whid

Etym. doubtful. Cf. Welsh chwid = a quick turn.] 1. The motion of a hare running but not frightened. 2. A lie. ( Burns : Death and Dr. Hornbook . ) whid, v. i. [WHID.] ( Scotch.) 1. To whisk; to move nimbly. "An' morning pou ie whiddin ' seen." 2. To lie, to fib. Burns: To J. Lapraík . 282 4497 smaller. The song is simple but pleasing, and these birds are brought to Europe in considerable numbers and sold as cage birds. They are gener ally called by dealers Birds of Paradise, and some- times Paradise Widow-birds. Used in a wider sense of any species of the genus Vidua (q. v.). The name Widow-bird, or Widow, is also applied with a quali- fying epithet to allied genera; the species of Colius pa er being popularly known as Mourning Widows, and the single species of Chera ( Chera caffra ) as the Long-tailed Widow-bird. whidah-finch, whydaw-finch, s . Ornithology : Geog. Dist. Animals , i. 264. 2. Any species of the genus Vidua, consisting of tropical and South African finches, with long wings and a boat-shaped tail, the two middle feathers of which become exce ively lengthened in the male in the breeding season and drop off when incubation is over. Most of the species seek their food on the ground, generally subsisting on gra seeds and insects; but they pa a considerable portion of the breeding season among the branches of trees, as affording the most convenient situation for the bestowal of their abnormally long tails, while some are found inhabiting the reedy parts of the continent in the neighborhood of great rivers. Their nests closely resemble those of the Weaver-birds. The best known species are the Vidua paradise a [WIDOW-BIRD), and V. erythrorhynchus, the Red billed Whidah-finch, which is somewhat smaller. *whid-er, adv . [WHITHER.] *whid-er-ward, adv . [WHITHERWARD.] whiff, *weffe, s . [An imitative word. Cf. puf , pipe , & c .; cogn. with Welsh chwiff =a whiff, a puff; chwifis to puff; chwaff =agust; Dan. vift =a puff, a gust; Ger. piff - paff , used to denote a sudden, explosive sound.] IMG:content-0823.png:[blocks in formation] II. Ichthy.: [MARY-SOLE.] whiff, v. t. [WHIFF, 8.] 1. To puff; to emit in puffs or whiffs. 2. To consume in whiffs; to smoke. 3. To blow; to carry on the wind. "The smoke took him [Empedocles], and whift him up into the moon."- Ben Jonson: News from the New World. *4. To carry, as by a slight blast or puff of wind; to blow "It was scornfully whiffed aside." - Carlyle: French Revol ., pt. i., bk. v., ch. ii. *5. To drink; to consume by drinking. (Perhaps in this sense confounded with quaff .) "Gargantua whifed the great draught." - Urquhart: Rabelais , bk. i., ch. xxxix. whif-fet, s. [English whiff, s.; dim in. suff.-et.] A little whiff.