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nightmarish

Terrifying, as if in a nightmare{2}; resembling a nightmare{2}.

nightrider

member of a secret mounted band in the southern U. S. after the Civil War, which committed acts of intimidation and revenge.

Nightshade

A common name of many species of the genus Solanum, given esp. to the Solanum nigrum, or black nightshade, a low, branching weed with small white flowers and black berries reputed to be poisonous.

Nighttime

The time from dusk to dawn; -- opposed to daytime.

Nigraniline

The complex, nitrogenous, organic base and dyestuff called also aniline black.

Nigrescent

Growing black; changing to a black color; approaching to blackness.

Nigrine

A ferruginous variety of rutile.

Nigritic

Pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, negroes, or of the Negritos, Papuans, and the Melanesian races; negritic.

Nigritude

Blackness; the state of being black.

Nigrosine

A dark blue dyestuff, of the induline group; -- called also azodiphenyl blue.

Nihilist

One who advocates the doctrine of nihilism; one who believes or teaches that nothing can be known, or asserted to exist.

Nihilistic

Of, pertaining to, or characterized by, nihilism.

Nihility

Nothingness; a state of being nothing.

Nike

The Greek winged goddess of victory; identified with Roman Victoria.

Nil

A special value for a variable used in certain computer languages to mean no assigned value, to be distinguished from the value zero.

Nile

The great river of Egypt.

Nill

Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.

Nilometer

An instrument for measuring the rise of water in the Nile during its periodical flood.

Nilotic

Of or pertaining to the river Nile; as, the Nilotic crocodile.

Nim

To take; to steal; to filch.

Nimble

Light and quick in motion; moving with ease and celerity; lively; swift.

Nimbleness

The quality of being nimble; lightness and quickness in motion; agility; swiftness.

Nimbly

In a nimble manner; with agility; with light, quick motion.

Nimbose

Cloudy; stormy; tempestuous.

Nimbus

A circle, or disk, or any indication of radiant light around the heads of divinities, saints, and sovereigns, upon medals, pictures, etc.; a halo. See Aureola, and Glory, n., 5.

Nimious

Excessive; extravagant; inordinate.

Nina

A goddess of the watery deep and daughter of Ea.

nine

Eight and one more; one less than ten; as, nine miles.

Nine

The number greater than eight by a unit; nine units or objects.

Nine-bark

A white-flowered rosaceous shrub (Neillia opulifolia, or Spiraea opulifolia), common in the Northern United States. The bark separates into many thin layers, whence the name.

Nineholes

A game in which nine holes are made in the ground, into which a ball is bowled.

Ninepence

An old English silver coin, worth nine pence.

ninepenny

2-3/4 in or 7 cm long; -- used of nail size; as, a ninepenny nail.

ninepin

a bowling pin of the type used in ninepins (or (in England) skittles).

Ninepins

A game played with nine pins, or pieces of wood, set on end, at which a wooden ball is bowled to knock them down; bowling.

Ninescore

Nine times twenty, or one hundred and eighty. The product of nine times twenty; ninescore units or objects.

Nineteen

The number greater than eighteen by a unit; the sum of ten and nine; nineteen units or objects.

Nineteenth

The quotient of a unit divided by nineteen; one of nineteen equal parts of anything.

nineties

The decade from 1890 to 1899; as, the gay nineties.

Ninetieth

The quotient of a unit divided by ninety; one of ninety equal parts of anything.

Ninety

The sum of nine times ten; the number greater by a unit than eighty-nine; ninety units or objects.

Ningal

An Akkadian goddess, wife of the moon god Sin.

Ningirsu

The Babylonian god of war and agriculture, in an older pantheon.

Ningishzida

A Babylonian underworld deity, the patron of medicine.

Ninhursag

The great mother goddess in Sumerian mythology, worshipped also as Aruru and Mama and Nintu.

Ninib

A solar deity, first-born of Bel and consort was Gula; god of war and the chase and agriculture; sometimes identifed with Biblical Nimrod.

Ninny

A fool; a simpleton.

ninon

A sturdy cloth material of chiffon or voile, used for the manufacture of dresses and other women's garments, and for curtains, and drapery. The material may be constructed by either a plain or a novelty weaving technique.

Ninth

The quotient of one divided by nine; one of nine equal parts of a thing; the next after the eighth.

Niobe

The daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. Her pride in her children provoked Apollo and Diana, who slew them all. Niobe herself was changed by the gods into stone.

niobium

The chemical element of atomic number 41. Chemical symbol Nb. Atomic weight 92.91. Previously called columbium. See also Columbium.

Niopo

A kind of snuff prepared by the natives of Venezuela from the roasted seeds of a leguminous tree (Piptadenia peregrina), thence called niopo tree.

Nip

A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.

Nipa

A monotypic genus of palms of Australasia.

Nipper

One who, or that which, nips.

Nippers

Small pinchers for holding, breaking, or cutting.

Nipping

Biting; pinching; painful; destructive; as, a nipping frost; a nipping wind.

Nippitate

Peculiarly strong and good; -- said of ale or liquor.

Nipple

The protuberance through which milk is drawn from the breast or mamma; the mammilla; a teat; a pap.

Nipplewort

A yellow-flowered composite herb (Lampsana communis), formerly used as an external application to the nipples of women; -- called also dock-cress.

Nipponese

Of or relating to or characteristic of Japan or its people or their culture or language; Japanese.

nippy

Pleasantly cold and invigorating; -- of weather conditions.

Nirvana

In the Buddhist system of religion, the final emancipation of the soul from transmigration, and consequently a beatific enfrachisement from the evils of worldly existence, as by annihilation or absorption into the divine. See Buddhism.

Nisan

The first month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, formerly answering nearly to the month of April, now to March, of the Christian calendar. See Abib.

Nisi

Unless; if not; -- used mostly in law.

Nisus

A striving; an effort; a conatus.

Nit

The egg of a louse or other small insect.

Nitid

Bright; lustrous; shining.

Nitranilic

Of, pertaining to, or designating, a complex organic acid produced as a white crystalline substance by the action of nitrous acid on hydroquinone.

Nitraniline

Any one of a series of nitro derivatives of aniline; nitroaniline. In general they are yellow crystalline substances.

Nitrated

Combined, or impregnated, with nitric acid, or some of its compounds.

Nitratine

A mineral occurring in transparent crystals, usually of a white, sometimes of a reddish gray, or lemon-yellow, color; native sodium nitrate. It is used in making nitric acid and for manure. Called also soda niter.

Nitre Niter

A white crystalline semitransparent salt; potassium nitrate; saltpeter. See Saltpeter.

Nitriary

An artificial bed of animal matter for the manufacture of niter by nitrification. See Nitrification, 2.

Nitric

Of, pertaining to, or containing, nitrogen; specifically, designating any one of those compounds in which, as contrasted with nitrous compounds, the element has a higher valence; as, nitric oxide; nitric acid.

Nitride

A binary compound of nitrogen with a more metallic element or radical; as, boric nitride.

Nitriferous

Bearing niter; yielding, or containing, niter.

Nitrification

The act, process, or result of combining with nitrogen or some of its compounds. The act or process of oxidizing nitrogen or its compounds so as to form nitrous or nitric acid.

Nitrify

To combine or impregnate with nitrogen; to convert, by oxidation, into nitrous or nitric acid; to subject to, or produce by, nitrification.

Nitrile

Any one of a series of compounds bearing the cyanide radical (-CN); particularly, one of those cyanides of alcohol radicals which, by boiling with acids or alkalies, produce a carboxyl acid, with the elimination of the nitrogen as ammonia.

Nitrite

A salt or ester of nitrous acid; a compound bearing the -NO2 radical.

nitro-

A combining form or an adjective denoting the presence of niter.

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