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.

Of or pertaining to the Rasores, or gallinaceous birds, as the peacock, domestic fowl, partridge, quail, and the like.

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.

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.

Rat poison; white arsenic.

Poisoned by ratsbane.

One of the long slender flexible stems of several species of palms of the genus Calamus, mostly East Indian, though some are African and Australian. They are exceedingly tough, and are used for walking sticks, wickerwork, chairs and seats of chairs, cords and cordage, and many other purposes.

A thick woolen stuff quilled or twilled.

To deprive feloniously of the tools used in one's employment (as by breaking or stealing them), for the purpose of annoying; as, to ratten a mechanic who works during a strike.

One who, or that which, rats, as one who deserts his party.

A woolen stuff thinner than ratteen.

The conduct or practices of one who rats. See Rat, v. i., 1.

A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.

Giddy; rattle-headed.

Noisy; giddy; unsteady.

Rattle-headed.

A toy that makes a rattling sound; a rattle.

An empty, noisy talker.

A bat.

A rattlehead.

One who, or that which, rattles.

Any one of several species of venomous American snakes belonging to the genera Crotalus and Caudisona, or Sistrurus; sometimes also called rattler. They have a series of horny interlocking joints at the end of the tail which make a sharp rattling sound when shaken. The common rattlesnake of the Northern United States (Crotalus horridus), and the diamondback rattlesnake (also called diamondback rattler, and diamondback) of the South and East (Crotalus adamanteus) and West (Crotalus atrox), are the best known. See Illust. of Fang.

Any machine or vehicle that does not run smoothly.

Any plant of the genus Astragalus. See Milk vetch.

The golden-eye.

Same as Rattlebox.

Ratlines.

To sprout or spring up from the root, as sugar cane from the root of the previous year's planting.

Hoarse; raucous.

Harshness of sound; rough utterance; hoarseness; as, the raucity of a trumpet, or of the human voice.

Hoarse; harsh; rough; as, a raucous, thick tone.

imp. p. p. of Reck.

See Ranch.

Ransom.

To lay waste by force; to desolate by violence; to commit havoc or devastation upon; to spoil; to plunder; to consume.

One who, or that which, ravages or lays waste; spoiler.

An instance of raving.

A tool, hooked at the end, for enlarging or clearing seams for the reception of oakum.

To become untwisted or unwoven; to be disentangled; to be relieved of intricacy.

One who ravels.

A detached work with two embankments which make a salient angle. It is raised before the curtain on the counterscarp of the place. Formerly called demilune and half-moon.

The act of untwisting or of disentangling.

To prey with rapacity; to be greedy; to show rapacity.

A fine quality of sailcloth.

A genus of plants related to the banana.

One who, or that which, ravens or plunders.

Greedily devouring; rapacious; as, ravening wolves.

Devouring with rapacious eagerness; furiously voracious; hungry even to rage; as, a ravenous wolf or vulture.

One who raves.