Class

[Fr. cla e, from Lat. cla is; probably from Gr. klesis, for kales is, from kaleō, kalesō, to call, to call together.] A company or order of citizens; an order or rank of persons a embled together as having characteristics or interests in common; as, the upper cla of society. -A number of students or pupils of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies at the same college or school; as, a Greek cla . "This lower cla in the school of knowledge."- Watts . -A set of beings or things having something in common, or ranged under a common distribution and denomination. ( Zool . ) The second division of the animal kingdom. The animals grouped in a cla po e the general character of the branch to which they belong, but they are divided by complications more or le evident in the general plan of structure; hence the division of a cla into as many orders as these complications present va rieties. ( Bot .) A group of alliances po e ing some important structural characters in common. In the system adopted throughout this work, the vegetable kingdom is divided into seven cla es, beginning with the Thal logens , which are the simplest plants, existing without the distinctions of leaf and stem, and also destitute of flowers; and ascending with the Acrogens , Rhizogens , Endogens, Dictyogens , and Gymnogens, up to the Exo gens , or perfect plants. -v. a. To form or arrange into a cla or cla es; to cla ification. Cla 'mate, n. A fellow-collegian; one who belongs to the same cla with another; a brother-student. Clath'rate, a. [Gr. klēthra , lattice.] ( Bot . ) Cancel- late; lattice-shaped. Clat's op, in Oregon , a N.W. county. The Columbia River bounds it on the N., and the Pacific Ocean on the W. Several small streams pa through the co., empty- ing into the Pacific. The soil is generally good. Cap . Astoria. repeated acute and rattling sounds by being struck together. "Their clattering arms with the fierce shocks resound." Glanville -To talk fast and idly; to chatter noisily; to prate glibly and emptily; to bounce. "All those airy speculations were only a noise and clattering of words." -Decay of Piety. -v. a. To strike and make a rattling noise. "You clatter still your brazen kettle." - Swift . -n. A rattling or confused noise made by the collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; tumultuous and confused noise; a repetition of abrupt, sharp sounds; as, "musical clatter .". Swift .