Part 599

4. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.

We acknowledge him our sovereign good.

Hooker.

5. Efficacious in the highest degree; effectual; controlling; as, a sovereign remedy. Dryden.

Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of the lives and actions of men.

South.

Sovereign state, a state which administers its own government, and is not dependent upon, or subject to, another power.

Sov"er*eign (? or ?; 277), n. 1. The person, body, or state in which independent and supreme authority is vested; especially, in a monarchy, a king, queen, or emperor.

No question is to be made but that the bed of the Mississippi belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.

Jefferson.

2. A gold coin of Great Britain, on which an effigy of the head of the reigning king or queen is stamped, valued at one pound sterling, or about $4.86.

3. (Zoöl.) Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalidi, or genus Basilarchia, as the ursula and the viceroy.

Syn. -- King; prince; monarch; potentate; emperor.

Sov"er*eign*ize (?), v. i. To exercise supreme authority. [Obs.] Sir T. Herbert.

Sov"er*eign*ly, adv. In a sovereign manner; in the highest degree; supremely. Chaucer.

Sov"er*eign*ty (?), n.; pl. Sovereignties (#). [OE. soverainetee, OF. sovraineté, F. souveraineté.] The quality or state of being sovereign, or of being a sovereign; the exercise of, or right to exercise, supreme power; dominion; sway; supremacy; independence; also, that which is sovereign; a sovereign state; as, Italy was formerly divided into many sovereignties.

Woman desiren to have sovereignty As well over their husband as over their love.

Chaucer.

Sov"ran (?), a. A variant of Sovereign. [Poetic]

On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc.

Coleridge.

Sow (?), v. i. To sew. See Sew. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Sow (?), n. [OE. sowe, suwe, AS. sugu, akin to s, D. zog, zeug, OHG. s, G. sau, Icel. sr, Dan. so, Sw. sugga, so, L. sus. Gr. "y^s, sy^s, Zend. hu boar; probably from the root seen in Skr. s to beget, to bear; the animal being named in allusion to its fecundity. √294. Cf. Hyena, Soil to stain, Son, Swine.] 1. (Zoöl.) The female of swine, or of the hog kind.

2. (Zoöl.) A sow bug.

3. (Metal.) (a) A channel or runner which receives the rows of molds in the pig bed. (b) The bar of metal which remains in such a runner. (c) A mass of solidified metal in a furnace hearth; a salamander.

4. (Mil.) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, or the like. Craig.

Sow bread. (Bot.) See Cyclamen. -- Sow bug, or Sowbug (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of terrestrial Isopoda belonging to Oniscus, Porcellio, and allied genera of the family Oniscidæ. They feed chiefly on decaying vegetable substances. -- Sow thistle [AS. sugepistel] (Bot.), a composite plant (Sonchus oleraceus) said to be eaten by swine and some other animals.

Sow (?), v. t. [imp. Sowed (?); p. p. Sown (?) or Sowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Sowing.] [OE. sowen, sawen, AS. swan; akin to OFries. s&?;a, D. zaaijen, OS. & HG. sjan, G. säen, Icel. s, Sw. så, Dan. saae, Goth. saian, Lith. sti, Russ. sieiate, L. serere, sevi. Cf. Saturday, Season, Seed, Seminary.] 1. To scatter, as seed, upon the earth; to plant by strewing; as, to sow wheat. Also used figuratively: To spread abroad; to propagate. "He would sow some difficulty." Chaucer.