(n.) A female parent; -- used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds;
sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother.
(n.) A kind or crowned piece in the game of draughts.
(n.) A barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; esp., a bank of
earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water
course, to confine and keep back flowing water.
(n.) A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the
hearth of a blast furnace.
(v. t.) To obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine
by constructing a dam, as a stream of water; -- generally used with in
or up.
(v. t.) To shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain.
