March , n. [F. marche.]
1. The act of marching; a movement of soldiers from one stopping place to another; military progress; advance of troops.
These troops came to the army harassed with a long and wearisome march.
Bacon. 2. Hence: Measured and regular advance or movement, like that of soldiers moving in order; stately or deliberate walk; steady onward movement.
With solemn
march
Goes slow and stately by them.
Shak. This happens merely because men will not
bide their time, but will insist on precipitating the march of affairs.
Buckle. 3. The distance passed over in marching; as, an hour's march; a march of twenty miles.
4. A piece of music designed or fitted to accompany and guide the
movement of troops; a piece of music in the
march form.
The drums presently striking up a march.
Knolles. To make a march, (Card Playing), to take all the
tricks of a hand, in the game of euchre.
March , v. t. To cause to move
with regular steps in the manner
of a soldier; to cause to move
in military array, or in a body, as
troops; to cause to advance in
a steady, regular, or stately manner; to cause to go by peremptory command, or by force.
March them again in fair
array.
Prior.
March , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Marched (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Marching.]
[F. marcher, in OF. also, to tread, prob. fr. L. marcus hammer. Cf. Mortar.]
1. To move
with regular steps, as a soldier;
to walk in a grave, deliberate, or stately manner; to advance steadily. Shak.
2. To proceed by walking in a
body or in military order; as, the German army marched into France.
March , v. i. [Cf. OF. marchir.
See 2d March.]
To border; to be contiguous; to lie side by side. [Obs.]
That was in a strange land
Which marcheth upon Chimerie.
Gower. To march with, to have the same
boundary for a greater or less
distance; -- said of an estate.
March , n. [OE.
marche, F. marche; of
German origin; cf. OHG.
marcha, G. mark, akin to OS.
marka, AS. mearc, Goth. marka, L. margo
edge, border, margin, and possibly to E. mark a
sign. √106. Cf. Margin, Margrave,
Marque, Marquis.]
A territorial border or frontier; a region adjacent to a
boundary line; a confine; -- used chiefly in the plural, and in English history applied especially to the border land on the
frontiers between England and
Scotland, and England and
Wales.
Geneva is situated in the marches of several dominions -- France, Savoy, and
Switzerland.
Fuller.
Lords of waste
marches, kings of desolate isles.
Tennyson.
March (?), n. [L. Martius mensis Mars'month fr. Martius belonging to Mars, the god of war: cf.
F. mars. Cf. Martial.]
The third month of the year,
containing thirty-one
days.
The stormy March is come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing
skies.
Bryant. As mad as a March Hare, an old English Saying derived from the fact
that March is the rutting time of hares, when they are
excitable and violent. Wright.
Hear it pronounced