smidgen (smijen)

[Origin obscure; perhaps for orig. * smitching, Smidgen, "a small bit, a grain," as "a smidgen of meal," is common in East Tenne ee. Trans. Amer . Philol . A88 ., XVII. 43. smift (smift), n. [Origin obscure.] A bit of touchwood, touch-paper, greased candle-wick, or paper or cotton dipped in melted sulphur, used to ignite the train or squib in blasting. This old method of setting off a blast has been almost entirely done away with by the introduction of the safety fuse. Also called snuff . smightt, v. An obsolete erroneous spelling of 1810), for * Smilacaceæ , Smilax ( Smilac- ) + IMG:content-1359.jpg:[graphic] duck, Mergellus albellus, the white nun, or smee, of the family Anatidæ and subfamily Merginæ, Smew ( Mergellus albellus ), adult male. inhabiting northerly parts of the eastern hemisphere. The male in adult plumage is a very beautiful of pure white, varied with black gray, and tinged with green on the crested head; the length is about 17 inches. The female is smaller, with reddish-brown and gray plumage, and is called the red -headed smew. Also smeath. - Hooded smew, the hooded merganser, Lopho dytes cucullatus, resembling and related to the above, but of another genus. See cut under merganser. smickert (smik'er), a. [ He fell off heffne dun And warrth till atell defell thær Off shene and smikerr enngell. Ormulum , 1. 13679. IMG:content-1360.jpg:[blocks in formation] many regarded as a distinct order, but now cla ed as a tribe of the order Liliaceæ. It is charac terized by a sarmentose or climbing stem, three to five nerved leaves, anthers apparently of a single cell, the inner cell being very narrow, and ovules solitary or twin. It includes the typical genus Smilax, and 2 small genera of about 5 species each, Hetero smilax of eastern Asia, and Rhipogonum of Australia and New Zealand. Smilacina (smi-lā-sīʼnä), n. [NL. (Desfontaines, 1807 ),