1. Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent. Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Addison.
2. A series of ancestors or progenitors; lineage, or those who compose the line of natural descent.
ANCHOR An"chor, n. Etym: [OE. anker, AS. ancor, oncer, L. ancora, sometimes spelt anchora, fr. Gr. angle: cf. F. ancre. See Angle, n.]
1. A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.
Note: The common anchor consists of a straight bar called a shank, having at one end a transverse bar called a stock, above which is a ring for the cable, and at the other end the crown, from which branch out two or more arms with flukes, forming with the shank a suitable angle to enter the ground.
Note: Formerly the largest and strongest anchor was the sheet anchor (hence, Fig., best hope or last refuge), called also waist anchor. Now the bower and the sheet anchor are usually alike. Then came the best bower and the small bower (so called from being carried on the bows). The stream anchor is one fourth the weight of the bower anchor. Kedges or kedge anchors are light anchors used in warping.
2. Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.
3. Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Heb. vi. 19.
4. (Her.)
Defn: An emblem of hope.