dribblet, driblet

[Eng. dribb ( le ), and dim in. suff. -let .] A little bit, portion, or sum; a small amount of money. "So strictly wert thou just to pay, Even to the driblet of a day.' Dryden: Threnodia August a lis , 13, 14. dribbling, pr. par., a. & 8. [DRIBBLE, v.] A. As pr . par .: (See the verb.) B. As adjective: 1. Falling in drops, or like a drop; dripping. *2. Insignificant, trifling, petty. "There pa ed some dribbling skirmishes." - Holland: Livy, p. 597. C. As substantive: I. Ordinary Language: 1. The act of falling, or causing to fall in drops or dribblets. "A dribbling difficulty, and a momentary suppre ion of urine, may be caused by the stone's shutting up the orifice of the bladder." -Arbuthnot : On Aliments. 2. Slavering driveling. II. Football : The same as DRIBBLE, 8., II. "Good displays of dribbling were by no means infre. quent."-Field." *drid-der, *dred-our, s. [DREAD, 8.] 1. Fear, dread. "With dredfull dredour trymbling for effray The Troianis fled richt fast and brak away Douglas: Virgil, 305, 16. 2. Suspicion, apprehension. *drid-děr, v . i . [DRIDDER, 8.] To fear, to dread. "Gin we hald heal, we need na dridder mair: Ye ken we winna be set down so bare." Ro : Helenore, p. 20. dried, pa. par. or a. [DRY, v.] dried-up, a. Wholly or completely dried. "In that tale I find The furrows of long thought and dried - up tears." Byron: Childe Harold, iii. 3. dri-er, s. [Eng. dry; -er.] I. Ordinary Language: 1. One who or that which dries or tends to dry or absorb moisture; a desiccative. "There is a tale, that boiling of daisy roots in milk, which it is certain are great driers , will make dogs little." -Bacon . 2. A drying-machine or stove. drift I. Ordinary Language: 1. Literally: *(1) The act of driving. "Drufte or drywynge of bestys. Minatus. -Prompt. Parv . IMG:content-0526.png:[blocks in formation] (7) Anything driven or blown along by the wind. "Swift as on wings of wind upborne they fly, And drifts of rising dust involve the sky. Pope: Homer's Ody ey, viii. 127, 128. (8) Road-sand, the washings of roads. *(9) A number or quantity of things driven or impelled at once; a shower. a storm. "Our thunder from the south Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town." Shakesp. King John , ii. 2. *(10) Anything drifting or carried along at random. "Some log, perhaps, upon the water swam, And usele drift ." Dryden: Annus Mirabilis, clvi. *(11) A course, or road. "Do it then, Faustus, with unfeigned heart, Lest greater dangers do attend thy drift ." Marlowe: Doctor Faustus. 2. Figuratively : (1) A force impellent; an impulse, an impelling influence or power. "A man being under the drift of any pa ion, will still follow the impulse of it till something interpose."- South . (2) The tendency, aim, or purpose of action. "The particular drift of every act, proceeding eternally from God, we are not able to discern."-Hooker. (3) An intended purpose or line of action. "Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose To cro my friend in his intended drift ." Shakesp.: Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. (4) An intention or design. "In the mean time, against thou shalt awake, Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift ." Shakesp.: Romeo and Juliet, iv. 1. (5) Meaning or aim. "We know your drift."- Shakesp.: Coriolanus, iii. 3. (6) The scope of a discourse. "The drift of the pamphlet is to stir up our compa ion toward the rebels." -Add is on. *(7) A kind of coarse sleeve, generally made of silk. *(8) Delay, procrastination, a driving or putting off. "Trouble upon trouble is the matter and exercise of patience, lang drift and delay of thinges hoped for is the exercise of true patience."-Bruce: Eleven Sermons, v. 5, a. II. Technically : 1. Arch.: The push, shoot, or horizontal thrust of an arch or vault upon the abutments. 2. Geol .: A loose aggregation or accumulation of transported matter, consisting of sand and clay, with a mixture of angular and rounded fragments II. Paint.: A substance added to paint to increase of rock, some of large size having occasionally one IMG:content-0527.png:[blocks in formation] “As drifling after a great shower."- Baillie : Lett ., i. 184. drift, *drifte, *dryfte, s. [Formed from Mid. Eng . drife drive, by addition of suff. -t; cf. draught from draw , flight from fly , .; cognate with Dut. drift a drove, a flock, a current; Icel. drift , dript a snow-drift; Sw.drift impulse, instinct; Ger. frift =a drove, a herd. ( Skeat . )] or more of their sides flattened or smoothed, creven highly polished. The smoothed surfaces usually exhibit many scratches parallel to each other, one set often cro ing an older one. The drift is generally unstratified, in which case it is called Till (q. v.). This may be in places 50 or even 100 feet thick. As a rule, the sand, gravel, pebbles, and bowlders have been derived from rocks existing in the immediate vicinity, but in some cases there are blocks which have traveled far, and are of quite different material from any to be found where they lie. [ERRATICS, DRIFT-PERIOD.] 3. Ordnance : A priming-iron to clean the vent of a piece of ordnance from burning particles after each discharge. 4. Mach .: A round piece of steel, made slightly tapering, and used for enlarging a hole in a metallic plate by being driven through it. The drift may have a cutting edge merely upon its advance face, or it may have spirally cut grooves which give the sides of the drift a capacity for cutting. pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, põt, 5. Mining: (1) A pa age in a mine, horizontal or nearly so, forming a road for the extraction of ore, or a drain for carrying off the water. The name is derived from its being driven in. Driving is horizontal work; sinking and rising refer to the direction of work either in shafts or in following the course of a vein. [ADIT, GALLERY.] (2) The course or direction of a tunnel or gallery, 6. Naut .: The direction of a current; the leeway of a ship. 1. Pyrotech.: A stick used in charging rocket IMG:content-0528.png:[blocks in formation] Naut.: A triangular frame of wood or other similar contrivance, having just sufficient buoyancy to float, to which a line that leads from the bows of the ship is attached. It keeps the ve el's head to wind when dismasted, or when it is impo ible to carry sail. [DRAG-ANCHOR.]