Part 461

Runt (?), n. [Written also rant.] [Scot. runt an old cow, an old, withered woman, a hardened stem or stalk, the trunk of a tree; cf. D. rund a bullock, an ox or cow, G. rind. Cf. Rother, a.] 1. (Zoöl.) Any animal which is unusually small, as compared with others of its kind; -- applied particularly to domestic animals.

2. (Zoöl.) A variety of domestic pigeon, related to the barb and carrier.

3. A dwarf; also, a mean, despicable, boorish person; -- used opprobriously.

Before I buy a bargain of such runts, I'll buy a college for bears, and live among 'em.

Beau. & Fl.

4. The dead stump of a tree; also, the stem of a plant. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Neither young poles nor old runts are durable.

Holland.

Runt"y (?), a. Like a runt; diminutive; mean.

Run"way` (?), n. 1. The channel of a stream.

2. The beaten path made by deer or other animals in passing to and from their feeding grounds.

Ru*pee" (r*p"), n. [Hind. rpiyah, fr. Skr. rpya silver, coined silver or gold, handsome.] A silver coin, and money of account, in the East Indies.

The valuation of the rupee of sixteen annas, the standard coin of India, by the United States Treasury department, varies from time to time with the price of silver. In 1889 it was rated at about thirty-two cents.

Ru"pel*la*ry (?), n. [From L. rupes a rock.] Rocky. [Obs.] "This rupellary nidary." Evelyn.

Ru"pert's drop` (?). A kind of glass drop with a long tail, made by dropping melted glass into water. It is remarkable for bursting into fragments when the surface is scratched or the tail broken; -- so called from Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I., by whom they were first brought to England. Called also Rupert's ball, and glass tear.

||Ru"pi*a (?), n. [NL., fr. G. &?; filth, dirt.] (Med.) An eruption ||upon the skin, consisting of vesicles with inflamed base and filled ||with serous, purulent, or bloody fluid, which dries up, forming a ||blackish crust.

Ru"pi*al (?), a. Of or pertaining to rupia.

||Ru*pic"o*la (?), n. [NL., fr. L. rupes, gen. rupis, a rock + colere ||to inhabit.] (Zoöl.) A genus of beautiful South American passerine ||birds, including the cock of the rock.

The species are remarkable for having an elevated fan-shaped crest of feathers on the head, and for the beautiful color of their plumage, which is mostly some delicate shade of yellow or orange.

Ru*pic"o*line (?), a. (Zoöl.) Rock-inhabiting.

Rup"tion (?), n. [L. ruptio, fr. rumpere, ruptum, to break.] A breaking or bursting open; breach; rupture. "By ruption or apertion." Wiseman.

Rup"tu*a*ry (?; 135), n. [Cf. Roturier.] One not of noble blood; a plebeian; a roturier. [R.]

The exclusion of the French ruptuaries ("roturiers," for history must find a word for this class when it speaks of other nations) from the order of nobility.

Chenevix.

Rup"ture (?; 135), n. [L. ruptura, fr. rumpere, ruptum to break: cf. F. rupture. See Reave, and cf. Rout a defeat.] 1. The act of breaking apart, or separating; the state of being broken asunder; as, the rupture of the skin; the rupture of a vessel or fiber; the rupture of a lutestring. Arbuthnot.

Hatch from the egg, that soon, Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed Their callow young.

Milton.

2. Breach of peace or concord between individuals; open hostility or war between nations; interruption of friendly relations; as, the parties came to a rupture.