lifelessness

[English lifele ; -ne .] The quality or state of being lifele ; absence or destitution of life; want of spirit, vigor, or animation. "The white shroud, and each extended tre , Long-fair-but spread in utter lifele ne ." Byron: Corsair , iii. 20. IMG:content-0546.png:[blocks in formation] 1. To try to raise; to exert one's strength for the purpose of raising anything. "The mind, by being engaged in a task beyond its strength, like the body strained by lifting at a weight too heavy, has often its force broken." -Locke. 2. To rise; to be raised; as, A fog lifts . Whatever is to be carried is lifted ; whatever is to be situated higher is to be raised ; whatever is to be constructed above other objects is erected . A ladder is lifted upon the shoulders to be conveyed from one place to another; a standard ladder is raised against a building; a scaffolding is erected, These terms are likewise employed in a moral acceptation; exalt and elevate are rarely used in any other sense. 1. To lift up the eyes: (1) To raise the eyes for the purpose of seeing; to look. IMG:content-0547.png:[blocks in formation] xxii. 26. *3. To lift up the feet : To come quickly to one's help. "Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations." Psalm 1xxiv. 3. 4. To lift the hand : To raise the hand for the purpose of striking. 5. To lift up the hand or hands: (1) To raise the hands in prayer. "When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle." Psalm xxviii. 2. (2) To swear by raising the hand toward heaven. "I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high lifter 2. Fig .: A istance in the furtherance of an object; help in rising in the world; as, to give a person a lift in his busine . II. Technically : 1. Hydraulic Engineering : (1) The amount by which a canal-boat is elevated in a lock; the difference in level between the upper and lower pounds. (2) The rise of an undershot-wheel above the water-surface. (3) A substitute for canal-locks, the boats being lifted and lowered by machinery from level to level. 2. Lathe: One of the several flats or grooves for the belt on the driving and cone wheels of a lathe. 3. Machinery , & c .: (1) A hoisting-machine; an elevator for persons, goods, or material in large hotels, factories, and tenement houses. The ordinary lift consists of a cage or platform working up and down in a shaft, and is driven by manual, steam, or hydraulic power. Some form of brake is invariable both for general use and in case of accident, while catches or bolts are provided to support the platform at the various landings when loading or unloading. Continuous lifts consist of a series of cages or platforms strung upon endle chains, and working in a double shaft, one-half of the platforms ascending and the other descending. They are driven at a low rate of speed, to allow of safe loading and discharging. (2) A dumb-waiter. 4. Mining : The height through which an orestamp rises and falls. 5. Naut .: A rope stretching from a mast-head to the end of a yard, to trim it (square ing), or in topping (yards apeak). 6. Shoemaking : One thickne or layer of leather in the tap which forms the heel of a boot. Dead lift : A lift without any a istance from the object lifted; an effort to raise something inert: hence, something which calls for all one's powers or energies. "Mr. Doctor had puzzled his brains In making a ballad, but was at a stand. And you freely must own you were at a dead lift ." Swift lift-bridge, s. [DRAWBRIDGE.]