among physicians, a term signifying the unequal growth or nourishment of any part of the body, as in the rickets.

ALOOF has frequently been mentioned as a sea-term; but whether justly or not, we shall not presume to determine. It is known in common discourse to imply at a distance; and the resemblance of the phrases keep aloof, and keep a luff, or keep the luff, in all probability gave rise to the conjecture. If it was really a sea-phrase originally, it seems to have referred to the dangers of a lee-shore, in which situation the pilot might naturally apply it in the sense commonly understood, viz. keep all off, or quite off: it is, however, never expressed in that manner by seamen now.