nut, note, nute, nutte

[A. S. hnutu; cogn. with Dut. noot; Icel. hnot; Sw. not; Dan. nod; Ger. nu ; Gael. cnuth.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. In the same sense as II. 1. " Nuts are hard of digestion, yet po e some good medicinal qualities." -Arbuthnot : On Aliments. 2. Small round coal. II. Technically: 1. Botany: †(2) A tuber, as in the name Earth-nut (q. v.). There are many compound names, as Brazil . nut, earth - nut , ., in which nut is the second word. (For these see the first element in the compound.) 2. Fire - arms : The tumbler of a gun-lock. 3. Machinery : (1) A small cylinder or other body with teeth or projections corresponding with the teeth or grooves of a wheel. "Clocks though the screws and teeth of the wheels and nuts be never so smooth, yet if they be not oiled, will hardly move." -Ray: On the Creation. (2) A piece of metal tapped, and adapted to be screwed on the end of a butt. It is used for many purposes, but especially on the end of a screw-bolt, in order to keep it firmly in its place. (3) The screwed sleeve which operates the movable jaw of a monkey-wrench. (4) One of the rollers or crushing-cylinders of a cider-mill. 4. Naut.: A projection on the shank of an anchor to hold the stock in place. 5. Vehicles: An axle-nut. (1) A nut to crack : A problem to solve; a puzzle to explain. "No wonder that to others the nut of such a character was hard to crack." -Lytton: The Cartons , pt. i., ch. i. (2) Spurious -nut: (3) To be nuts to : To please greatly. "Were nuts alike to the civilian and the planter."Trevelyan: The Competition - Wallah , lett. ix. (4) To be nuts on: To be very fond of. "My aunt is awful nuts on Marcus Aurelius."- Black : Prince of Thule , ch. xi. (5) Axle - nut : A nut screwed to the ends of the spindles or arms of carriage-axles, to hold the wheels on the spindles. IMG:content-0160.png:[blocks in formation] Mach .: A means for fastening a bolt-nut in place, preventing its becoming loose by the jarring or tremulous motion of the machinery. Such are used upon fish-plates of railways, upon harvesters, . nut-oil. s. Chem.: A commercial name for oil expre ed from the ground nut. It is also applied to oils obtained from many species of nuts, strictly so called. Thus, hazel nuts yield 60 per cent. of a pale-yellow oil, having a sweetish taste; walnuts yield 50 per cent. of a greenish oil, which becomes pale-yellow by keeping.