a device.

Any singing bird of the genus Motacilla; a wagtail.

The act of moving; motion.

A small particle, as of floating dust; anything proverbially small; a speck.

Filled with motes, or fine floating dust; as, the air.

A composition adapted to sacred words in the elaborate polyphonic church style; an anthem.

Any nocturnal lepidopterous insect, or any not included among the butterflies; as, the luna moth; Io moth; hawk moth.

To eat or prey upon, as a moth eats a garment.

having holes due to eating by moths or moth larvae; -- of cloth or clothing.

To put into long-term storage; as, to mothball the battleships not needed after the war.

Full of moths.

To become like, or full of, mother, or thick matter, as vinegar.

Same as motherfucker.

The supposed author of a book of nursery rhymes first published as /Mother Goose's Melodies,/ and usually called simply /Mother Goose./ The first English edition is said to have been printed in 1719 in London. The actual persons who composed the rhymes is unknown, and earlier similar rhymes in French are a likely source for some of them. Mother Goose is also used as the title of a book of Mother Goose rhymes.

The mother of one's husband or wife.

Naked as when born; completely naked.

The hard, iridescent, pearly internal layer of several kinds of shells, esp. of pearl oysters, river mussels, and the abalone shells; nacre. See Pearl.

An East Asiatic saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera) with racemes of small red-and-white flowers; spreads by numerous creeping stolons; called also strawberry geranium and strawberry saxifrage.

An aromatic plant (Thymus Serphyllum); -- called also wild thyme.

The board containing the main circuits of an electronic device, especially computers. The term is used primarily in microcomputer literature, where it designates the board containing the main expansion bus, and usually also the cpu. On motherboards designed with an expansion bus, often all of the circuits not contained on an expansion card are on the motherboard.

Thick, like mother; viscid.

A person who is deemed to be worthless or despicable; -- obscene and highly offensive.

The state of being a mother; the character or office of a mother.

A rural custom in England, of visiting one's parents on Midlent Sunday, -- supposed to have been originally visiting the mother church to make offerings at the high altar.

The country of one's ancestors; -- same as fatherland.

Destitute of a mother; having lost a mother; as, motherless children.

suggestive of or acting like a mother; motherly; maternal.

The state or quality of being motherly.