John Ray
Naturalist, 1627-1705
Cited as Ray. — 52 quotations
Abscond
The marmot absconds all winter.
Affix
Should they [caterpillars] affix them to the leaves of a plant improper for their food.
Alleviate
Those large bladders . . . conduce much to the alleviating of the body [of flying birds].
Annual
The annual overflowing of the river [Nile].
Argument
There is.. no more palpable and convincing argument of the existence of a Deity.
Assert
Nothing is more shameful . . . than to assert anything to be done without a cause.
Asseveration
Another abuse of the tongue I might add, -- vehement asseverations upon slight and trivial occasions.
Carnose
A distinct carnose muscle.
Caul
The caul serves for the warming of the lower belly.
Clothing
Instructing [refugees] in the art of clothing.
Compages
A regular compages of pipes and vessels.
Contort
The vertebral arteries are variously contorted.
Corpulence
The heaviness and corpulency of water requiring a great force to divide it.
Corruptive
It should be endued with some corruptive quality for so speedy a dissolution of the meat.
Delassation
Able to continue without delassation.
Delf
The delfts would be so flown with waters, that no gins or machines could . . . keep them dry.
Dense
All sorts of bodies, firm and fluid, dense and rare.
Dike
Little channels or dikes cut to every bed.
Down
Hills afford prospects, as they must needs acknowledge who have been on the downs of Sussex.
Droughty
Droughty and parched countries.
Envy
Envy is a repining at the prosperity or good of another, or anger and displeasure at any good of another which we want, or any advantage another hath above us.
Equability
For the celestial bodies, the equability and constancy of their motions argue them ordained by wisdom.
Eucharistic
The eucharistical part of our daily devotions.
Exonerate
All exonerate themselves into one common duct.
Extant
That part of the teeth which is extant above the gums.
Fleshy
The sole of his foot is fleshy.
Flush
In manner of a wave or flush.
Gill
Fishes perform respiration under water by the gills.
Gregarious
No birds of prey are gregarious.
Indefinitely
If the world be indefinitely extended, that is, so far as no human intellect can fancy any bound of it.
Inequality
There is so great an inequality in the length of our legs and arms as makes it impossible for us to walk on all four.
Joint
The fingers are jointed together for motion.
Lax
The flesh of that sort of fish being lax and spongy.
Morbose
Morbose tumors and excrescences of plants.
Organize
These nobler faculties of the mind, matter organized could never produce.
Origination
This eruca is propagated by animal parents, to wit, butterflies, after the common origination of all caterpillars.
Panoply
We had need to take the Christian panoply, to put on the whole armor of God.
Penetrate
Things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate.
Perfective
Actions perfective of their natures.
Propagation
There is not in nature any spontaneous generation, but all come by propagation.
Pulchritude
By the pulchritude of their souls make up what is wanting in the beauty of their bodies.
Quicken
The heart is the first part that quickens, and the last that dies.
Rain
Rain is water by the heat of the sun divided into very small parts ascending in the air, till, encountering the cold, it be condensed into clouds, and descends in drops.
Ramp
With claspers and tendrils, they [plants] catch hold, . . . and so ramping upon trees, they mount up to a great height.
Refund
Were the humors of the eye tinctured with any color, they would refund that color upon the object.
Rule
We subdue and rule over all other creatures.
Run
A talkative person runs himself upon great inconveniences by blabbing out his own or other's secrets.
Sequacious
In the greater bodies the forge was easy, the matter being ductile and sequacious.
Shingle
I reached St. Asaph, . . . where there is a very poor cathedral church covered with shingles or tiles.
Subservient
These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another.
Suffusion
To those that have the jaundice, or like suffusion of eyes, objects appear of that color.
Torpid
Without heat all things would be torpid.