Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NUT'MEG, n. [L. nux moschata; It. noce moscada; Port. noz moscada; Fr. muscade or noix muscade. But it may be questioned whether the last syllable in English meg, is not from L. macis, mace, the bark that envelops the nut.]

The kernel of the fruit of the Myristica moschata. This fruit is nearly a spherical drupe of the size, and somewhat of the shape of a pear. The fleshy part is of a yellowish color without, almost white within, and four or five lines in thickness, and opens into two nearly equal longitudinal valves, presenting to view the nut surrounded by its arillus, which is mace. The nut drops out and the arillus withers. The nut is oval, the shell very hard and dark-brown. This immediately envelops the kernel, which is the nutmeg as commonly sold in the shops. The tree producing this fruit grows principally in the islands of Banda, in the East Indies. It reaches the highth of twenty or thirty feet, producing numerous branches. The color of the bark of the trunk is a reddish brown; that of the young blanches a bright green. The nutmeg is an aromatic, very grateful to the taste and smell, and much used in cookery.

NU-TRI-CATION, n.

Manner of feeding or being fed. [Not in use.]

NU'TRI-ENT, a. [L. nutrio.]

Nourishing; promoting growth.

NU'TRI-ENT, n.

Any substance which nourishes by promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies. Darwin.

NU-TRIMENT'AL, a.

Having the qualities of food; alimental. Arbuthnot.

NU-TRITION, n. [L. nutritio, from nutria, to nourish.]

1. The net or process of promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies; the act or process of promoting growth in vegetables. Darwin.
2. That which nourishes; nutriment. Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. Pope. There is no nutrition in ardent spirits. L. Beecher.

NU-TRI'TIOUS, a.

Nourishing: promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies. Milk is very nutritious.

NU-TRITIOUS-LY, or NUTRI-TIVE-LY, adv.

Nourishingly.

NUTRI-TIVE, a.

Having the quality of nourishing; nutri-mental; alimental; as, a nutritive food.

NUTRI-TIVE-NESS, n.

Quality of nourishing. Ellis.

NUTRI-TURE, n.

The quality of nourishing. [Not used.] Harvey.

NUT'-SHELL, n.

1. The hard shell of a nut; the covering the kernel.
2. Proverbially, a thing of little compass or of little value. L'Estrange.

NUTTAL-LITE, n.

A mineral found in Bolton, Mass., occurring in prismatic crystals; an alumino-silicate of lime, potash, and iron.

NUTTING, ppr.

Gathering nuts.

NUT'-TREE, n.

A tree that bears nuts.

NU'Z'ZLE, v.i. [Nu. from nose.]

To go with the nose near the ground, or thrusting the nose into the ground like swine. Arbuthnot. Pope.

NUZZLE, v.i. [qu. noursle or neslle.]

To nestle; to hour as in a nest.

NUZZLE, v.t. [qu. from nose or noursle.]

To hide the head, as a child in the mother's bosom.

NUZZLE, v.t. [qu. from noursle.]

To nurse; to foster [Vulgar.]

NYC'TA-LOPS, n. [Gr. {foreign}; {foreign}, night, and {foreign}, the eye.]

1. One that sees best in the night. Col.
2. One who loses his sight as night comes on, and remains blind till morning.

NYC'TA-LO-PY, n.

1. The faculty of seeing best in darkness, or the disorder from which this faculty proceeds. Todd.
2. In present usage, the disorder in which the patient loses his sight as night approaches, aud remains blind till morning.

NYE, n.

A brood or flock of pheasants.

NYLGAU, or NEEL'GHAU, n.

A ruminant mammal of the Caprid tribe, as large as, or larger than a stag. The horns are short and bent forward; there is a beard under the middle of the neck; the hair is grayish; there are strongly marked rings on all the feet, just above the hoofs; the female has no horns. It is the Damns Risia, of modern naturalists, and the Antilope picta, of the older ones. It inhabits Northern India.

NYMPH, or NYMPHA, n.

Another name of the pupa, chrysalis, or aurelia; the second state of an insect passing to its perfect form.

NYMPH, n. [L. nympha; Gr. {foreign}.]

1. In mythology, a goddess of the mountains, forests, meadows and waters. According to the ancients, all the world was full of nymphs, some terrestrial, others celestial; and these had names assigned to them according to their place of residence, of the parts of the world over which they were supposed to preside. Encyc.
2. In poetry, a lady. Waller.