spread eaglen.adj.adv.
/ˌsprɛd ˈiːɡl/, /ˈsprɛd iːɡl/, U.S. /ˌsprɛd ˈiɡəl/ A. n. † 4. Used as a term of mild abuse or contempt for a person; a rogue; a boastful or self-assertive person; an aggressively vocal supporter of the United States. Obsolete.† 6. A spread-eagle orchid (see sense B. 1a). Obsolete.
1. A representation of an eagle with its legs and wings extended, esp. as the emblem of various states or rulers, or as an inn or pub sign (and hence name).
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society > communication > representation > a plastic or graphic representation > [noun] > representation of specific things
lion?a1366
serpent1388
ray1461
falcon1525
arrow1548
spread eagle1550
hand in hand1583
tortoise1648
turban1687
mouthpiece1832
sun wheel1865
society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > heraldic representations of creatures > [noun] > heraldic birds
eaglec1380
swana1400
phoenix?a1425
pelicana1430
ravena1450
merlette1451
popinjayc1460
eagletc1494
merliona1500
martletc1519
merlion?a1549
spread eagle1550
meropie1572
spread eaglet1602
alerion1625
liver1668
shoveller1780
eagle in her majesty?1828
double eagle1861
hirondelle1880
pelican in her piety1885
1550 in N. Lesse tr. St. Augustine Worke Predestination Saints (colophon) To be soulde, at the sygne of the spred Eagle in Poules church yarde by the schole.
1565 T. Stapleton tr. F. Staphylus Apologie f. 137 The other side of the coyne hathe a spread egle [L. aquilam..bicipitem] climping in his clawes the two swordes which are painted in the Duke of Saxony his armes.
1590 in Archaeol. (1884) 48 154 One dammaske table clothe wrought with ye Spreed Egle of vij yerdes long.
1602 J. Willis Art Stenogr. sig. E5 This Character, bearing the similitude of a Spread Eagle, may signifie the Romaine Empire, being the Ensigne thereof.
a1667 A. Cowley Verses Several Occasions 100 in Wks. (1668) Lillies, and Lions Rampant, and Spread Eagles in Fields d'Or.
1685 A. Wood Life & Times (1894) III. 160 At the Spread Eagle (commonly called the Spread Crow).
1701 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) V. 81 Some flags are made here with a spread eagle upon them, the arms of his imperial majesty.
1723 tr. F. C. Weber Present State Russia I. 115 Post-boys..have no Post-Horns, but only the Mark of the Spread-Eagle.
1779 Mirror No. 61 In his garden..a spread-eagle, of a remarkable growth, has his wings clipped..the first Monday of every month.
1854 Poultry Chron. 2 27 The annual dinner will take place at the Spread Eagle on Thursday.
1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad I. ii. 85 A spread eagle argent, membered and beaked.
1902 Eng. Hist. Rev. 17 227 In the field is a spread eagle, apparently the symbol of the god Nin girsu.
1954 Flying Mag. Feb. 40/1 The new insignia consists of the spread eagle which identifies the U. S. Armed Services.
1996 Eightdays a Week 24 Feb. 9/4 The..Top Tosser competition at the Spread Eagle on Pancake Day.
2. A fowl flattened out for roasting; a dish of such a fowl, esp. with mushrooms. Now chiefly historical.
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the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > fowls > [noun] > fowl split open
spread eagle1597
smatchcock1746
spatchcock1785
spitchcock1836
1597 T. Dawson 2nd Pt. Good Hus-wiues Iewell f. 32 To make a sprede Eagle of a pullet.
1835 J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe Robinson (U.S. ed.) I. ii. 22 ‘I don't march without provisions, you see, captain... Here's the rear division of a roast pig; and along with it, by way of flankers, two spread eagles,’ (holding up two broiled fowls..).
1846 Sporting Rev. June 377 Jim Dickeson..had brought in a handsome supply of beefsteaks, a couple of spread-eagles, and two or three tankards of his best ‘cup’.
1854 ‘C. Bede’ Further Adventures Mr. Verdant Green (ed. 2) vii. 62 Spread-eagle is a barn-door fowl smashed out flat, and made jolly with mushroom sauce.
1865 Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle N.-W. Passage by Land (1867) ii. 22 We manage at last to pluck and split open the ducks into ‘spread-eagles’, roasting them on sticks.
1909 Eagle (St John's College, Cambr.) 30 308 Breakfasts..were substantial entertainments; favourite dishes being..‘pulled fowl’, and ‘spread eagle’.
1921 T. G. Bonney Memories of Long Life ii. 20 I remember the usual menu—soles à l'indienne,..spread-eagle (a fowl, split and stewed with small mushrooms), [etc.].
1952 J. P. T. Bury College of Corpus Christi & Blessed Virgin Mary 97/1 Chicken..Spread Eagle and Mushroom Sauce.
1995 U. Aylmer & C. McCrum Oxf. Food ii. 18 Spread Eagles, or Spatchcock Chicken... Split your bird in half, cutting through the back only, and the leg and wing joints sufficiently to flatten the whole, and secure it with two crossed skewers.
3. A body with limbs extended wide; spec. a person secured with the arms and legs stretched out, esp. in order to be flogged. Chiefly in to make a spread eagle (of); also figurative.
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society > authority > punishment > corporal punishment > [noun] > one who is stretched out for
spread eagle1785
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Spread eagle, a soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped, his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.
a1791 F. Grose Olio (1792) 228 Should you be caught, you know the consequence—That the spread eagle is your certain lot.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. vii. 84 Mr. Jenkins desired the other men to get half a dozen foxes and make a spread eagle of me.
1844 Amer. Turf Reg. & Sporting Mag. Oct. Colts that..are not hurried too early in their work..will ably maintain their best pace in a good rally, without being overmarked, and made what is called ‘a spread-eagle’.
1871 J. A. Froude Table-talk Shirley 149 I suppose I shall as usual be made a spread-eagle by the Saturday [Review].
1882 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 2/2 The iron-hard pressure of it pins you against the shrouds as if you had been made a spread-eagle.
1906 P. Egan Florida Campaign (Soldiers & Sailors Hist. Soc. of Rhode Island) 6th Series No. 10. 23 The other seven were confined in the guard house, put on a diet of bread and water, and made a ‘spread eagle’ of until some one would tell who killed the cow.
2003 B. Arnot Wear & Tear ii. ix. 142 Begin with your hands at your sides, then move them directly away from your sides until they are parallel to the ground, as if you were making a spread eagle.
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the mind > emotion > pride > boasting or boastfulness > [noun] > boaster
yelper1340
avaunterc1374
braggerc1390
fare-makerc1440
seggerc1440
shakerc1440
vaunter1484
roosera1500
praterc1500
cracker1509
vouster?a1513
boaster1574
Thrasoa1576
braggarta1577
braver1589
glorioser1589
bragout1592
rodomont1592
braggadocio1594
gloriosoc1599
puckfist1600
burgullian1601
puff1601
forthputtera1610
rodomontado1609
ostentator1611
fanfaron1622
potgun1623
thrasonist1626
cracka1640
vapourer1653
braggadocian1654
rodomontadist1655
charlatan1670
brag1671
rodomontade1683
gasconader1709
rodomontader1730
Gascon1757
spread eagle1809
bag of wind1816
penny trumpeter1828
spraga1838
gasser1855
blow-hard1857
blower1863
crower1864
gabber1869
flannel-mouth1882
punk-fist1890
skiter1898
Tartarin1903
blow1904
skite1906
poofter1916
trombenik1922
shooter of lines1941
fat-mouth1942
wide-mouth1959
Wheneye1982
trash talker1986
braggarist-
1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. I. iv. v. 238 He called them his dandle-lions—his wild fowl—his high flyers—his spread eagles—his goshawks—his scare-crows and finally his gallows birds.
1870 College Courant 26 Nov. 329/3 We recommend this book to every educator in the land, and especially to all educational sciolists and scientific spread eagles.
1875 Monthly Packet June 643 My companion broke out with ‘It's those spread-eagles that have done the bird's work!’ For an instant I was quite astray; then I recollected Mrs. Twitch's intense jealousy of her American rival.
1881 R. D. Blackmore Christowell (1882) i. i. 5 It may be denied by young spread-eagles, of competitive and unruly mind, that this is the highest form of human life.
1928 C. W. Taussig Rum, Romance & Rebellion vii. 171 The rum, molasses and slave trade..does not bear too close scrutiny by patriotic spread-eagles.
5. Skating. A straight glide made with the feet in a line, with the heels touching, and the arms stretched out to either side.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > winter sports > skating > [noun] > figure-skating > figure > specific figure or movement
spread eagle1823
Q1852
grapevine1868
loop1869
rocking turn1869
Mohawk1880
vine1891
bracket1892
Choctaw1892
counter1892
rocker1892
scud1892
three1895
toe-spin1921
death spiral1933
1823 Kaledioscope 4 Feb. 252/2 One party executed, with admirable precision, several quadrilles..others engraved their own initials..upon the frozen tablet, while the more aspiring and dexterous essayed and succeeded in the spread eagle.
1824 M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 31 He admired, with an ardour and sincerity never excited by..the spread eagles of the Seine and the Serpentine.
1868 Hurst Johnian Mag. 10 343 As I am writing for young skaters I may as well mention the ‘spread eagle’, a feat of not much value.
1968 Daily Tel. 6 Dec. 15/6 Miss Waghorn used her long legs to full advantage in the split jump, a majestic spreadeagle..grab-parallel spins.
2015 J. R. Hines Figure Skating in Formative Years vi. 75 Just two jumps are included, an Axel Paulsen jump and a single-revolution jump done out of a spread eagle.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > orchids
satyrionOE
bollockwort?a1300
sanicle14..
bollock?a1425
martagon1548
orchis1559
dogstones1562
hare's-ballocks1562
stone1562
bollock grass1578
dog's cods1578
dog's cullions1578
double-leaf1578
fly-orchis1578
goat's cullions1578
goat's orchis1578
priest's pintle1578
twayblade1578
bee-orchis1597
bifoil1597
bird's nest1597
bird's orchis1597
butterfly orchis1597
fenny-stones1597
gelded satyrion1597
gnat satyrion1597
humble-bee orchis1597
lady's slipper1597
sweet ballocks1597
two-blade1605
cullions1611
bee-flower1626
fly-flower1640
man orchis1670
musk orchis1670
moccasin flower1680
gnat-flower1688
faham tea1728
Ophrys1754
green man orchis1762
Arethusa1764
honey flower1771
cypripedium1775
rattlesnake plantain1778
Venus's slipper1785
Adam and Eve1789
lizard orchis179.
epidendrum1791
Pogonia?1801
Vanda1801
cymbidium1815
Oncidium1822
putty-root1822
Noah's Ark1826
yellow moccasin1826
gongora1827
cattleya1828
green man1828
nervine1828
stanhopea1829
dove-flower1831
catasetum1836
Odontoglossum1836
Miltonia1837
letter plant1838
spread eagle1838
letter-leaf1839
swan-plant1841
orchid1843
disa1844
masdevallia1845
Phalaenopsis1846
faham1850
Indian crocus1850
moccasin plant1850
pleione1851
dove orchis1852
nerve root1854
Holy Ghost flower1862
basket-plant1865
lizard's tongue1866
mousetail1866
Sobralia1866
swan-neck1866
swanwort1866
Indian shoe1876
odontoglot1879
wreathewort1879
moth orchid1880
rattlesnake orchid1881
dendrobe1882
dove-plant1882
Madeira orchis1882
man orchis1882
swan-flower1884
slipper-orchid1885
slipper orchis1889
mayflower1894
scorpion orchid1897
moederkappie1910
dove orchid1918
monkey orchid1925
man orchid1927
1838 Floricultural Mag. Dec. 168 That very rare Orchideus plant Schomburgckia crispum or Spread Eagle, has put up a flowering stem at this place, probably the first in the country.
1849 Eclectic Rev. 25 198 In the Spanish main he saw the epiphyte, commonly known as the ‘spread eagle’, clasping enormous trees.
1860 Illustr. Mag. 9 304/1 He afterwards obtained it abundantly in bloom,..and found that it was, as he had supposed, the Oncidium carthaginense, or ‘spread eagle’.
7. U.S. Stock Market.† b. An operation by which a broker agrees to buy shares of stock within a specified time at a specified price, and sells the option of buying shares of the same stock within the same time at a higher price. Obsolete.
a. = spread n. 6. Cf. straddle n. 2a. Now rare.
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1857 Hunt's Merchants' Mag. 37 136 The buyer can call when he pleases, which would compel the ‘spread eagle’ operator to deliver.
1882 J. R. Dos Passos Treat. Law Stock-brokers & Stock-exchanges viii. 445 A ‘straddle’, or ‘spread-eagle’, is a combination of a ‘put’ and a ‘call’.
1910 Encycl. Brit. V. 55/1 A combined option of either calling or putting is termed a ‘straddle’, and sometimes on the American stock exchange a ‘spread-eagle’.
2002 J. W. Markham Financial Hist. U.S 317 These transactions sometimes involved ‘spread-eagles’ or straddles that were both puts and calls.
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society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > [noun] > specific operations or arrangements > transaction with specific option or timing
spread eagle1870
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > [noun] > specific operations or arrangements > contract combining options within specific time
spread eagle1870
spread1878
straddle1883
1870 J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 86 One modification of this is the Spread Eagle, formerly a highly popular style of speculation with capitalists who had plenty of money and a wide-awake broker.
B. adj. (attributive).
1. Suggestive of the form or appearance of a spread eagle.
a. Designating an epiphytic orchid of tropical America, Trichocentrum carthagenense, the flower of which has outspread sepals and petals which are yellowish-white with purple spots. Now usually in spread-eagle orchid.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [adjective] > of orchids
spread eagle1804
pseudobulbous1840
neottious1850
orchid-like1876
euglossine1966
1804 Curtis's Bot. Mag. 20 777 Epidendrum Undulatum. Spread-Eagle Epidendrum.
1835 Gardener's Mag. Mar. 139 Some of the bulbless epidendrons, the spread eagle plant, and Oncidium papilio attain a much greater height.
1966 C. J. Hylander Wildlife Communities xi. 227 The spread-eagle orchid develops only one large leaf.
1999 A. M. Duquette Her Own Ranger vi. 94 Alisha recognized the pink and white of the clamshell orchid, the pale blues of the spread-eagle orchid, the yellows of the butterfly orchid.
b. gen., with reference to the posture or physical disposition of one or more persons or animals.
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the world > space > relative position > posture > action or fact of stretching body > [adjective] > sprawling or spread-eagled
sprawling1550
spreadeagled1825
spread eagle1841
1841 Athenæum 23 Jan. 87/2 Squire Spermacetti..descended to the dining-parlour, with his brace of beauties, swingingly, in spread-eagle fashion.
1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports 376 That ‘spread-eagle’ style of gallop which destroys a horse's chances at once.
1894 Daily Tel. 7 May 5/4 The ‘spread-eagle’ system adopted by cyclists, who straggle all over the road.
1930 ‘J. Taine’ Iron Star xiv. 246 Are you going to send us sailing over the treetops like a flock of spread-eagle bats?
1941 U.S. Figure Skating Assoc. Rulebk. 1940–41 76 The Killian..analyzes as a snappy side by side Man's Fourteenstep—using a choctaw in place of a spread eagle turn.
1979 Compl. Bk. Roller Skating ii. 28 The best technique..is the Mohawk, or spread-eagle, turn.
2000 F. Ankel-Simons Primate Anat. (ed. 2) 87 They..often jump from the outer branches of one tree down into those of adjacent trees, having all ‘five’ extremities..extended in a spread-eagle manner.
2. † a. High-sounding, grandiose. Obsolete. rare.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > [adjective] > lofty or grandiloquent
magnificenta1460
statelya1525
magnifical1533
tragical1533
lofty1565
tragic1566
sublime1586
over-high1587
magnific1589
heroic1590
buskina1593
grandiloquous1593
full-mouthed1594
high-pitched1594
buskined1595
full-mouth1595
high-borne1596
altisonant1612
Roman1619
high-sounding1624
transcendent1631
magniloquent1640
loud1651
altiloquent1656
grandiloquent1656
largiloquent1656
altisonous1661
tall1670
elevate1673
grandisonous1674
sounding1683
exalted1684
grandisonant1684
grandific1727
magniloquous1727
orotund1799
superb1825
spread eagle1839
grandiose1840
magnisonanta1843
togated1868
elevated1875
mandarin1959
1839 Morning Post 21 Sept. The notion of lifting him with a spread-eagle title into the chief saloon.
b. U.S. (now chiefly historical). Extravagant in expression; bombastic, ridiculously boastful, esp. in support or praise of the United States.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > [adjective] > inflated or bombastic
fleshyc1369
windya1382
unmeasureda1425
puffing1566
embossed1578
puffed1587
bombasted1589
fustian1592
puffya1594
full-mouthed1594
orificial1594
gouty1595
swelling1597
mouth-filling1598
taffeta1598
bombast1601
tiptoe-strouting1602
turgidous1602
swollen1605
dropsieda1616
exsufflicatea1616
turgent1621
ampullous1622
tympanous1625
high-flown1632
tumorousa1637
blustered1638
tumid1648
bombastical1649
ranting1650
inflated1652
tuftaffetya1658
pompiona1670
bombastic1704
dropsical1721
thundering1725
turgid1725
exsuffolate1744
Lexiphanic1767
hi cockalorum1783
Ossianic1788
mouthing1814
mouthy1827
sophomoric1837
highfalutin1839
sophomorical1847
spread eagle1853
tumescent1882
Herodian1886
Ossianesque1889
Barnumesque1890
1853 Daily Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 21 Apr. She harangues a good deal in the ‘spread eagle’ style.
1858 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 454 It pleases our English critics to charge upon American writers in the mass..what has come to be designated as ‘the spread-eagle style’—a compound of exaggeration, effrontery, bombast, and extravagance.
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn xx. 194 The duke got out his book and read the parts over in the most splendid spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same time.
1894 H. H. Gardener Unofficial Patriot 125 You've read a lot of spread-eagle stuff, I don't doubt.
1918 Forum Dec. 720 When he stood before the tomb of Lafayette there was excuse for a long oration, for a windy bombast of spread-eagle words and phrases.
1964 H. Carter Vanishing Amer. 53/1 Both were spread-eagle orators, who could wring the last emotional quiver out of manly honor, home, mother, family, and fireside.
1971 W. Stegner Angle of Repose (1972) viii. v. 445 They would do better to stay out, rather than try to find a place among the crowds drunk on statehood and spread-eagle oratory and worse.
2014 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 4 July 6 a Sophisticated Americans of today smile to read of the..spread eagle speeches..which the unsophisticated Americans of that time expressed their patriotic emotions.
c. U.S. (now chiefly historical). Aggressively assertive of United States interests or claims.With overtones of sense B. 2b.
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society > society and the community > social attitudes > patriotism > [adjective] > exaggerated or bellicose > American
spread eagle1867
1867 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 412/1 The spread-eagle orator must of necessity take for his subject the greatness, power, and glory of the United States.
1875 Georgia Weekly Tel. 27 Apr. Free from the exaggerated and hifalutin, spread-eagle notions of Northern historiographers.
1883 Cent. Mag. Feb. 616/2 The expression of a purely literary opinion..was taken to be a ‘spread-eagle’ attack by an American on..Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray!
1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 2 Jan. 2/1 The new form of spread-eagle policy which the past year had witnessed.
1916 J. W. Mason Hist. Otter Tail County I. xxx. 551 We had no ‘spread eagle’ orators that day, but there were several patriotic papers read.
1967 Antioch Rev. 27 394 An extravagant Lockeanism in domestic affairs and a spreadeagle Americanism in foreign affairs.
1988 M. T. Isenberg John L. Sullivan & his Amer. ii. 44 Reformers found easy targets in the ostentatious displays of the vulgar rich, venal politics, and chauvinistic spread-eagle orators.
C. adv.
So as to suggest the form or appearance of a spread eagle; with arms and legs outstretched; = spread-eagle-wise adv. at Derivatives.
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the world > space > relative position > posture > action or fact of stretching body > [adverb] > like a spread eagle
spread-eagle-wise1669
spreadeagled1880
spread eagle1905
1905 Sc. Hist. Rev. 2 242 The usual mode of breaking on the wheel..was to lay the prisoner on his back, bound ‘spread-eagle’ by his wrists and ankle.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 474 A blond feeble goosefat whore..lolls spreadeagle in the sofa corner.
1954 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Jan. 12/2 He told the two men to stand ‘spread eagle’ against the wall of a building while Joseph L. Klingenberg..frisked them.
1973 W. H. Hallahan Ross Forgery iv. 59 Ross stripped the klutz of all his clothes and staked him spread-eagle to the ground under a tropical sun.
1989 A. Wilentz Rainy Season (1990) ii. 45 A young man in nylon running shorts was sleeping spreadeagle on a cot.
2004 Nation's Restaurant News 24 May 20/1 The camera then cuts to whole chickens laid spread-eagle on the grill.
Derivatives
spread-ˈeagle-wise adv. now rare so as to suggest the form or appearance of a spread eagle; with arms and legs outstretched.
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the world > space > relative position > posture > action or fact of stretching body > [adverb] > like a spread eagle
spread-eagle-wise1669
spreadeagled1880
spread eagle1905
1669 J. Dryden Wild Gallant ii. i. 15 I use to tell him of his two Capons tails about his hat, that are laid spread eagle wise to make a feather.
1837 J. W. Kaye Doveton I. x. 102 Poor Arthur..was borne down bodily by this unlooked-for collision, and stretched spread-eagle-wise on the ground.
1895 Manch. Weekly Times 6 Dec. 6/3 The prisoner divested himself of jacket and shirt, and extended his arms to be strapped spread-eagle-wise to the felloes of the gun-wheel.
1936 Weekly Irish Times 24 Oct. 18/1 A fairly narrow, circular collar, ending in a scalloped jabot which folds over spread-eagle wise on the bodice.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.adj.adv.1550