1. Presenting a pleasing appearance; pleasing in form or look; showy.
Some [serpents] specious and beautiful to the eye.
Bp. Richardson.
The rest, far greater part,
Will deem in outward rites and specious forms
Religion satisfied.
Milton. 2. Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; appearing well at first view; plausible; as,
specious reasoning; a specious argument.
Misled for a moment by the specious names of religion, liberty, and property.
Macaulay.
In consequence of their greater command of specious expression.
J. Morley. Syn. — Plausible; showy; ostensible; colorable; feasible. See Plausible.
— Spe"xious*ly adv. — Spe"cious*ness, n.
Speck
(Speck) n. [Cf. Icel. spik blubber, AS. spic, D. spek, G. speck.] The blubber of whales or
other marine mammals; also, the fat of the hippopotamus.
Speck falls (Naut.), falls or ropes rove through blocks for hoisting the blubber and bone of whales on
board a whaling vessel.
Speck
(Speck), n. [OE. spekke, AS. specca; cf. LG. spaak.]
1. A small discolored place in or on anything, or a small place of a color different from that of the main
substance; a spot; a stain; a blemish; as, a speck on paper or loth; specks of decay in fruit. "Gray sand,
with black specks." Anson.
2. A very small thing; a particle; a mite; as, specks of dust; he has not a speck of money.
Many bright specks bubble up along the blue Egean.
Landor. 3. (Zoöl.) A small etheostomoid fish (Ulocentra stigmæa) common in the Eastern United States.
Speck
(Speck), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Specked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Specking.] To cause the presence
of specks upon or in, especially specks regarded as defects or blemishes; to spot; to speckle; as, paper
specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture.
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold.
Milton. Speckle
(Spec"kle) n. [Dim. of speck; cf. D. spikkel.] A little or spot in or anything, of a different substance
or color from that of the thing itself.
An huge great serpent, all with speckles pied.
Spebser. Speckle
(Spec"kle), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Speckled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Speckling ] To mark with small
spots of a different color from that of the rest of the surface; to variegate with spots of a different color
from the ground or surface.
Speckled
(Spec"kled) a. Marked or variegated with small spots of a different color from that of the rest
of the surface.
Speckled Indians (Ethnol.), the Pintos. — Speckled trout. (Zoöl.) (a) The common American brook
trout. See Trout. (b) The rainbow trout.
Speckled-belly
(Spec"kled-bel`ly) n. (Zoöl.) The gadwall. [Local, U.S.]
