RAPEROOT — RAVELED
RAPESEED, n. The seed of the rape, from which oil is expressed.
RAPID, a. [L. rapidus, from rapio, the primary sense of which is to rush.]
1. Very swift or quick; moving with celerity; as a rapid stream; a rapid flight; a rapid motion.NWAD RAPID.2
Part shun the goal with rapid wheels.NWAD RAPID.3
2. Advancing with haste or speed; speedy in progression; as rapid growth; rapid improvement.NWAD RAPID.4
3. Of quick utterance of words; as a rapid speaker.NWAD RAPID.5
RAPIDITY, n. [L. rapiditas.]
1. Swiftness; celerity; velocity; as the rapidity of a current; the rapidity of motion of any kind.NWAD RAPIDITY.2
2. Haste in utterance; as the rapidity of speech or pronunciation.NWAD RAPIDITY.3
3. Quickness of progression or advance; as rapidity of growth or improvement.NWAD RAPIDITY.4
1. With great speed, celerity or velocity; swiftly; with quick progression; as, to run rapidly; to grow or improve rapidly.NWAD RAPIDLY.2
2. With quick utterance; as, to speak rapidly.NWAD RAPIDLY.3
RAPIDNESS, n. Swiftness; speed; celerity; rapidity.
RAPIDS, n. plu. The part of a river where the current moves with more celerity than the common current. Rapids imply a considerable descent of the earth, but not sufficient to occasion a fall of the water, or what is called a cascade or cataract.
RAPIER, n. A small sword used only in thrusting.
RAPIL, RAPILLO, n. Pulverized volcanic substances.
RAPINE, n. [L. rapina; rapio, to seize.]
1. The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of things by force.NWAD RAPINE.2
2. Violence; force.NWAD RAPINE.3
RAPINE, v.t. To plunder.
RAPPAREE, n. A wild Irish plunderer; so called from rapery, a half pike that he carries.
RAPPEE, n. A coarse kind of snuff.
RAPPER, n. [from rap.]
1. One that raps or knocks.NWAD RAPPER.2
2. The knocker of a door. [Not in common use.]NWAD RAPPER.3
3. An oath or a lie. [Not in use.]NWAD RAPPER.4
RAPPORT, n. Relation; proportion. [Not in use.]
RAPT, pp. [from rap.] Transported; ravished.
RAPT, v.t. To transport or ravish. [Not legitimate or in use.]
RAPT, n.
1. An ecstasy; a trance.NWAD RAPT.4
2. Rapidity. [Not in use.]NWAD RAPT.5
RAPTER, RAPTOR, n. [L. raptor.] A ravisher; a plunderer.
RAPTURE, n. [L. raptus, rapio.]
1. A seizing by violence. [Little used.]NWAD RAPTURE.2
2. Transport; ecstasy; violence of a pleasing passion; extreme joy or pleasure.NWAD RAPTURE.3
Music when thus applied, raises in the mind of the hearer great conceptions; it strengthens devotion and advances praise into rapture.NWAD RAPTURE.4
3. Rapidity with violence; a hurrying along with velocity; as rolling with torrent rapture.NWAD RAPTURE.5
4. Enthusiasm; uncommon heat of imagination.NWAD RAPTURE.6
You grow correct, that once with rapture writ.NWAD RAPTURE.7
RAPTURED, a. Ravished; transported.
[But enraptured is generally used.]NWAD RAPTURED.2
RAPTURIST, n. An enthusiast.
RAPTUROUS, a. Ecstatic; transporting; ravishing; as rapturous joy, pleasure or delight.
RARE, a. [L. rarus, thin.]
1. Uncommon; not frequent; as a rare event; a rare phenomenon.NWAD RARE.2
2. Unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found.NWAD RARE.3
Rare work, all fill’d with terror and delight.NWAD RARE.4
Above the rest I judge one beauty rare.NWAD RARE.5
3. Thinly scattered.NWAD RARE.6
4. Thin; porous; not dense; as a rare and attenuate substance.NWAD RARE.7
Water is nineteen times lighter and by consequence nineteen times rarer than gold.NWAD RARE.8
5. Nearly raw; imperfectly roasted or boiled; as rare beef or mutton; eggs roasted rare.NWAD RARE.9
RAREESHOW, n. [rare and show.] A show carried in a box.
The act or process of expanding or distending bodies, by separating the parts and rendering the bodies more rare or porous, by which operation they appear under a larger bulk, or require more room, without an accession of new matter; opposed to condensation; as the rarefaction of air.NWAD RAREFACTION.2
RAREFIABLE, a. Capable of being rarefied.
RAREFY, v.t. [L. rarefacio; rarus, rare, and facio, to make.]
To make thin and porous or less dense; to expand or enlarge a body without adding to it any new portion of its own matter; opposed to condense.NWAD RAREFY.2
RAREFY, v.i. To become thin and porous.
RAREFYING, ppr. Making thin or less dense.
1. Seldom; not often; as things rarely seen.NWAD RARELY.2
2. Finely; nicely. [little used.]NWAD RARELY.3
1. The state of being uncommon; uncommonness; infrequency.NWAD RARENESS.2
And let the rareness the small gift commend.NWAD RARENESS.3
2. Value arising from scarcity.NWAD RARENESS.4
3. Thinness; tenuity; as the rareness of air or vapor.NWAD RARENESS.5
4. Distance from each other; thinness.NWAD RARENESS.6
Early ripe; ripe before others, or before the usual season.NWAD RARERIPE.2
RARERIPE, n. An early fruit, particularly a kind of peach which ripens early.
RARITY, n. [L. raritas.]
1. Uncommonness; infrequency.NWAD RARITY.2
Far from being fond of a flower for its rarity -NWAD RARITY.3
2. A thing valued for its scarcity.NWAD RARITY.4
I saw three rarities of different kinds, which pleased me more than any other shows in the place.NWAD RARITY.5
3. Thinness; tenuity; opposed to density; as the rarity of air.NWAD RARITY.6
A mean fellow; a scoundrel; in modern usage, a trickish dishonest fellow; a rogue; particularly applied to men and boys guilty of the lesser crimes, and indicating less enormity or guilt than villain.NWAD RASCAL.2
I have sense to serve my turn in store, and he’s a rascal who pretends to more.NWAD RASCAL.3
RASCAL, a.
1. Lean; as a rascal deer.NWAD RASCAL.5
2. Mean; low.NWAD RASCAL.6
RASCALION, n. [from rascal.] A low mean wretch.
1. The low mean people.NWAD RASCALITY.2
2. Mean trickishness or dishonesty; base fraud. [This is its sense in present usage in America.]NWAD RASCALITY.3
1. Meanly trickish or dishonest; vile.NWAD RASCALLY.2
2. Mean; vile; base; worthless; as a rascally porter.NWAD RASCALLY.3
RASE, v.t. s as z. [L. rasus, rado.]
1. To pass along the surface of a thing, with striking or rubbing it at the same time; to graze.NWAD RASE.2
Might not the bullet which rased his cheek, have gone into his head? Obs.NWAD RASE.3
2. To erase; to scratch or rub out; or to blot out; to cancel.NWAD RASE.4
[In this sense, erase is generally used.]NWAD RASE.5
3. To level with the ground; to overthrow; to destroy; as, to rase a city.NWAD RASE.6
[In this sense, raze is generally used. This orthography, rase, may therefore be considered as nearly obsolete; graze, erase and raze having superseded it.]NWAD RASE.7
RASE, n.
1. A cancel; erasure. [Not in use.]NWAD RASE.9
2. A slight wound. [Not in use.]NWAD RASE.10
1. Hasty in council or action; precipitate; resolving or entering on a project or measure without due deliberation and caution, and thus encountering unnecessary hazard; applied to persons; as a rash statesman or minister; a rash commander.NWAD RASH.2
2. Uttered or undertaken with too much haste or too little reflection; as rash words; rash measures.NWAD RASH.3
3. Requiring haste; urgent.NWAD RASH.4
I have scarce leisure to salute you, my matter is so rash.NWAD RASH.5
4. Quick; sudden; as rash gunpowder. [Not in use.]NWAD RASH.6
RASH, n. Corn so dry as to fall out with handling. [Local.]
RASH, n.
1. Satin.NWAD RASH.9
2. An eruption or efflorescence on the body.NWAD RASH.10
RASH, v.t. To slice; to cut into pieces; to divide.
RASHER, n. A thin slice of bacon; a thin cut.
RASHLY, adv. With precipitation; hastily; without due deliberation.
He that doth any thing rashly, must do it willingly.NWAD RASHLY.2
So rashly brave, to dare the sword of Theseus.NWAD RASHLY.3
1. To much haste in resolving or in undertaking a measure; precipitation; inconsiderate readiness or promptness to decide or act, implying disregard of consequences or contempt of danger; applied to persons. The failure of enterprises is often owing to rashness.NWAD RASHNESS.2
We offend by rashness, which is an affirming or denying before we have sufficiently informed ourselves.NWAD RASHNESS.3
2. The quality of being uttered or done without due deliberation; as the rashness of words or of undertakings.NWAD RASHNESS.4
RASP, n. [See Rase.]
1. A large rough file; a grater.NWAD RASP.2
2. A raspberry, which see.NWAD RASP.3
RASP, v.t. [See Rase.]
To rub or file with a rasp; to rub or grate with a rough file; as, to rasp wood to make it smooth; to rasp bones to powder.NWAD RASP.5
RASPATORY, n. A surgeon’s rasp.
RASPBERRY, n. [from rasp, so named from the roughness of the brambles.]
The fruit of a bramble or species of rubus; a berry growing on a prickly plant; as the black raspberry; the red and the white raspberry.NWAD RASPBERRY.2
RASPBERRY-BUSH, n. The bramble producing raspberries.
RASURE, n. s as z. [L. rasura, from rado, rasus. See Rase.]
1. The act of scraping or shaving; the act of erasing.NWAD RASURE.2
2. The mark by which a letter, word or any part of a writing is erased, effaced or obliterated; an erasure.NWAD RASURE.3
RAT, n. [Probably named from gnawing, and from the root of L. rodo.]
A small quadruped of the genus Mus, which infests houses, stores and ships; a troublesome race of animals.NWAD RAT.2
To smell a rat, to be suspicious, to be on the watch from suspicion; as a cat by the scent or noise of a rat.NWAD RAT.3
RATABLE, a. [from rate.]
1. That may be rated, or set at a certain value; as a Danish ore ratable at two marks.NWAD RATABLE.2
2. Liable or subjected by law to taxation; as ratable estate.NWAD RATABLE.3
RATABLY, adv. By rate or proportion; proportionally.
RATAFIA, n. ratafee’. A fine spirituous liquor, prepared from the kernels of several kinds of fruits, particularly of cherries, apricots and peaches.
RATAN, n. A small cane, the growth of India.
RAT-CATCHER, n. One who makes it his business to catch rats.
RATCH, n. In clock work, a sort of wheel having twelve fangs, which serve to lift the detents every hour and thereby cause the clock to strike.
RATCHET, n. In a watch, a small tooth at the bottom of the fusee or barrel, which stops it in winding up.
RATCHIL, n. Among miners, fragments of stone.
RATE, n. [L. ratus, reor, contracted from retor, redor, or resor. See Ratio and Reason.]
1. The proportion or standard by which quantity or value is adjusted; as silver valued at the rate of six shillings and eight pence the ounce.NWAD RATE.2
The rate and standard of wit was different then from what it is in these days.NWAD RATE.3
2. Price or amount stated or fixed on any thing. A king may purchase territory at too dear a rate. The rate of interest is prescribed by law.NWAD RATE.4
3. Settled allowance; as a daily rate of provisions. 2 Kings 25:30.NWAD RATE.5
4. Degree; comparative height or value.NWAD RATE.6
I am a spirit of no common rate.NWAD RATE.7
In this did his holiness and godliness apear above the rate and pitch of other men’s, in that he was so infintely merciful.NWAD RATE.8
5. Degree in which any thing is done. the ship sails at the rate of seven knots an hour.NWAD RATE.9
Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come lup soon enough.NWAD RATE.10
6. Degree of value; price. Wheat in England is often sold at the rate of fifty shillings the quarter. wit may be purchased at too dear a rate.NWAD RATE.11
7. a tax or sum assessed by authority on property for public use, according to its income or value; as parish rates; town rates; highway rates.NWAD RATE.12
8. In the navy, the order or class of a ship, according to its magnitude or force. Ships of the first rate mount a hundred guns or upwards; those of the second rate carry from 90 to 98 guns; those of the third rate carry from 64 to 80 guns; those of the fourth rate from 50 to 60 guns; those of the fifth rate from 32 to 44 guns; those of the sixth rate from 20 to 30 guns. Those of the two latter rates are called frigates.NWAD RATE.13
RATE, v.t.
1. To set a certain value on; to value at a certain price or degree of excellence.NWAD RATE.15
You seem not high enough your joys to rate.NWAD RATE.16
Instead of rating the man by his performances, we too frequently rate the performance by the man.NWAD RATE.17
2. To fix the magnitude, force or order, as of ships. A ship is rated in the first class, or as a ship of the line.NWAD RATE.18
RATE, v.i.
1. To be set or considered in a class, as a ship. The ship rates as a ship of the line.NWAD RATE.20
2. To make an estimate.NWAD RATE.21
RATE, v.t. [See Read. It is probably allied to rattle, and perhaps to L. rudo.]
To chide with vehemence; to reprove; to scold; to censure violently.NWAD RATE.23
Go, rate thy minions, proud insulting boy.NWAD RATE.24
An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir.NWAD RATE.25
1. Set at a certain value; estimated; set in a certain order or rank.NWAD RATED.2
2. Chid; reproved.NWAD RATED.3
RATER, n. One who sets a value on or makes an estimate.
RATH, n. A hill. Obs.
RATH, a. [See Ready.]
Early; coming before others, or before the usual time.NWAD RATH.3
Bring the rath primrose, that forsaken dies.NWAD RATH.4
We sometimes see the word rath-ripe, early ripe; but it is obsolete or nearly so. In the United States, I believe it is not used at all.NWAD RATH.5
RATHER, adv. [I would rather go, or sooner go. The use is taken from pushing or moving forward.] [L. ante, before. But he said, yea rather, happy are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Luke 11:28.]
1. More readily or willingly; with better liking; with preference or choice.NWAD RATHER.2
My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life. Job 7:15.NWAD RATHER.3
Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:19; Psalm 84:10.NWAD RATHER.4
2. In preference; preferably; with better reason. Good is rather to be chosen than evil. See Acts 5:29.NWAD RATHER.5
3. In a greater degree than otherwise.NWAD RATHER.6
He sought throughout the world, but sought in vain, and no where finding, rather fear’d her slain.NWAD RATHER.7
4. More properly; more correctly speaking.NWAD RATHER.8
This is an art which does mend nature, change it rather; but the art itself is nature.NWAD RATHER.9
5. Noting some degree of contrariety in fact.NWAD RATHER.10
She was nothing better, but rather grew worse. Mark 5:26; Matthew 27:24.NWAD RATHER.11
The rather, especially; for better reason; for particular cause.NWAD RATHER.12
You are come to me in a happy time, the rather for I have some sport in hand.NWAD RATHER.13
Had rather, is supposed to be a corruption of would rather.NWAD RATHER.14
I had rather speak five words with my understanding. 1 Corinthians 14:19.NWAD RATHER.15
This phrase may have been originally, “I’d rather,” for I would rather, and the contraction afterwards mistaken for had. Correct speakers and writers generally use would in all such phrases; I would rather, I prefer; I desire in preference.NWAD RATHER.16
RATHOFFITE, n. A mineral brought from Sweden, of the garnet kind. Its color is a dingy brownish black, and it is accompanied with calcarious spar and small crystals of hornblend.
1. The act of ratifying; confirmation.NWAD RATIFICATION.2
2. The act of giving sanction and validity to something done by another; as the ratification of a treaty by the senate of the United States.NWAD RATIFICATION.3
RATIFIED, pp. Confirmed; sanctioned; made valid.
RATIFIER, n. He or that which ratifies or sanctions.
RATIFY, v.t. [L. ratum facio, to make firm.]
1. To confirm; to establish; to settle.NWAD RATIFY.2
We have ratified to them the borders of Judea.NWAD RATIFY.3
2. To approve and sanction; to make valid; as, to ratify an agreement or treaty.NWAD RATIFY.4
RATIFYING, ppr. Confirming; establishing; approving and sanctioning.
RATING, ppr. [from rate.]
1. Setting at a certain value; assigning rant to; estimating.NWAD RATING.2
2. Chiding; reproving.NWAD RATING.3
RATIO, n. ra’sho. [L. from ratus, reor, to think or suppose, to set, confirm or establish. Reor is contracted from redor or retor, and primarily signifies to throw, to thrust, hence to speak, to set in the mind, to think, like L. suppono; and setting gives the sense of a fixed rate or rule. See Reason.]
Proportion, or the relation of homogeneous things which determines the quantity of one from the quantity of another, without the intervention of a third.NWAD RATIO.2
The relation which one quantity has to another of the same kind, as expressed by the quotient of the one divided by the other. Thus the ratio of 4 to 2 is 4/2, or 2; and the ratio of 5 to 6 is 5/6. This is geometrical ratio, which is that signified when the term is used without distinction; but arithmetical ratio is the difference between two quantities. Thus the arithmetical ratio of 2 to 6 is 4.NWAD RATIO.3
Ratio respects magnitudes of the same kind only. One line may be compared with another line, but a line cannot be compared with a superficies, and hence between a line and a superficies there can be no ratio.NWAD RATIO.4
RATIOCINATE, v.i. [L. ratiocinor, from ratio, reason.] To reason; to argue. [Little used.]
RATIOCINATION, n. [L. ratiocinatio.] The act or process of reasoning, or of deducing consequences from premises. [See Reasoning.]
RATIOCINATIVE, a. Argumentative; consisting in the comparison of propositions or facts, and the deduction of inferences from the comparison; as a ratiocinative process. [A bad word and little used.]
RATION, n. [L. ratio, proportion.]
A portion or fixed allowance of provisions, drink and forage, assigned to each soldier in an army for his daily subsistence and for the subsistence of horses. Officers have several rations according to their rank or number of attendants. Seamen in the navy also have rations of certain articles.NWAD RATION.2
RATIONAL, a. [L. rationalis.]
1. Having reason or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason; opposed to irrational; as, man is a rational being; brutes are not rational animals.NWAD RATIONAL.2
It is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature.NWAD RATIONAL.3
2. Agreeable to reason; opposed to absurd; as a rational conclusion or inference; rational conduct.NWAD RATIONAL.4
3. Agreeable to reason; not extravagant.NWAD RATIONAL.5
4. Acting in conformity to reason; wise; judicious; as a rational man.NWAD RATIONAL.6
RATIONAL, n. A rational being.
1. A detail with reasons; a series of reasons assigned; as Dr. Sparrow’s rationale of the Common Prayer.NWAD RATIONALE.2
2. An account or solution of the principles of some opinion, action, hypothesis, phenomenon, etc.NWAD RATIONALE.3
RATIONALIST, n. One who proceeds in his disquisitions and practice wholly upon reason.
1. The power of reasoning.NWAD RATIONALITY.2
God has made rationality the common portion of mankind.NWAD RATIONALITY.3
2. Reasonableness.NWAD RATIONALITY.4
Well directed intentions, whose rationalities will not bear a rigid examination.NWAD RATIONALITY.5
RATIONALLY, adv. In consistency with reason; reasonably. We rationally expect every man will pursue his own happiness.
RATIONALNESS, n. The state of being rational or consistent with reason.
RATLIN, RATLINE, n. A small line traversing the shrouds of a ship, making the step of a ladder for ascending to the mast-heads.
A sprout from the root of the sugar cane, which has been cut.NWAD RATOON.2
RATSBANE, n. [rat and bane.] Poison for rats; arsenic.
RATSBANED, a. Poisoned by ratsbane.
RAT-TAIL, n. In farriery, an excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.
RATTEEN, n. A thick woolen stuff quilled or twilled.
RATTINET, n. A woolen stuff thinner than ratteen.
1. To make a quick sharp noise rapidly repeated, by the collision of bodies not very sonorous. When bodies are sonorous, it is called jingling. We say, the wheels rattle over the pavement.NWAD RATTLE.2
And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms.NWAD RATTLE.3
He fagoted his notions as they fell, and if they rhym’d and rattl’d, all was well.NWAD RATTLE.4
2. To speak eagerly and noisily; to utter words in a clattering manner.NWAD RATTLE.5
Thus turbulent in rattling tone she spoke.NWAD RATTLE.6
He rattles it out against popery.NWAD RATTLE.7
RATTLE, v.t.
1. To cause to make a rattling sound or a rapid succession of sharp sounds; as, to rattle a chain.NWAD RATTLE.9
2. To stun with noise; to drive with sharp sounds rapidly repeated.NWAD RATTLE.10
Sound but another, and another shall, as loud as thine, rattle the welkin’s ear.NWAD RATTLE.11
3. To scold; to rail at clamorously; as, to rattle off servants sharply.NWAD RATTLE.12
RATTLE, n.
1. A rapid succession of sharp clattering sounds; as the rattle of a drum.NWAD RATTLE.14
2. A rapid succession of words sharply uttered; loud rapid talk; clamorous chiding.NWAD RATTLE.15
3. An instrument with which a clattering sound is made.NWAD RATTLE.16
The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.NWAD RATTLE.17
The rhymes and rattles of the man or boy.NWAD RATTLE.18
4. A plant of the genus Pedicularis, louse-wort.NWAD RATTLE.19
Yellow rattle, a plant of the genus Rhinanthus.NWAD RATTLE.20
RATTLE-HEADED, a. Noisy; giddy; unsteady.
RATTLESNAKE, n. A snake that has rattles at the tail, of the genus Crotalus. The rattles consist of articulated horny cells, which the animal vibrates in such a manner as to make a rattling sound. The poison of the rattlesnake is deadly.
RATTLESNAKE-ROOT, n. A plant or root of the genus Polygala, and another of the genus Prenanthes.
RATTLESNAKE-WEED, n. A plant of the genus Eryngium.
RATTLING, ppr. Making a quick succession of sharp sounds.
RATTLING, n. A rapid succession of sharp sounds. Nahum 3:2.
RAUCITY, n. [L. raucus, hoarse. Raucus is the Eng. rough, which see.]
1. Hoarseness; a loud rough sound; as the raucity of a trumpet.NWAD RAUCITY.2
2. Among physicians, hoarseness of the human voice.NWAD RAUCITY.3
RAUCOUS, a. Hoarse; harsh. [Not in use.]
RAUGHT, the old participle of reach. Obs.
RAUNCH. [See Wrench.]
RAVAGE, n. [L. rapio.]
1. Spoil; ruin; waste; destruction by violence, wither by men, beasts or physical causes; as the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army.NWAD RAVAGE.2
Would one think ‘twene possible for love to make such ravage in a noble soul.NWAD RAVAGE.3
2. Waste; ruin; destruction by decay; as the ravages of time.NWAD RAVAGE.4
RAVAGE, v.t.
1. To spoil; to plunder; to pillage; to sack.NWAD RAVAGE.6
Already Cesar has ravag’d more than half the globe!NWAD RAVAGE.7
2. To lay waste by any violent force; as, a flood or inundation ravages the meadows.NWAD RAVAGE.8
The shatter’d forest and the ravag’d vale.NWAD RAVAGE.9
3. to waste or destroy by eating; as fields ravaged by swarms of locusts.NWAD RAVAGE.10
RAVAGED, pp. Wasted; destroyed; pillaged.
RAVAGER, n. a plunderer a spoiler; he or that which lays waste.
RAVAGING, ppr. Plundering; pillaging; laying waste.
RAVE, v.i. [L. rabio, to rave, to rage or be furious; rabies, rage.]
1. To wander in mind or intellect; to be delirious; to talk irrationally; to be wild.NWAD RAVE.2
When men thus rave, we may conclude their brains are turned.NWAD RAVE.3
2. To utter furious exclamations; to be furious or raging; as a madman.NWAD RAVE.4
Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast?NWAD RAVE.5
3. To dote; to be unreasonably fond; followed by upon; as, to rave upon antiquity. [Hardly proper.]NWAD RAVE.6
RAVE, n. the upper side-piece of timber of the body of a cart.
RAVEL, v.t. rav’l.
1. To entangle; to entwist together; to make intricate; to involve; to perplex.NWAD RAVEL.2
What glory’s due to him that could divide such ravel’d inte’rests, has the knot unty’d?NWAD RAVEL.3
2. To untwist; to unweave or unknot; to disentangle; as, to ravel out a twist; to ravel out a stocking.NWAD RAVEL.4
Sleep, that knits up the ravel’d sleeve of care.NWAD RAVEL.5
3. to hurry or run over in confusion. [Not in use.]NWAD RAVEL.6
RAVEL, v.i. rav’l.
1. To fall into perplexity and confusion.NWAD RAVEL.8
Till by their own perplexities involv’d, they ravel more, still less resolv’d.NWAD RAVEL.9
2. To work in perplexities; to busy one’s self with intricacies; to enter by winding and turning.NWAD RAVEL.10
It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder times.NWAD RAVEL.11
The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters - produced infinite diputes.NWAD RAVEL.12
3. To be unwoven.NWAD RAVEL.13
[As far as my observation extends, ravel, in the United States, is used only in the second sense above, viz. to unweave, to separate the texture of that which is woven or knit; so that ravel and unravel are with us always synonymous. etymology proves this to be the true sense of the word ravel.]NWAD RAVEL.14
RAVELED, pp. Twisted together; made intricate; disentangled.