*ses*

a. Controlled by an evil spirit or by evil passions; wild. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the doctrine or political position that opposes the withdrawal of state recognition of an established church; -- used especially concerning the Anglican Church in England. Opposed to disestablishmentarianism. [ PJC ]

n. Smartweed; water pepper. Dr. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Assessed p. pr. & vb. n. Assessing. ] [ OF. assesser to regulate, settle, LL. assessare to value for taxation, fr. L. assidere, supine as if assessum, to sit by, esp. of judges in a court, in LL. to assess, tax. Cf. Assize, v., Cess. ] 1. To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To determine and impose a tax or fine upon (a person, community, estate, or income); to tax; as, the club assessed each member twenty-five cents. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To fix or determine the rate or amount of. [ 1913 Webster ]

This sum is assessed and raised upon individuals by commissioners in the act. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Liable to be assessed or taxed; as, assessable property. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who is assessed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. assessio, fr. assid&unr_;re to sit by or near; ad + sed&unr_;re to sit. See Sit. ] A sitting beside or near. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. assessamentum. ] 1. The act of assessing; the act of determining an amount to be paid; as, an assessment of damages, or of taxes; an assessment of the members of a club. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A valuation of property or profits of business, for the purpose of taxation; such valuation and an adjudging of the proper sum to be levied on the property; as, an assessment of property or an assessment on property. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ An assessment is a valuation made by authorized persons according to their discretion, as opposed to a sum certain or determined by law. It is a valuation of the property of those who are to pay the tax, for the purpose of fixing the proportion which each man shall pay. Blackstone. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The specific sum levied or assessed. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An apportionment of a subscription for stock into successive installments; also, one of these installments (in England termed a “call”). [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L., one who sits beside, the assistant of a judge, fr. assid&unr_;re. See Assession. LL., one who arranges of determines the taxes, fr. assid&unr_;re. See Assess, v., and cf. Cessor. ] 1. One appointed or elected to assist a judge or magistrate with his special knowledge of the subject to be decided; as legal assessors, nautical assessors. Mozley & W. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who sits by another, as next in dignity, or as an assistant and adviser; an associate in office. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whence to his Son,
The assessor of his throne, he thus began. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

With his ignorance, his inclinations, and his fancy, as his assessors in judgment. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One appointed to assess persons or property for the purpose of taxation. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. assessorial, fr. L. assessor. ] Of or pertaining to an assessor, or to a court of assessors. Coxe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The office or function of an assessor. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ F. ] The garment for the legs and feet and for the body below the waist, worn in Europe throughout the Middle Ages; applied also to the armor for the same parts, when fixible, as of chain mail. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ Cf. F. chassis a framework of carpenty. ] (Mil.) The platforms, consisting of two or more planks doweled together, for the flooring of a temporary military bridge. Wilhelm. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞A singular, chess, is sometimes used. “Each chess consists of three planks.” Farrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A joint assessor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n., pl. An instrument for describing circles, measuring figures, etc., consisting of two, or (rarely) more, pointed branches, or legs, usually joined at the top by a rivet on which they move. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The compasses for drawing circles have adjustable pen points, pencil points, etc.; those used for measuring without adjustable points are generally called dividers. See Dividers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bow compasses. See Bow-compass. --
Caliber compasses,
Caliper compasses. See Calipers. --
Proportional,
Triangular, etc.,
compasses. See under Proportional, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. plural of diesis.
Syn. -- double daggers, double obelisks. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. To release from espousal or plighted faith. [ Poetic ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To unsettle; to break up (anything established); to deprive, as a church, of its connection with the state. M. Arnold. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act or process of unsettling or breaking up that which has been established; specifically, the withdrawal of the support of the state from an established church; as, the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church by Act of Parliament. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The condition of being disestablished. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The doctrine or political position that advocates abrogating the establishment of a church as the official state religion.. [ PJC ]

Prior to the Puritans, very few earlier believers contended for any form of disestablishmentarianism. David. W. Hall (Savior or Servant? Putting Government in Its Place: The Covenant Foundation, 1996)

n. Want of esteem; low estimation, inclining to dislike; disfavor; disrepute. [ 1913 Webster ]

Disesteem and contempt of the public affairs. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Disesteemed p. pr. & vb. n. Disesteeming. ] 1. To feel an absence of esteem for; to regard with disfavor or slight contempt; to slight. [ 1913 Webster ]

But if this sacred gift you disesteem. Denham. [ 1913 Webster ]

Qualities which society does not disesteem. Ld. Lytton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deprive of esteem; to bring into disrepute; to cause to be regarded with disfavor. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

What fables have you vexed, what truth redeemed,
Antiquities searched, opinions disesteemed? B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who disesteems. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Disesteem. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Dispossessed p. pr. & vb. n. Dispossessing. ] [ Pref. dis- + possess: cf. F. déposséder. ] To put out of possession; to deprive of the actual occupancy of, particularly of land or real estate; to disseize; to eject; -- usually followed by of before the thing taken away; as, to dispossess a king of his crown. [ 1913 Webster ]

Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. physically or spiritually homeless or deprived of security.
Syn. -- homeless, roofless. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

made a living out of shepherding dispossessed people from one country to another James Stern

n. [ Cf. F. dépossession. ] 1. The act of putting out of possession; the state of being dispossessed. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) The putting out of possession, wrongfully or otherwise, of one who is in possession of a freehold, no matter in what title; -- called also ouster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who dispossesses. Cowley. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. a pair of lenses fixed together in a frame, used for correcting defective vision. Also called a pair of eyeglasses. See also eyeglass{ 1 }.
Syn. -- spectacles, specs, glasses. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

a. 1. Holding or held formerly in possession. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Preoccupied; prepossessed; preëngaged. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not extremely forepossessed with prejudice. Bp. Sanderson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. Same as eyeglasses. See eyeglass{ 1 }.
Syn. -- spectacles, specs, eyeglasses. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Zool.) A harmless North American snake of the genus Heterodon, esp. Heterodon platyrhynos; -- called also puffing adder, blowing adder, and sand viper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A ludicrously false statement. [ Vulgar slang ]
Syn. -- bullshit, bull, Irish bull, shit, crap, bunk, bunkum, buncombe, guff, rot, hogwash, dogshit. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A shoe for horses, consisting of a narrow plate of iron in form somewhat like the letter U, nailed to a horse's hoof. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything shaped like a horsehoe, such as a U-shaped bend in a river. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) The Limulus or horsehoe crab. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. A game in which horseshoes or horseshoe-shaped objects (usually made of metal) are thrown at either of two stakes fixed in the ground at a distance of 30 to 40 feet apart. The player stands at or near one stake and throws several the horseshoes at the other stake. Points are scored when the player throws the horseshoe so that it surrounds the stake; fewer points are scored if the horseshoe is close to but not surrounding the stake. The players take turns and the first player to achieve the target score wins; as, “almost” only counts with hand grenades or in horseshoes. [ PJC ]

Horsehoe head (Med.), an old name for the condition of the skull in children, in which the sutures are too open, the coronal suture presenting the form of a horsehoe. Dunglison. --
Horsehoe magnet, an artificial magnet in the form of a horsehoe. --
Horsehoe nail. See Horsenail. --
Horsehoe nose (Zool.), a bat of the genus Rhinolophus, having a nasal fold of skin shaped like a horsehoe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or employment of shoeing horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who shoes horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a competitive exhibition of horses. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. insessio, fr. insidere, insessum, to sit in. See Insidious. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act of sitting, as in a tub or bath. “Used by way of fomentation, insession, or bath.” [ R. ] Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That in which one sits, as a bathing tub. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Insessions be bathing tubs half full. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Insessores [ See Insessores. ] (Zool.) One of the Insessores. The group includes most of the common singing birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. L. insessor, lit., one who sits down, fr. incidere. See Insession. ] (Zool.) An order of birds, formerly established to include the perching birds, but now generally regarded as an artificial group. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) 1. Pertaining to, or having the character of, perching birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Belonging or pertaining to the Insessores. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) Between sesamoid bones; as, intersesamoid ligaments. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Bot.) A name given to several species of the orchidaceous genus Spiranthes, in which the white flowers are set in spirals about a slender axis and remotely resemble braided hair. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ F. laissées, from laisser to leave. See Lease, v. t. ] The leavings or dung of beasts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) The name of several species of plants of the genus Lysimachia, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow color. (b) Any species of the genus Lythrum, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

False loosestrife, a plant of the genus Ludwigia, which includes several species, most of which are found in the United States. --
Tufted loosestrife, the plant Lysimachia thyrsiflora, found in the northern parts of the United States and in Europe. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. something lost, especially money lost at gambling. Inverse of winnings.
Syn. -- losings. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A marchioness. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Molasses. [ 1913 Webster ]