Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Cast?

\Cast\ (k[.a]st), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Cast}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Casting}.] [Cf. Dan. kaste, Icel. & Sw. kasta; perh. akin to L. {gerere} to bear, carry. E. jest.] 1. To send or drive by force; to throw; to fling; to hurl; to impel. Uzziah prepared . . . slings to cast stones. --2 Chron. xxvi. 14. Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. --Acts. xii. 8. We must be cast upon a certain island. --Acts. xxvii. 26. 2. To direct or turn, as the eyes. How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me! --Shak. 3. To drop; to deposit; as, to cast a ballot. 4. To throw down, as in wrestling. --Shak. 5. To throw up, as a mound, or rampart. Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee. --Luke xix. 48. 6. To throw off; to eject; to shed; to lose. His filth within being cast. --Shak. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit. --Mal. iii. 11 The creatures that cast the skin are the snake, the viper, etc. --Bacon. 7. To bring forth prematurely; to slink. Thy she-goats have not cast their young. --Gen. xxi. 38. 8. To throw out or emit; to exhale. [Obs.] This . . . casts a sulphureous smell. --Woodward. 9. To cause to fall; to shed; to reflect; to throw; as, to cast a ray upon a screen; to cast light upon a subject. 10. To impose; to bestow; to rest. The government I cast upon my brother. --Shak. Cast thy burden upon the Lord. --Ps. iv. 22. 11. To dismiss; to discard; to cashier. [Obs.] The state can not with safety cast him. 12. To compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast a horoscope. ``Let it be cast and paid.'' --Shak. You cast the event of war, my noble lord. --Shak. 13. To contrive; to plan. [Archaic] The cloister . . . had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house]. --Sir W. Temple. 14. To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict; as, to be cast in damages. She was cast to be hanged. --Jeffrey. Were the case referred to any competent judge, they would inevitably be cast. --Dr. H. More. 15. To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide; as, a casting voice. How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious! --South. 16. To form into a particular shape, by pouring liquid metal or other material into a mold; to fashion; to found; as, to cast bells, stoves, bullets. 17. (Print.) To stereotype or electrotype. 18. To fix, distribute, or allot, as the parts of a play among actors; also to assign (an actor) for a part. Our parts in the other world will be new cast. --Addison. {To cast anchor} (Naut.) See under {Anchor}. {To cast a horoscope}, to calculate it. {To cast a} {horse, sheep}, or other animal, to throw with the feet upwards, in such a manner as to prevent its rising again. {To cast a shoe}, to throw off or lose a shoe, said of a horse or ox. {To cast aside}, to throw or push aside; to neglect; to reject as useless or inconvenient. {To cast away}. (a) To throw away; to lavish; to waste. ``Cast away a life'' --Addison. (b) To reject; to let perish. ``Cast away his people.'' --Rom. xi. 1. ``Cast one away.'' --Shak. (c) To wreck. ``Cast away and sunk.'' --Shak. {To cast by}, to reject; to dismiss or discard; to throw away. {To cast down}, to throw down; to destroy; to deject or depress, as the mind. ``Why art thou cast down. O my soul?'' --Ps. xiii. 5. {To cast forth}, to throw out, or eject, as from an inclosed place; to emit; to send out. {To cast in one's lot with}, to share the fortunes of. {To cast in one's teeth}, to upbraid or abuse one for; to twin. {To cast lots}. See under {Lot}. {To cast off}. (a) To discard or reject; to drive away; to put off; to free one's self from. (b) (Hunting) To leave behind, as dogs; also, to set loose, or free, as dogs. --Crabb. (c) (Naut.) To untie, throw off, or let go, as a rope. {To cast off copy}, (Print.), to estimate how much printed matter a given amount of copy will make, or how large the page must be in order that the copy may make a given number of pages. {To cast one's self} {on or upon} to yield or submit one's self unreservedly to, as to the mercy of another. {To cast out}, to throw out; to eject, as from a house; to cast forth; to expel; to utter. {To cast the lead} (Naut.), to sound by dropping the lead to the bottom. {To cast the water} (Med.), to examine the urine for signs of disease. [Obs.]. {To cast up}. (a) To throw up; to raise. (b) To compute; to reckon, as the cost. (c) To vomit. (d) To twit with; to throw in one's teeth.
\Cast\, v. i. 1. To throw, as a line in angling, esp, with a fly hook. 2. (Naut.) To turn the head of a vessel around from the wind in getting under weigh. Weigh anchor, cast to starboard. --Totten. 3. To consider; to turn or revolve in the mind; to plan; as, to cast about for reasons. She . . . cast in her mind what manner of salution this should be. --Luke. i. 29. 4. To calculate; to compute. [R.] Who would cast and balance at a desk. --Tennyson. 5. To receive form or shape in a mold. It will not run thin, so as to cast and mold. --Woodward. 6. To warp; to become twisted out of shape. Stuff is said to cast or warp when . . . it alters its flatness or straightness. --Moxon. 7. To vomit. These verses . . . make me ready to cast. --B. Jonson.
\Cast\, 3d pres. of {Cast}, for Casteth. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
\Cast\, n. [Cf. Icel., Dan., & Sw. kast.] 1. The act of casting or throwing; a throw. 2. The thing thrown. A cast of dreadful dust. --Dryden. 3. The distance to which a thing is or can be thrown. ``About a stone's cast.'' --Luke xxii. 41. 4. A throw of dice; hence, a chance or venture. An even cast whether the army should march this way or that way. --Sowth. I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die. --Shak. 5. That which is throw out or off, shed, or ejected; as, the skin of an insect, the refuse from a hawk's stomach, the excrement of a earthworm. 6. The act of casting in a mold. And why such daily cast of brazen cannon. --Shak. 7. An impression or mold, taken from a thing or person; amold; a pattern. 8. That which is formed in a mild; esp. a reproduction or copy, as of a work of art, in bronze or plaster, etc.; a casting. 9. Form; appearence; mien; air; style; as, a peculiar cast of countenance. ``A neat cast of verse.'' --Pope. An heroic poem, but in another cast and figure. --Prior. And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. --Shak. 10. A tendency to any color; a tinge; a shade. Gray with a cast of green. --Woodward. 11. A chance, opportunity, privilege, or advantage; specifically, an opportunity of riding; a lift. [Scotch] We bargained with the driver to give us a cast to the next stage. --Smollett. If we had the cast o' a cart to bring it. --Sir W. Scott. 12. The assignment of parts in a play to the actors. 13. (Falconary) A flight or a couple or set of hawks let go at one time from the hand. --Grabb. As when a cast of falcons make their flight. --Spenser. 14. A stoke, touch, or trick. [Obs.] This was a cast of Wood's politics; for his information was wholly false. --Swift. 15. A motion or turn, as of the eye; direction; look; glance; squint. The cast of the eye is a gesture of aversion. --Bacon. And let you see with one cast of an eye. --Addison. This freakish, elvish cast came into the child's eye. --Hawthorne. 16. A tube or funnel for conveying metal into a mold. 17. Four; that is, as many as are thrown into a vessel at once in counting herrings, etc; a warp. 18. Contrivance; plot, design. [Obs.] --Chaucer. {A cast of the eye}, a slight squint or strabismus. {Renal cast} (Med.), microscopic bodies found in the urine of persons affected with disease of the kidneys; -- so called because they are formed of matter deposited in, and preserving the outline of, the renal tubes. {The last cast}, the last throw of the dice or last effort, on which every thing is ventured; the last chance.