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6. (Etching) A gummy composition spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid
from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.
7. (Arch.) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which moldings, etc., are attached; —
usually in the plural.
Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.
8. (Mus.) (a) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually
repeated to a varying melody. (b) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song. Moore
On that ground I'll build a holy descant. Shak. 9. (Elec.) A conducting connection with the earth, whereby the earth is made part of an electrical circuit.
10. pl. Sediment at the bottom of liquors or liquids; dregs; lees; feces; as, coffee grounds.
11. The pit of a theater. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
Ground angling, angling with a weighted line without a float. — Ground annual (Scots Law), an
estate created in land by a vassal who instead of selling his land outright reserves an annual ground
rent, which becomes a perpetual charge upon the land. — Ground ash. (Bot.) See Groutweed. —
Ground bailiff (Mining), a superintendent of mines. Simmonds. — Ground bait, bits of bread,
boiled barley or worms, etc., thrown into the water to collect the fish, Wallon. — Ground bass or base
(Mus.), fundamental base; a fundamental base continually repeated to a varied melody. — Ground
beetle (Zoöl.), one of numerous species of carnivorous beetles of the family Carabidæ, living mostly in
burrows or under stones, etc. — Ground chamber, a room on the ground floor. — Ground cherry.
(Bot.) (a) A genus (Physalis) of herbaceous plants having an inflated calyx for a seed pod: esp., the
strawberry tomato See Alkekengl. (b) A European shrub (Prunus Chamæcerasus), with small, very acid
fruit. — Ground cuckoo. (Zoöl.) See Chaparral cock. — Ground cypress. (Bot.) See Lavender
cotton. — Ground dove (Zoöl.), one of several small American pigeons of the genus Columbigallina,
esp. C. passerina of the Southern United States, Mexico, etc. They live chiefly on the ground. — Ground
fish (Zoöl.), any fish which constantly lives on the botton of the sea, as the sole, turbot, halibut. — Ground
floor, the floor of a house most nearly on a level with the ground; — called also in America, but not in
England, the first floor. — Ground form (Gram.), the stem or basis of a word, to which the other
parts are added in declension or conjugation. It is sometimes, but not always, the same as the root. —
Ground furze (Bot.), a low slightly thorny, leguminous shrub (Ononis arvensis) of Europe and Central
Asia,; — called also rest- harrow. — Ground game, hares, rabbits, etc., as distinguished from winged
game. — Ground hele (Bot.), a perennial herb (Veronica officinalis) with small blue flowers, common
in Europe and America, formerly thought to have curative properties. — Ground of the heavens (Astron.),
the surface of any part of the celestial sphere upon which the stars may be regarded as projected.
— Ground hemlock (Bot.), the yew (Taxus baccata var. Canadensisi) of eastern North America,
distinguished from that of Europe by its low, straggling stems. — Ground hog. (Zoöl.) (a) The woodchuck
or American marmot (Arctomys monax). See Woodchuck. (b) The aardvark. — Ground hold (Naut.),
ground tackle. [Obs.] Spenser. — Ground ice, ice formed at the bottom of a body of water before
it forms on the surface. — Ground ivy. (Bot.) A trailing plant; alehoof. See Gill. — Ground joist,
a joist for a basement or ground floor; a. sleeper. — Ground lark (Zoöl.), the European pipit. See
Pipit. - - Ground laurel (Bot.). See Trailing arbutus, under Arbutus. — Ground line (Descriptive
Geom.), the line of intersection of the horizontal and vertical planes of projection. — Ground liverwort
(Bot.), a flowerless plant with a broad flat forking thallus and the fruit raised on peduncled and radiated
receptacles (Marchantia polymorpha). — Ground mail, in Scotland, the fee paid for interment in a
churchyard. — Ground mass (Geol.), the fine-grained or glassy base of a rock, in which distinct crystals
of its constituents are embedded. — Ground parrakeet (Zoöl.), one of several Australian parrakeets,
of the genera Callipsittacus and Geopsittacus, which live mainly upon the ground. — Ground pearl
(Zoöl.), an insect of the family Coccidæ found in ants' nests in the Bahamas, and having a shelly covering.
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