down set (dounset)

In her., removed from its place by its own width. Thus, a bend down set is cut in two, and the two parts are slipped past each other until they touch at one point only. Double down set, in her, having a piece cut out and slipped past by width of the ordinary, so as to touch the remaining parts at two points only. down-share (doun's har), n. In England, a breast-plow used to pare off the turf on downs. down sitting (doun's iting), n. The act of sitting down; repose; a resting. Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Ps. cxxxix. 2. IMG:content-3112.png:[blocks in formation] 5. Waning; decay. [Rare.] Tween the spring and downfall of the light. Tennyson, St. Simeon Stylites. 6. A kind of trap in which a weight or mi ile falls down when the set is sprung; a deadfall. See the extract. Another native method of destroying those animals [hippopotamuses) is by means of a trap known as the down. fall , consisting of a heavy wooden beam armed at one end with a poisoned spear-head and suspended by the other to a forked pole or overhanging branch of a tree. The cord by which the beam is suspended descends to the path beneath, acro which it lies in such a manner as to be set free the instant it is touched by the foot of the pa ing hippopotamus; the beam thus liberated immediately descends, and the poisoned weapon pa es into the head or back of the luckle beast, whose death in the adjacent stream takes place soon after. Encyc. Brit ., XI. 856, downfallen (doun'fa"ln), a. Fallen; ruined. Let us Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, Bestride our down - fall'n birthdom. Shak ., Macbeth, iv. 3. The land is now divorced by the downfallen steep cliffs on the farther side. R. Carew , Survey of Cornwall. down-feather (doun'ferн"èr), n . In ornith ., a feather, generally of small size compared with a contour-feather, characterized by a downy or plumulaceous structure throughout; a plumule. See plumule . Down-feathers. are characterized by a downy struc. ture throughout. They more or le completely invest the body, but are almost always hidden beneath the contour feathers; like padding about the bases of the latter. Coues , Key to N. A. Birds, p. 86. Jealousy suffused, with jaundice in her eyes, Discolouring all she view'd, in tawny dre 'd; Down look'd , and with a cuckoo on her fist. Dryden, Pal. and Arc., ii. 489.