talus

[Lat.] 1. Anat .: The ankle bone. It articulates with the tibia above, the os calcis below, and the scaphoid in front. It receives the weight of the body from the leg. Its convex anterior extremity is termed the head, and the circular groove behind it the neck. Called also the astragalus (q. v.). 2. Arch .: The slope or inclination of any work, as of a wall inclined on its face, either by decreasing in thickne toward the summit or by leaning it against a bank, as a retaining or breast-wall. 3. Fort.: The slope of a work, as a bastion, rampart, or parapet. (In this sense written also talut . ) 4. Geol.: A sloping heap of rocky fragments broken off from the face of a steep rock by the action of the weather, and accumulating at its base. So called from its resemblance to a talus in fortification. [3.] 5. Surg .: A variety of club-foot, in which the heel rests on the ground, and the toes are drawn toward the leg. ( Good rich .) tā-lŭt, s. [TALUS, 3.] *tal-vaş, subst. [Etym. doubtful.] A kind of wooden buckler or shield of an oblong form, bent on each side, and rising in the middle. It was in use in the fourteenth century. tām-a-bil-i-tỹ, tāme-a-bil-1-ty, subst. [Eng. tamable; -ity.] The quality or state of being tamable; tamablene . "The tameability of mankind."- S . Smith : Letters , 1821. tām-a-ble, tāme-a-ble, a. [Eng. tam (e) -able .] Capable of being tamed or of being reclaimed from a wild or savage state. "Ganzas are supposed to be great fowls, of a strong flight, and easily tameable ."-Wilkins: Dædal us, ch. vii. tām-a-ble-ne , s. [English tamable ; -ne .] The quality or state of being tamable; tamability. ta-ma-lę, s. [ Sp.tamal .] Cuisine: A kind of boiled dumpling, very popular in the Western States, consisting of minced chicken and Indian maize meal, boiled in a cornhusk. It is highly seasoned, and is usually sold on the streets of the Western towns, in the evening, on winter nights, by hucksters who carry with them portable furnaces and boilers to keep the tamales hot. The cry of "Hot tamales!" forms a feature of night-life in the streets of the Western cities of this country.