Any one of a tribe (Sigmodontes) of rodents which includes all the indigenous rats and mice of America. So called from the form of the ridges of enamel on the crowns of the worn molars. Also used adjectively.

Curved in two directions, like the letter S, or the Greek /.

In a sigmoidal manner.

To be a sign or omen.

A form of language for communicating by use of gestures made by the hands, rather than by speech. It includes alphabets made by hand gestures, as well as proper languages formed from signs. Among the latter is the American Sign Language (ASL), used by the deaf. See also dactylology.

To terminate a communication, especially one conducted by radio waves; to terminate a broadcast over radio or television; as, this is your reporter in Cairo, signing off.

To begin a communication, especially one conducted by radio waves.

Suitable to be signed; requiring signature; as, a legal document signable by a particular person.

To communicate by signals; as, to signal orders.

The ratio of the intensity of a signal{2} to the background noise detected by a measuring instrument, especially in a communications channel; the higher the ratio, the more accurately the information contained can be interpreted. The term is applied not only to human communications, but to the detection of information in any system that is being studied to gain knowledge; as, the signal-to-noise ratio of light signals in older optic fibers drops to an unusable level after several miles..

One who makes signals; one who communicates intelligence by means of signals.

The quality or state of being signal or remarkable.

To make signal or eminent; to render distinguished from what is common; to distinguish.

In a signal manner; eminently.

A man whose business is to manage or display signals; especially, one employed in setting the signals by which railroad trains are run or warned.

The act of signaling, or of signalizing; hence, description by peculiar, appropriate, or characteristic marks.

Having definite color markings.

Sign given; marking.

A signer; one who signs or subscribes; as, a conference of signatories.

To mark with, or as with, a signature or signatures.

One who holds to the doctrine of signatures impressed upon objects, indicative of character or qualities.

A board, placed on or before a shop, office, etc., on which ssome notice is given, as the name of a firm, of a business, or the like.

One who signs or subscribes his name; as, a memorial with a hundred signers.

A seal; especially, in England, the seal used by the sovereign in sealing private letters and grants that pass by bill under the sign manual; -- called also privy signet.

Stamped or marked with a signet.

Bearing signs.

The quality or state of being significant.

That which has significance; a sign; a token; a symbol.

In a significant manner.

One of several things signified by a common term.

The act of signifying; a making known by signs or other means.

Betokening or representing by an external sign.

One who, or that which, signifies.

Significant. That which is significatory.

Formerly, a writ issuing out of chancery, upon certificate given by the ordinary, of a man's standing excommunicate by the space of forty days, for the laying him up in prison till he submit himself to the authority of the church.

To show by a sign; to communicate by any conventional token, as words, gestures, signals, or the like; to announce; to make known; to declare; to express; as, a signified his desire to be present.

The procedure or process of communicating by use of a sign language.

Sir; Mr. The English form and pronunciation for the Italian Signor and the Spanish Se/or.

To exercise dominion; to seigniorize.

State or position of a signior.

Same as Seigniory.

Madam; Mrs; -- a title of address or respect among the Italians.

Sir; Mr.; -- a title of address or respect among the Italians. Before a noun the form is Signor.

Miss; -- a title of address among the Italians.

A post on which a sign hangs, or on which papers are placed to give public notice of anything.

A sigh.

Such. See Such.

Surely; certainly.

Surely; securely.

The quality or state of being sicker, or certain.

See 2d Sicker, Sickerly, etc.

A religious sect noted for warlike traits, founded in the Punjab at the end of the 15th century.

Short for Ensilage.

A young or small herring.

To compel to silence; to cause to be still; to still; to hush.

One that silences; The muffler of an internal-combustion engine. Any of various devices to silence the humming noise of telegraph wires. A device for silencing the report of a firearm shooting its projectiles singly, as a tubular attachment for the muzzle having circular plates that permit the passage of the projectile but impart a rotary motion to, and thus retard, the exploding gases.

A genus of caryophyllaceous plants, usually covered with a viscid secretion by which insects are caught; catchfly.

That which is silent; a time of silence.

One appointed to keep silence and order in court; also, one sworn not to divulge secrets of state.

Habitually silent; taciturn; reticent.

State of being silent; silence.

See Wanderoo.

A kind of linen cloth, originally made in Silesia, a province of Prussia.

Of or pertaining to Silesia. A native or inhabitant of Silesia.

Silica, SiO2 as found in nature, constituting quarz, and most sands and sandstones. See Silica, and Silicic.

To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.

Silicon dioxide, SiO/. It constitutes ordinary quartz (also opal and tridymite), and is artifically prepared as a very fine, white, tasteless, inodorous powder.

A salt of silicic acid.

Combined or impregnated with silicon or silica; as, silicated hydrogen; silicated rocks.

Silicification.

Same as Silicoidea.

Of or pertaining to silica; containing silica, or partaking of its nature.

Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, silica; specifically, designating compounds of silicon; as, silicic acid.

Consisting of silica and calcareous matter.

A binary compound of silicon, or one regarded as binary.

Producing silica; united with silica.

Thae act or process of combining or impregnating with silicon or silica; the state of being so combined or impregnated; as, the silicification of wood.

Combined or impregnated with silicon or silica, especially the latter; as, silicified wood.

To become converted into silica, or to be impregnated with silica.

Same as Silicoidea.

See Siliceous.

Same as Silicoidea.

Silicified.

See Silicon.

Combined or impregnated with silicon.

A seed vessel resembling a silique, but about as broad as it is long. See Silique.

Containing, or composed of, silicon and fluorine; especially, denoting the compounds called silicofluorides.

A fluosilicate; a salt of silicofluoric acid.

An extensive order of Porifera, which includes those that have the skeleton composed mainly of siliceous fibers or spicules.

A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world. Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also silicium.

Of, pertaining to, or designating, any one of a series of double acids of silicon and tungsten, known in the free state, and also in their salts (called silicotungstates).

A silicle.

A silicle.

Bearing silicles; pertaining to, or resembling, silicles.

Made of fine wheat.

a. n. from Sile to strain.

Same as Silique.

An oblong or elongated seed vessel, consisting of two valves with a dissepiment between, and opening by sutures at either margin. The seeds are attached to both edges of the dissepiment, alternately upon each side of it.

Having the form of a silique.

A Linnaean order of plants including those which bear siliques.

Bearing siliques; as, siliquose plants; pertaining to, or resembling, siliques; as, siliquose capsules.

The fine, soft thread produced by various species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons within which the worm is inclosed during the pupa state, especially that produced by the larvae of Bombyx mori.

Wearing silk stockings (which among men were formerly worn chiefly by the luxurious or aristocratic); hence, elegantly dressed; aristocratic; luxurious; -- chiefly applied to men, often by way of reproach.

To render silken or silklike.

The quality or state of being silky or silken; softness and smoothness.

A dealer in silks; a silk mercer.

Silkiness.

Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates whose seed vessels contain a long, silky down; milkweed.

The larva of any one of numerous species of bombycid moths, which spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon before changing to a pupa.

Of or pertaining to silk; made of, or resembling, silk; silken; silklike; as, a silky luster.

A young herring.

A dish made by mixing wine or cider with milk, and thus forming a soft curd; also, sweetened cream, flavored with wine and beaten to a stiff froth.

Silver.

In a silly manner; foolishly.

Same as Fibrolite.

The quality or state of being silly.

The pollock, or coalfish.

A work raised in the middle of a wide ditch, to defend it.

Happy; fortunate; blessed.

A caul. See Caul, n., 3.