Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RAL'LY, n.

1. The act of bringing disordered troops to their ranks.
2. Exercise of good humor or satirical merriment.

RAL'LY, v.i.

1. To assemble; to unite. Innumerable parts of matter chanced then to rally together and to form themselves into this new world. Tillotson.
2. To come back to order. The Grecians rally and their pow'rs unite. Dryden.
3. To use pleasantry or satirical merriment. Johnson.

RAL'LY, v.t.¹ [Fr. rallier. This seems to be a compound of re, ra, and lier, L. ligo, to unite.]

1. To reunite; to collect and reduce to order troops dispersed or thrown into confusion.
2. To collect; to unite; as things scattered. Atterbury.

RAL'LY, v.t.² [Fr. railler. See Raillery.]

To treat with good humor and pleasantry, or with slight contempt or satire, according to the nature of the case. Honeycomb rallies me upon a country life. Addison. Strephon had long confess'd his am'rous pain, / Which gay Corinna rallied with disdain. Gay.

RAL'LY-ING, ppr.

1. Reuniting; collecting and reducing order.
2. Treating with pleasant humor.

RAM, n. [Sax. ram; D. ram; G. ramm, but rammbock, ram-buck, is used. See the Verb.]

1. The made of the sheep or ovine genus; in some parts of England called a tup. In the United States, the word is applied, I believe, to no other male, except in the compound ram-cat.
2. In astronomy, Aries, the sign of the zodiac which the sun enters on the 21st of March, or a constellation of fixed star in the figure of a rain. It is considered the first of the twelve signs.
3. An engine of war, used formerly for battering and demolishing the walls of cities; called a battering-ram. [See Battering-ram.]

RAM, v.t. [G. rammen; D. rammeijen; Dan. ramler, to ram or drive; rammer, to strike, to hit, to touch; W. rham, rhum, a thrusting, a projection forward. To the same family belong L. ramus, a branch, that is, a shoot or thrust, Heb. Ch. and Syr. רמה ramah, to throw, to project, Eth. ረመየ rami, to strike; Ar. رَمَي ramai, to shoot, to throw or dart. Class Rm, No. 7, 8, 9. See Cram.]

1. To thrust or drive with violence; to force in; to drive down or together; as, to ram down a cartridge; to ram piles into the earth.
2. To drive, as with a battering ram.
3. To stuff; to cram.

RAM'A-DAN, n.

Among the Mohammedans, a solemn season of fasting.

RAM'AGE, n. [L. ramus, a branch, whence Fr. ramage.]

1. Branches of trees. [Not in use.]
2. The warbling of birds sitting on boughs. Drummond.
3. [See Rummage.]

RAM'BLE, n.

A roving; a wandering; a going or moving from place to place without any determinate business or object; an irregular excursion. Coming home after a short Christmas rumble, I found a letter upon my table. Swift.

RAM'BLE, v.i. [It. ramengare, to ramble, to rove; Arm. rambreal, to rave; W. rhempiaw, to run to an extreme, to be infatuated, and rhamu, to rise or reach over, to soar. These seem to be allied to roam, romp, rampant; Ar. رَاَم to exceed or go beyond, to depart. Class Rm, No. 5.]

1. To rove; to wander; to walk, ride or sail from place to place, without any determinate object in view; or to visit many places; to rove carelessly or irregularly; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the country. Never ask leave to go abroad, for you will be thought an idle rambling fellow. Swift.
2. To go at large without restraint and without direction.
3. To move without certain direction. O'er his ample sides, the rambling sprays / Luxuriant shoot. Thomson.

RAM'BLER, n.

One that rambles; a rover; a wanderer.

RAM'BLING, n.

A roving; irregular excursion. South.

RAM'BLING, ppr.

Roving; wandering; moving or going irregularly.

RAM'BLING-LY, adv.

In a rambling manner.

RAM'BOOZE, or RAM'BUSE, n.

A drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter, or of wine, milk, sugar and rose water in summer. Bailey.

RAM'E-KIN, or RAM'E-QUINS, n. [Fr. ramequin.]

In cookery, small slices of bead covered with a farce of cheese and eggs. Bailey.

RAM'ENTS, n. [L. ramenta, a chip.]

1. Scrapings; shavings. [Not used.]
2. In botany, loose scales on the stems of plants. Linnaeus.

RA'ME-OUS, a. [L. ramus, a branch.]

In botany, belonging to a branch; growing on or shooting from a branch. Lee.

RAM-I-FI-CA'TION, n. [Fr. from L. ramus, a branch.]

1. The process of branching or shooting branches from a stem.
2. A branch; a small division proceeding from a main stock or channel; as, the ramifications of a family; the ramifications of an artery. Arbuthnot.
3. A division or subdivision; as, the ramifications of a subject or scheme.
4. In botany, the manner in which a tree produces its branches or boughs. Lee.
5. The production of figures resembling branches. Encyc.

RAM'I-FI-ED, pp.

Divided into branches.

RAM'I-FY, v.i.

1. To shoot into branches, as, the stem of a plant. When the asparagus begins to ramify. Arbuthnot.
2. To be divided or subdivided; as a main subject or scheme.

RAM'I-FY, v.t. [Fr. ramifier; L. ramus, a branch, and facio, to make.]

To divide into branches or parts; as, to ramify an art, a subject or scheme. Boyle.

RAM'I-FY-ING, ppr.

Shooting into branches or divisions.

RAM'ISH, a. [Dan. ram, bitter, strong scented.]

Rank; strong scented. Chaucer.