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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Cast


CAST, verb transitive preterit tense And participle passive cast

1. To throw, fling or send; that is, to drive from, by force, as from the hand, or from an engine.

Hagar cast the child under a shrub. Genesis 21:10.

Uzziah prepared slings to cast stones. 2 Chronicles 26:14.

2. To sow; to scatter seed.

If a man should cast seen into the ground. Mark 4:26.

3. To drive or impel by violence.

A mighty west wind cast the locusts into the sea. Exodus 10:19.

4. To shed or throw off; as, trees cast their fruit; a serpent casts his skin.

5. To throw or let fall; as, to cast anchor. Hence, to east anchor is to moor, as a ship, the effect of casting the anchor.

6. To throw, as dice or lots; as, to cast lots.

7. To throw on the ground, as in wrestling.

8. To throw away, as worthless.

His carcase was cast in the way. 1 Kings 13:24.

9. To emit or throw out.

This casts a sulphurous smell.

10. To throw, to extend, as a trench or rampart, including the sense of digging, raising, or forming.

Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee. Luke 19:35.

11. To thrust; as, to cast into prison.

12. To put, or set, in a particular state.

Both chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep. Psalms 76:6.

13. To condemn; to convict; as a criminal.

Both tried and both were cast

14. To overcome in a civil suit, or in any contest of strength or skill; as, to cast the defendant or an antagonist.

15. To cashier or discard.

16. To lay aside, as unfit for use; to reject; as a garment.

17. To make to preponderate; to throw into one scale, for the purpose of giving it superior weight; to decide by a vote that gives a superiority in numbers; as, to cast the balance in ones favor; a casting vote or voice.

18. To throw together several particulars, to find the sum; as, to cast accounts. Hence, to throw together circumstances and facts, to find the result; to compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast the event of war.

To cast and see how many things there are which a man cannot do himself.

19. To contrive; to plan.

20. To judge, or to consider, in order to judge.

21. To fix, or distribute the parts of a play among the actors.

22. To throw, as the sight; to direct, or turn, as the eye; to glance; as, to cast a look, or glance, or the eye.

23. To found; to form into a particular shape, by pouring liquid metal into a mold; to run; as, to cast cannon.

Thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it. Exodus 25:12.

24. Figuratively, to shape; to form by a model.

25. To communicate; to spread over; as, to cast a luster upon posterity; to cast splendor upon actions, or light upon a subject.

To cast aside, to dismiss or reject as useless or inconvenient.

To cast away, to reject. Leviticus 26:30. Isaiah 5:24. Romans 11:1. Also, to throw away; to lavish or waste by profusion; to turn to no use; as, to cast away life.

Also, to wreck, as a ship.

To cast by, to reject; to dismiss or discard with neglect or hate, or as useless.

To cast down, to throw down; to deject or depress the mind.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul. Psalms 42:5.

To cast forth, to throw out, or eject, as from an inclosed place; to emit, or send abroad; to exhale.

To cast off, to discard or reject; to drive away; to put off; to put away; to disburden. Among huntsmen, to leave behind, as dogs; to set loose, or free. Among seamen, to loose, or untie.

To cast out, to send forth; to reject or turn out; to throw out, as words; to speak or give vent to.

To cast up, to compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast up accounts, or the cost. Also, to eject; to vomit.

To cast on, to refer or resign to.

To cast ones self on, to resign or yield ones self to the disposal of, without reserve.

To cast young, to miscarry; to suffer abortion. Genesis 31:38.

To cast in the teeth, to upbraid; to charge; to twit. So in Danish, kaster in I noesen, to cast in the nose.

CAST, verb intransitive

1. To throw forward, as the thoughts, with a view to some determination; or to turn or revolve in the mind; to contrive; sometimes followed by about.

I cast in careful mind to seek her out. Spenser.

To cast about how to perform or obtain. Bacon.

2. To receive form or shape.

Metal will cast and mold.

3. To warp; to twist from regular shape.

Stuff is said to cast or warp, when it alters its flatness or straightness.

Note. cast like throw and warp, implies a winding motion.

4. In seamens language, to fall off, or incline, so as to bring the side of a ship to the wind; applied particularly to a ship riding with her head to the wind, when her anchor is first loosened.

CAST, noun

1. The act of casting; a throw; the thing thrown; the form or state of throwing; kind or manner of throwing.

2. The distance passed by a thing thrown; or the space through which a thing thrown may ordinarily pass; as, about a stones cast Luke 22:41.

3. A stroke; a touch.

This was a cast of Woods politics.

4. Motion or turn of the eye; direction, look or glance; a squinting.

Thy let you see by one cast of the eye.

5. A throw of dice; hence, a state of chance or hazard.

It is an even cast whether the army should march this way or that way.

Hence the phrase, the last cast is used to denote that all is ventured on one throw, or one effort.

6. Form; shape.

A heroic poem in another cast

7. A tinge; a slight coloring, or slight degree of a color; as a cast of green. Hence, a slight alteration in external appearance.

The native hue of resolution is sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought. Shak.

8. Manner; air; mien; as, a peculiar cast of countenance. This sense implies, the turn or manner of throwing; as, the neat cast f verse.

9. A flight; a number of hawks let go at once.

10. A small statue of bronze.

11. Among founders, a tube of wax, fitted into a mold, to give shape to metal.

12. A cylindrical piece of brass or copper, slit in two lengthwise, to form a canal or conduit, in a mold, for conveying metal.

13. Among plumbers, a little brazen funnel, at one end of a mold, for casting pipes without sodering, by means of which the melted metal is poured into the mold.

14. A breed, race, lineage, kind, sort.

15. In Hindoostan, a tribe or class of the same rank or profession; as the cast of Bramins, or priests; of rajahs, or princes; of choutres, or artificers; and of parias, or poor people. Or according to some writers, of Bramins; of cuttery, or soldiers; of shuddery, or merchants; and of wyse, or mechanics.

The four casts of the Hindoos are the Brahmins or sacred order; the Chechteres or soldiers and rulers; the Bice, Vaissya, or husbandmen and merchants; and the Sooders, Sudras, or laborers and mechanics.

16. A trick.