geomancy (jeomansi)

[ What seye we of hem that bile even in divynailes, as by flyght or by noyse of briddes, or of beestes, or by sort, by geomancie, by dremes, by chirkynge of dores, or crakynge of houses, by gnawynge of rattes, and swich manere wrecchedne e? Chaucer, Parson's Tale. Ni. di Conti saith he saw a Bramene three hundred yeares olde: he addeth, that they are studious in Astrologie, Ge omancie , and Philosophie. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 490, geomantic, geomant i cal (jē-ō-mantik, -tikal), a . Of or pertaining to geomancy; of the nature of geomancy. Two geomantic figures were display'd Above his head, a warrior and a maid, One when direct and one when retrograde. Dryden, Pal. and Arc., ii. 614. geo mantically (je-o-manti-kal-i), adv. In a geomantic geomantic manner; by means of geomancy. geomanty (jē'ō-man-ti), n. [ IMG:content-2224.png:[blocks in formation] I quat ridge give to the geometer Most duly; And he will see, and yet be blind. Robin Conscience , 1683 (Harl. Misc., I. 52). 3. In entom., properly, a larva of any moth of the family Geometrid a; loosely, any larva which is destitute of ventral prolegs, and walks by alternately extending the body and contracting it in the form of a loop with the two ends drawn together. These larvæ are also called measur ing -worms, span-worms, loop-worms, loopers, etc. The term geometer is also applied to the adult of geometrid moths. See cuts under Cidaria and Haplodes.