a land mass that projects well above its surroundings; higher than a hill
<noun.object>
(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
<noun.quantity> a batch of letters a deal of trouble a lot of money he made a mint on the stock market see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos it must have cost plenty a slew of journalists a wad of money
Mountain \Moun"tain\ (moun"t[i^]n), a. 1. Of or pertaining to a mountain or mountains; growing or living on a mountain; found on or peculiar to mountains; among mountains; as, a mountain torrent; mountain pines; mountain goats; mountain air; mountain howitzer.
2. Like a mountain; mountainous; vast; very great.
The high, the mountain majesty of worth. --Byron.
{Mountain antelope} (Zo["o]l.), the goral.
{Mountain ash} (Bot.), an ornamental tree, the {Pyrus Americana} (or {Sorbus Americana}), producing beautiful bunches of red berries. Its leaves are pinnate, and its flowers white, growing in fragrant clusters. The European species is the {Pyrus aucuparia}, or rowan tree.
{Mountain barometer}, a portable barometer, adapted for safe transportation, used in measuring the heights of mountains.
{Mountain beaver} (Zo["o]l.), the sewellel.
{Mountain blue} (Min.), blue carbonate of copper; azurite.
{Mountain cat} (Zo["o]l.), the catamount. See {Catamount}.
{Mountain chain}, a series of contiguous mountain ranges, generally in parallel or consecutive lines or curves.
{Mountain cock} (Zo["o]l.), capercailzie. See {Capercailzie}.
{Mountain cork} (Min.), a variety of asbestus, resembling cork in its texture.
{Mountain crystal}. See under {Crystal}.
{Mountain damson} (Bot.), a large tree of the genus {Simaruba} ({Simaruba amarga}) growing in the West Indies, which affords a bitter tonic and astringent, sometimes used in medicine.
{Mountain dew}, Scotch whisky, so called because often illicitly distilled among the mountains. [Humorous]
{Mountain ebony} (Bot.), a small leguminous tree ({Bauhinia variegata}) of the East and West Indies; -- so called because of its dark wood. The bark is used medicinally and in tanning.
{Mountain flax} (Min.), a variety of asbestus, having very fine fibers; amianthus. See {Amianthus}.
{Mountain fringe} (Bot.), climbing fumitory. See under {Fumitory}.
{Mountain goat}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Mazama}.
{Mountain green}. (Min.) (a) Green malachite, or carbonate of copper. (b) See {Green earth}, under {Green}, a.
{Mountain holly} (Bot.), a branching shrub ({Nemopanthes Canadensis}), having smooth oblong leaves and red berries. It is found in the Northern United States.
{Mountain laurel} (Bot.), an American shrub ({Kalmia latifolia}) with glossy evergreen leaves and showy clusters of rose-colored or white flowers. The foliage is poisonous. Called also {American laurel}, {ivy bush}, and {calico bush}. See {Kalmia}.
{Mountain leather} (Min.), a variety of asbestus, resembling leather in its texture.
{Mountain licorice} (Bot.), a plant of the genus {Trifolium} ({Trifolium Alpinum}).
{Mountain limestone} (Geol.), a series of marine limestone strata below the coal measures, and above the old red standstone of Great Britain. See Chart of {Geology}.
{Mountain linnet} (Zo["o]l.), the twite.
{Mountain magpie}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) The yaffle, or green woodpecker. (b) The European gray shrike.
{Mountain mahogany} (Bot.) See under {Mahogany}.
{Mountain meal} (Min.), a light powdery variety of calcite, occurring as an efflorescence.
{Mountain milk} (Min.), a soft spongy variety of carbonate of lime.
{Mountain mint}. (Bot.) See {Mint}.
{Mountain ousel} (Zo["o]l.), the ring ousel; -- called also {mountain thrush} and {mountain colley}. See {Ousel}.
{Mountain pride}, or {Mountain green} (Bot.), a tree of Jamaica ({Spathelia simplex}), which has an unbranched palmlike stem, and a terminal cluster of large, pinnate leaves.
{Mountain quail} (Zo["o]l.), the plumed partridge ({Oreortyx pictus}) of California. It has two long, slender, plumelike feathers on the head. The throat and sides are chestnut; the belly is brown with transverse bars of black and white; the neck and breast are dark gray.
{Mountain range}, a series of mountains closely related in position and direction.
{Mountain rice}. (Bot.) (a) An upland variety of rice, grown without irrigation, in some parts of Asia, Europe, and the United States. (b) An American genus of grasses ({Oryzopsis}).
{Mountain rose} (Bot.), a species of rose with solitary flowers, growing in the mountains of Europe ({Rosa alpina}).
{Mountain soap} (Min.), a soft earthy mineral, of a brownish color, used in crayon painting; saxonite.
{Mountain sorrel} (Bot.), a low perennial plant ({Oxyria digyna} with rounded kidney-form leaves, and small greenish flowers, found in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and in high northern latitudes. --Gray.
{Mountain sparrow} (Zo["o]l.), the European tree sparrow.
{Mountain spinach}. (Bot.) See {Orach}.
{Mountain tobacco} (Bot.), a composite plant ({Arnica montana}) of Europe; called also {leopard's bane}.
{Mountain witch} (Zo["o]l.), a ground pigeon of Jamaica, of the genus {Geotrygon}.
Mountain \Moun"tain\, n. [OE. mountaine, montaine, F. montagne, LL. montanea, montania, fr. L. mons, montis, a mountain; cf. montanus belonging to a mountain. See 1st {Mount}.] 1. A large mass of earth and rock, rising above the common level of the earth or adjacent land; earth and rock forming an isolated peak or a ridge; an eminence higher than a hill; a mount.
2. pl. A range, chain, or group of such elevations; as, the White Mountains.
3. A mountainlike mass; something of great bulk; a large quantity.
I should have been a mountain of mummy. --Shak.
{The Mountain} (--La montagne) (French Hist.), a popular name given in 1793 to a party of extreme Jacobins in the National Convention, who occupied the highest rows of seats.
Gun \Gun\ (g[u^]n), n. [OE. gonne, gunne; of uncertain origin; cf. Ir., Gael., & LL. gunna, W. gum; possibly (like cannon) fr. L. canna reed, tube; or abbreviated fr. OF. mangonnel, E. mangonel, a machine for hurling stones.] 1. A weapon which throws or propels a missile to a distance; any firearm or instrument for throwing projectiles, consisting of a tube or barrel closed at one end, in which the projectile is placed, with an explosive charge (such as guncotton or gunpowder) behind, which is ignited by various means. Pistols, rifles, carbines, muskets, and fowling pieces are smaller guns, for hand use, and are called {small arms}. Larger guns are called {cannon}, {ordnance}, {fieldpieces}, {carronades}, {howitzers}, etc. See these terms in the Vocabulary.
As swift as a pellet out of a gunne When fire is in the powder runne. --Chaucer.
The word gun was in use in England for an engine to cast a thing from a man long before there was any gunpowder found out. --Selden.
2. (Mil.) A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a cannon.
3. pl. (Naut.) Violent blasts of wind.
Note: Guns are classified, according to their construction or manner of loading as {rifled} or {smoothbore}, {breech-loading} or {muzzle-loading}, {cast} or {built-up guns}; or according to their use, as {field}, {mountain}, {prairie}, {seacoast}, and {siege guns}.
{Armstrong gun}, a wrought iron breech-loading cannon named after its English inventor, Sir William Armstrong.
{Big gun} or {Great gun}, a piece of heavy ordnance; hence (Fig.), a person superior in any way; as, bring in the big guns to tackle the problem.
{Gun barrel}, the barrel or tube of a gun.
{Gun carriage}, the carriage on which a gun is mounted or moved.
{Gun cotton} (Chem.), a general name for a series of explosive nitric ethers of cellulose, obtained by steeping cotton in nitric and sulphuric acids. Although there are formed substances containing nitric acid radicals, yet the results exactly resemble ordinary cotton in appearance. It burns without ash, with explosion if confined, but quietly and harmlessly if free and open, and in small quantity. Specifically, the lower nitrates of cellulose which are insoluble in ether and alcohol in distinction from the highest (pyroxylin) which is soluble. See {Pyroxylin}, and cf. {Xyloidin}. The gun cottons are used for blasting and somewhat in gunnery: for making celluloid when compounded with camphor; and the soluble variety (pyroxylin) for making collodion. See {Celluloid}, and {Collodion}. Gun cotton is frequenty but improperly called {nitrocellulose}. It is not a nitro compound, but an ester of nitric acid.
{Gun deck}. See under {Deck}.
{Gun fire}, the time at which the morning or the evening gun is fired.
{Gun metal}, a bronze, ordinarily composed of nine parts of copper and one of tin, used for cannon, etc. The name is also given to certain strong mixtures of cast iron.
{Gun port} (Naut.), an opening in a ship through which a cannon's muzzle is run out for firing.
{Gun tackle} (Naut.), the blocks and pulleys affixed to the side of a ship, by which a gun carriage is run to and from the gun port.
{Gun tackle purchase} (Naut.), a tackle composed of two single blocks and a fall. --Totten.
{Krupp gun}, a wrought steel breech-loading cannon, named after its German inventor, Herr Krupp.
{Machine gun}, a breech-loading gun or a group of such guns, mounted on a carriage or other holder, and having a reservoir containing cartridges which are loaded into the gun or guns and fired in rapid succession. In earlier models, such as the {Gatling gun}, the cartridges were loaded by machinery operated by turning a crank. In modern versions the loading of cartidges is accomplished by levers operated by the recoil of the explosion driving the bullet, or by the pressure of gas within the barrel. Several hundred shots can be fired in a minute by such weapons, with accurate aim. The {Gatling gun}, {Gardner gun}, {Hotchkiss gun}, and {Nordenfelt gun}, named for their inventors, and the French {mitrailleuse}, are machine guns.
{To blow great guns} (Naut.), to blow a gale. See {Gun}, n., 3. [1913 Webster +PJC]
Pakistani soldiers set off landslides to block mountain roads and stop Muslim militants from marching into Indian-held Kashmir.
A fire in the mountains increased from 3,000 acres Monday to 4,175 acres after winds fanned flames 200-300 feet high and sent the blaze racing along a mountain ridge into heavy timber.
One day in 1987, he rode his mountain bike into two-mile-high Leadville (population 2,067), where the Climax Molybdenum mine had just shut down.
There was no independent confirmation and no comment by Baghdad, which has been fighting a brutal mountain war against the Kurdish guerrillas, who seek an independent homeland.
Many keen skiers regard Argentiere's Grands Montets as the best ski mountain in Europe, particularly in powder.
Ahmed Moharam, a 38-year-old Exxon Corp. administrator, remembers being sent from his mountain village when he was 11 because the only real schools were in Sanaa, the capital.
Turkish civil defense workers, helped by a 32-member West German rescue team with search dogs, shoveled through the mud and stones that roared down on the mountain village Thursday morning.
Officials on Wednesday abandoned hope of finding any more survivors of the earthquake and mudslide that inundated three mountain villages, and said this settlement would be dedicated as a common grave.
In past years, the rebel group has carried out numerous massacres of mountain peasants it viewed as traitors to its cause.
Borden could then sell its RJR stake and use the cash to pay off some of its debt mountain. The deal, though, has industrial as well as financial logic.
Jim Whittaker, who in 1963 became the first American to reach the summit of Everest, the world's tallest mountain at more than 29,000 feet, was skeptical of the study but said it may have merit.
The higher you climb up the debt mountain the harder you may fall.
Trees and Temple roofs peer over the great rockery or 'false mountain' of the Lion Grove Garden, a calligraphic rock face as active as anything of Mark Tobey.
Rain, mountain snow and a few thunderstorms developed over portions of Arizona late Thursday and were spreading slowly eastward.
The bus reportedly was traveling too fast as it headed down a curved mountain road in Henan province.
Jimenez spoke in an interview at the U.N.-OAS tent camp headquarters outside the mountain hamlet of El Amparo in north-central Nicaragua.
One near the mountain town of San Vicente, about 160 miles north of the capital, ended in gunfire, leaving 10 peasants, an army colonel and two other soldiers dead.
Reporters estimated more than 2,000 policemen guarded the grounds of the National Assembly in the picturesque mountain resort of Yangmingshan in Taipei's suburbs.
But he said he could not because visibility on the mountain has been close to zero.
Seven major highway mountain passes were closed in the provinces of Burgos, Cantabria, Leon and Soria.
It is an area of heavy rains, and most residents have wooden homes on stilts in valleys between the Wuliang, Nu and other mountain ranges.
Police at the scene said the plane crashed into a mountain three miles from downtown Quito and tumbled into a small river.
The mountain fighting centered on Ein el-Tuffaha, 18 miles east of Beirut, and the Christian stronghold of Souk el-Gharb, 16 miles to the south.
The Kremlin sent high-level troubleshooters and more internal security troops to the mountain region 1,240 miles southeast of Moscow to try to end the fighting.
"To be exposed to Denali weather at that elevation is just asking for it," said Renny Jackson, a ranger who had descended Saturday after spending 24 days on the mountain.
The Boeing 727 clipped trees before hitting the snow-covered mountain 50 miles away near Zulia, witnesses said.
Langley, a 40-year-old computer consultant from Calgary, Alberta, first applied to climb the mountain in 1982.
IN Bomford Turner's yard the stack of stillages is going higher and wider. Pat's mountain, it is called: a pile of metal cages mounted on pallets.
Iran said Tuesday its troops withdrew from Halbja, a strategic mountain town in the region, where Iranian-backed Kurdish rebels live.
Another foot of mountain snow was likely today in Utah, where 12 inches fell Wednesday and winds pushed past 60 mph. More heavy snow was reported in the Lake Tahoe area, with up to 2 feet expected overnight.