dead level

A perfect level. *dead-lift, s. A hopele chance, the last extremity. "And have no power at all, nor shift, To help itself at a dead- lift ." dead-light, s. Butler: Hudibras. 1. Naut .: A shutter placed over a cabin window in stormy weather, to defend the gla against the blows of the waves. "The dead- lights are letting the spray and the rain in." Barham: Brothers of Birching ton. 2. ( Pl .): The name given by the peasantry to the luminous appearance which is sometimes observed over putrescent animal bodies, and which arises probably from the disengagement of phosphuretted hydrogen gas. "At length, it was suggested to the old man, that there were always dead lights hovered over a corpse by night, if the body was left exposed to the air " -Blackwood's Magazine . IMG:content-1862.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-1863.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-1864.png:[blocks in formation] Furn.: An ungrated portion of a furnace floor, on which coal is coked previously to being pushed into the fire above the grates. It was introduced by Watt in his patent of 1785. dead-pledge, s. Law: A mortgage on lands and goods. dead-point, s. Mach.: One of the points at which the crank a umos a position in line with the pitman or the rod which impels it. In steam-engines with vertical cylinders, the dead-points are the highest and lowest positions of the crank; a dead-center (q. v.). dead-reckoning, s . Naut.: The estimation or calculation which sailors make of their position by keeping an account of the ship's way as shown by the log, the course steered, and by making the nece ary allowances for drift way, leeway, .; so that this reckoning is without any observation of the sun, moon, and stars, and must be rectified as often as any good observation can be had. *dead-ripe, a. So ripe that all growth has ceased. others are of opinion that it should be dead ripe , in other words that the circulation, in both straw and corn, should be over before it is cut down."- Agr . Surv. E. Loth ., p. 115.