See Rhaphides.

Occurring in rapid succession like the shots fired from a machine gun. See also machine-gun.

Firing shots in rapid succession. Capable of being fired rapidly; -- applied to single-barreled guns of greater caliber than small arms, mounted so as to be quickly trained and elevated, with a quick-acting breech mechanism operated by a single motion of a crank or lever (abbr. R. F.); In the United States navy, designating such a gun using fixed ammunition or metallic cartridge cases; -- distinguished from breech-loading (abbr. B. L.), applied to all guns loading with the charge in bags, and formerly from quick-fire. Rapid-fire guns in the navy also sometimes include automatic or semiautomatic rapid-fire guns; the former being automatic guns of not less than one inch caliber, firing a shell of not less than one pound weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and firing the next shot, the latter being guns that require one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the gun. In the United States army, designating such a gun, whether using fixed or separate ammunition, designed chiefly for use in coast batteries against torpedo vessels and the lightly armored batteries or other war vessels and for the protection of defensive mine fields; -- not distinguished from quick-fire. In Great Britain and Europe used, rarely, as synonymous with quick-fire.

The quality or state of being rapid; swiftness; celerity; velocity; as, the rapidity of a current; rapidity of speech; rapidity of growth or improvement.

In a rapid manner.

Quality of being rapid; rapidity.

The part of a river where the current moves with great swiftness, but without actual waterfall or cascade; sometimes called whitewater; -- usually used in the plural; as, the Lachine rapids in the St. Lawrence. For boaters on the river, it is a place that can be hazardous, with danger of capsizing or crashing into large rocks.

A straight sword, with a narrow and finely pointed blade, used only for thrusting.

Wearing a rapier.

Lapilli.

To plunder.

Given to rapine.

The enlargement of a mold caused by rapping the pattern.

A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary.

imp. p. p. of Rap, to snatch away.

A pungent kind of snuff made from the darker and ranker kinds of tobacco leaves.

The beat of the drum to call soldiers to arms.

One who, or that which, raps or knocks; specifically, the knocker of a door.

Relation; proportion; conformity; correspondence; accord.

Act or fact of coming or being drawn near or together; establishment or state of cordial relations.

A rascal; a good-for-nothing fellow.

To transport or ravish.

A raptor.

A ravisher; a plunderer.

An order of birds, same as Accipitres. Called also Raptatores.

Rapacious; living upon prey; -- said especially of certain birds. Adapted for seizing prey; -- said of the legs, claws, etc., of insects, birds, and other animals. Of or pertaining to the Raptores. See Illust. (f) of Aves.

Raptorial.

To transport with excitement; to enrapture.

An enthusiast.

To put, or be put, in a state of rapture.

Ecstatic; transporting; ravishing; feeling, expressing, or manifesting rapture; as, rapturous joy, pleasure, or delight; rapturous applause.

In a rapturous manner.

Not frequent; seldom met with or occurring; unusual; as, a rare event.

A dainty morsel; a Welsh rabbit. See Welsh rabbit, under Rabbit.

A show carried about in a box; a peep show.

The act or process of rarefying; the state of being rarefied; -- opposed to condensation; as, the rarefaction of air.

Capable of being rarefied.

To become less dense; to become thin and porous.

In a rare manner or degree; seldom; not often; as, things rarely seen.

The state or quality of being rare.

An early ripening fruit, especially a kind of freestone peach.

See Rarefaction.

The quality or state of being rare; rareness; thinness; as, the rarity (contrasted with the density) of gases.

See 2d Reis.

The name and genetic symbol for a mutant gene that has been identified as one of those associated with certains types of cancer; -- it is a form of oncogene. It was first observed in rats, but analogues have been found in humans and other animals.

Sweeping; grazing; -- applied to a style of fortification in which the command of the works over each other, and over the country, is kept very low, in order that the shot may more effectually sweep or graze the ground before them.

Of or pertaining to the common herd or common people; low; mean; base.

State of being a rascal; rascality; domain of rascals; rascals, collectively.

A female rascal.

A low, mean wretch; a rogue; same as rascal, n.. 2; now disused, replaced by rapscalion.

Like a rascal; trickish or dishonest; base; worthless; -- often in humorous disparagement, without implication of dishonesty.

A scratching out, or erasure.

To prepare with haste.

A thin slice of bacon.

Rash; hasty; precipitate.

A rash person.

In a rash manner; with precipitation.

The quality or state of being rash.

The name applied by the Russian government to any subject of the Greek faith who dissents from the established church. The Raskolniki embrace many sects, whose common characteristic is a clinging to antique traditions, habits, and customs. The schism originated in 1667 in an ecclesiastical dispute as to the correctness of the translation of the religious books. The dissenters, who have been continually persecuted, are believed to number about 20,000,000, although the Holy Synod officially puts the number at about 2,000,000. They are officially divided into three groups according to the degree of their variance from orthodox beliefs and observances, as follows: I. /Most obnoxious./ the Judaizers; the Molokane, who refuse to recognize civil authority or to take oaths; the Dukhobortsy, or Dukhobors, who are communistic, marry without ceremony, and believe that Christ was human, but that his soul reappears at intervals in living men; the Khlysty, who countenance anthropolatory, are ascetics, practice continual self-flagellation, and reject marriage; the Skoptsy, who practice castration; and a section of the Bezpopovtsy, or priestless sect, which disbelieve in prayers for the Czar and in marriage. II. /Obnoxious:/ the Bezpopovtsy, who pray for the Czar and recognize marriage. III. /Least obnoxious:/ the Popovtsy, who dissent from the orthodox church in minor points only.

An order of birds; the Gallinae.

Razor.

See Raspatory.

A surgeon's rasp.

The thimble-shaped fruit of the Rubus Idaeus and other similar brambles; as, the black, the red, and the white raspberry. The shrub bearing this fruit.

One who, or that which, rasps; a scraper.

The raspberry.

Like a rasp, or the sound made by a rasp; grating.

A carnivore (Viverricula Mallaccensis) allied to the civet but smaller, native of China and the East Indies. It furnishes a perfume resembling that of the civet, which is highly prized by the Javanese. Called also Malacca weasel, and lesser civet.

The act of rasing, scraping, or erasing; erasure; obliteration.

In English politics, to desert one's party from interested motives; to forsake one's associates for one's own advantage; in the trades, to work for less wages, or on other conditions, than those established by a trades union.

An excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.

Having a long, tapering tail like that of a rat.

A New Zealand forest tree (Metrosideros robusta), also, its hard dark red wood, used by the Maoris for paddles and war clubs.

The quality or state of being ratable.

Capable of being rated, or set at a certain value.

a structure which may be rated, or set at a certain value, for the purpose of taxation, usually based on the value; as, with the deterioration of the center cities, the loss of ratables worsened the situation by removing valuable sources of tax revenue.

A spirituous liquor flavored with the kernels of cherries, apricots, peaches, or other fruit, spiced, and sweetened with sugar; -- a term applied to the liqueurs called noyau, cura/ao, etc.

See Rattan.

Same as Rhatany.

The iterative sound of beating a drum, or of a galloping horse.

A ratchet wheel, or notched bar, with which a pawl or click works.

Gravelly stone.

A pawl, click, or detent, for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.

To be set or considered in a class; to have rank; as, the ship rates as a ship of the line.

See Ratable.

Any carnivore of the genus Mellivora, allied to the weasels and the skunks; -- called also honey badger.

One who pays rates or taxes.

One who rates or scolds.

Same as Rat-tail.

A hill or mound.

Early; soon; betimes.

Prior; earlier; former.

Rareripe, or early ripe. A rareripe.

Orig., in Germany, the cellar or basement of the city hall, usually rented for use as a restaurant where beer is sold; hence, a beer saloon of the German type below the street level, where, usually, drinks are served only at tables and simple food may also be had; -- sometimes loosely used, in English, of what are essentially basement restaurants where liquors are served.

The act of ratifying; the state of being ratified; confirmation; sanction; as, the ratification of a treaty.

One who, or that which, ratifies; a confirmer.

To approve and sanction; to make valid; to confirm; to establish; to settle; especially, to give sanction to, as something done by an agent or servant; as, to ratify an agreement, treaty, or contract; to ratify a nomination.

Confirmation or approbation, as of an act or contract.

The relation which one quantity or magnitude has to another of the same kind. It is expressed by the quotient of the division of the first by the second; thus, the ratio of 3 to 6 is expressed by / or /; of a to b by a/b; or (less commonly) the second term is made the dividend; as, a:b = b/a.

To reason, esp. deductively; to offer reason or argument.

The process of reasoning, or deducing conclusions from premises; deductive reasoning.

Characterized by, or addicted to, ratiocination; consisting in the comparison of propositions or facts, and the deduction of inferences from the comparison; argumentative; as, a ratiocinative process.

Ratiocinative.

To supply with rations, as a regiment.

A rational being.

An explanation or exposition of the principles of some opinion, action, hypothesis, phenomenon, or the like; also, the principles themselves.

The doctrine or system of those who deduce their religious opinions from reason or the understanding, as distinct from, or opposed to, revelation.

One who accepts rationalism as a theory or system; also, disparagingly, a false reasoner. See Citation under Reasonist.

Belonging to, or in accordance with, the principles of rationalism.

The quality or state of being rational; agreement with reason; possession of reason; due exercise of reason; reasonableness.

The act or process of rationalizing.

To use, and rely on, reason in forming a theory, belief, etc., especially in matters of religion: to accord with the principles of rationalism.

In a rational manner.

The quality or state of being rational; rationality.

An order of birds in which the wings are small, rudimentary, or absent, and the breastbone is destitute of a keel. The ostrich, emu, moa, and apteryx are examples.

Of or pertaining to the Ratitae.

Of or pertaining to the Ratitae. One of the Ratitae.

The small transverse ropes attached to the shrouds and forming the steps of a rope ladder.

A small rat.

Same as Rattoon, v. i.