RECOUNT, n. In American politics, another throw of the dice, accorded to the player against whom they are loaded.

REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; Refusals are graded in a descending scale of finality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, the refusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called by some casuists the refusal assentive.

Before undergoing a surgical operation, arrange your temporal affairs. You may live.

OBSERVATORY, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guesses of their predecessors.

OSTRICH, n. A large bird to which (for its sins, doubtless) nature has denied that hinder toe . . . . The absence of a good working pair of wings is no defect, for, as has been ingeniously pointed out, the ostrich does not fly.

Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom.