n. a sign language, used in the United States mostly by the deaf or for communication with the deaf, in which gestures made with the hands symbolize words, alphabetical letters, or ideas, permitting rapid communication in the absence of speech.
Syn. -- Ameslan. [ PJC ]

n. 1. (Computers) an artificial computer language with mnemonic codes representing the basic machine-language instructions of a computer, which can be interpreted by an assembler to produce a computer program in machine language. Also informally referred to as assembler. Writing a program in assembly language is very much simpler than writing the machine instructions in binary code, and the use of such a language greatly increases the efficiency of the process of writing computer programs. See also programming language, FORTRAN, BASIC. [ PJC ]

A Scottish phrase used in recalling recollections of times long since past. “The days of auld lang syne.” [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ D. boom tree + slang snake. ] (Zool.) A large South African tree snake (Bucephalus Capensis). Although considered venomous by natives, it has no poison fangs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Boulanger, a French mineralogist. ] (Min.) A mineral of a bluish gray color and metallic luster, usually in plumose masses, also compact. It is a sulphide of antimony and lead. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. boulangisme. ] The spirit or principles of a French political movement identified with Gen. Georges Boulanger (d. 1891), whose militarism and advocacy of revenge on Germany attracted to him a miscellaneous party of monarchists and Republican malcontents. -- Bou*lan"gist n. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Clanged p. pr. & vb. n. Clanging. ] [ L. clangere; akin to Gr. kla`zein to clash, scream; or perh. to E. clank. ] To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [ 1913 Webster ]

The fierce Caretes . . . clanged their sounding arms. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To give out a clang; to resound. “Clanging hoofs.” Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A loud, ringing sound, like that made by metallic substances when clanged or struck together. [ 1913 Webster ]

The broadsword's deadly clang,
As if a thousand anvils rang. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mus.) Quality of tone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate; as, he dropped a clanger. [ British ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. emitting a series of clangs, as of metal objects colliding.
Syn. -- clangorous. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L., fr. clangere. See Clang, v. t. ] A sharp, harsh, ringing sound. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a loud resonant repeating noise.
Syn. -- clang, clangor, clangour, clank, clash, crash, jangle. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ LL. clangorosus. ] Making a clangor; having a ringing, metallic sound. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Making a clang, or a ringing metallic sound. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A miner's two-pointed pick. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prov. E. flange to project, flanch a projection. See Flanch, Flank. ] 1. An external or internal rib, or rim, for strength, as the flange of an iron beam; or for a guide, as the flange of a car wheel (see Car wheel.); or for attachment to another object, as the flange on the end of a pipe, steam cylinder, etc. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A plate or ring to form a rim at the end of a pipe when fastened to the pipe. [ 1913 Webster ]

Blind flange, a plate for covering or closing the end of a pipe. --
Flange joint, a joint, as that of pipes, where the connecting pieces have flanges by which the parts are bolted together. Knight. --
Flange rail, a rail with a flange on one side, to keep wheels, etc. from running off. --
Flange turning, the process of forming a flange on a wrought iron plate by bending and hammering it when hot. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Flanged p. pr. & vb. n. Flanging ] (Mach.) To make a flange on; to furnish with a flange. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be bent into a flange. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a flange or flanges; as, a flanged wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ , n.[ OE. galingale, OF. galingal, garingal, F. galanga (cf. Sp. galanga), prob. fr. Ar. khalanjān. ] The pungent aromatic rhizome or tuber of certain East Indian or Chinese species of Alpinia (Alpinia Galanga and Alpinia officinarum) and of the Kæmpferia Galanga), -- all of the Ginger family. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Computers) A computer programming language with an instruction set allowing one instruction to code for several assembly language instructions. The aggregation of several assembly-language instructions into one instruction allows much greater efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs are now written in some higher programming language, such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++, PROLOG, or JAVA. [ PJC ]

n. [ Malayan, flower of flowers. ] A rich, powerful, perfume, obtained from the volatile oil of the flowers of Canada odorata, an East Indian tree. [ Also written ylang-ylang. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An oil distilled from flowers of the ilang-ilang tree, used in perfumery. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. An evergreen Asian tree (Cananga odorata) with aromatic greenish-yellow flowers yielding a volatile oil; widely grown in the tropics as an ornamental.
Syn. -- ylang-ylang, Cananga odorata. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. A family of languages, mostly of the isolating type, although some are agglutinative, spoken in the great area extending from northern India in the west to Formosa in the east and from Central Asia in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. (Anat.) Between phalanges; as, interphalangeal articulations. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Computers) A programming language used to specify the manner, timing, and other requirements of execution of a task or set of tasks submitted for execution, especially in background, on a multitasking computer; a programming language for controlling job{ 7 } execution. Abbreviated JCL. [ PJC ]

a. & adv. Long. [ Obs. or Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A curious colubriform snake of the genus Xyphorhynchus, from Madagascar. It is brownish red, and its nose is prolonged in the form of a sharp blade. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) One of numerous species of long-winged, shrikelike birds of Australia and the East Indies, of the genus Artamus, and allied genera; called also wood swallow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Surg.) A linen roller used in dressing wounds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A wolf (Canis pallipes), found in India, allied to the jackal. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. A kind of shot formerly used at sea for tearing sails and rigging. It consisted of bolts, nails, and other pieces of iron fastened together or inclosed in a canister. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A kind of loaded die. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Langrage. [ Sometimes compounded with shot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. & n. [ Scot. lang long + syne since. ] Long since; long ago. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Loo. ] An old game at cards. See Loo (a). Tatler. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See Tongue, cf. Lingual. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented to the eye by letters, marks, or characters, which form words. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style. [ 1913 Webster ]

Others for language all their care express. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

There was . . . language in their very gesture. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A race, as distinguished by its speech. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. Dan. iii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. Any system of symbols created for the purpose of communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between sentient agents. [ PJC ]

10. Specifically: (computers) Any set of symbols and the rules for combining them which are used to specify to a computer the actions that it is to take; also referred to as a computer lanugage or programming language; as, JAVA is a new and flexible high-level language which has achieved popularity very rapidly. [ PJC ]

☞ Computer languages are classed a low-level if each instruction specifies only one operation of the computer, or high-level if each instruction may specify a complex combination of operations. Machine language and assembly language are low-level computer languages. FORTRAN, COBOL and C are high-level computer languages. Other computer languages, such as JAVA, allow even more complex combinations of low-level operations to be performed with a single command. Many programs, such as databases, are supplied with special languages adapted to manipulate the objects of concern for that specific program. These are also high-level languages. [ PJC ]

Language master, a teacher of languages. [ Obs. ]

Syn. -- Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk. -- Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom, Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo-Saxon term for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties of expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Languaged p. pr. & vb. n. Languaging ] To communicate by language; to express in language. [ 1913 Webster ]

Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a language; skilled in language; -- chiefly used in composition. “ Many-languaged nations.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lacking or wanting language; speechless; silent. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. langue tongue. See Language. ] (Her.) Tongued; having the tongue visible. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lions . . . represented as armed and langued gules. Cussans. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖pos>n. [ F., language of oc yes. ] The dialect, closely akin to French, formerly spoken south of the Loire (in which the word for “yes” was

‖ [ F., language of oïl yes. ] The dialect formerly spoken north of the Loire (in which the word for “yes” was

‖adv. [ It., p. pr. of languire. See Languish. ] (Mus.) In a languishing manner; pathetically. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. languette, dim. of langue tongue, L. lingua. ] 1. Anything resembling the tongue in form or office; specif., the slip of metal in an organ pipe which turns the current of air toward its mouth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That part of the hilt, in certain kinds of swords, which overlaps the scabbard. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. languidus, fr. languere to be faint or languid: cf. F. languide. See Languish. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Drooping or flagging from exhaustion; indisposed to exertion; without animation; weak; weary; heavy; dull. “ Languid, powerless limbs. ” Armstrong. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Slow in progress; tardy. “ No motion so swift or languid.” Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness; as, a languid day. [ 1913 Webster ]

Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon. Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their idleness, aimless flirtations and languid airs. W. Black.

Syn. -- Feeble; weak; faint; sickly; pining; exhausted; weary; listless; heavy; dull; heartless.

-- Lan"guid*ly, adv. -- Lan"guid*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Languished p. pr. & vb. n. Languishing. ] [ OE. languishen, languissen, F. languir, L. languere; cf. Gr. &unr_; to slacken, &unr_; slack, Icel. lakra to lag behind; prob. akin to E. lag, lax, and perh. to E. slack. See -ish. ] 1. To become languid or weak; to lose strength or animation; to be or become dull, feeble or spiritless; to pine away; to linger in a weak or deteriorating condition; to wither or fade. [ 1913 Webster ]

We . . . do languish of such diseases. 2 Esdras viii. 31. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

For the fields of Heshbon languish. Is. xvi. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To assume an expression of weariness or tender grief, appealing for sympathy. Tennyson.

3. To be neglected and unattended to; as, the proposal languished on the director's desk for months. [ PJC ]

Syn. -- To pine; wither; fade; droop; faint. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To cause to droop or pine. [ Obs. ] Shak. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Languishment. [ Obs. or Poetic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

What, of death, too,
That rids our dogs of languish? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]