go off at half-cock
         v 1: act prematurely or without reflection or too soon; "she
               wanted to quit her job but her mother told her not to go
               off half-cocked" [syn: {go off half-cocked}, {go off at
               half-cock}]

English Dictionary: Gebudlichkeit	by the DICT Development Group
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Dumpy level \Dump"y lev"el\ (Surv.)       A level having a short telescope (hence its name) rigidly       fixed to a table capable only of rotatory movement in a       horizontal plane. The telescope is usually an inverting one.       It is sometimes called the {Troughton level}, from the name       of the inventor, and a variety improved by one Gavatt is       known as the {Gavatt level}.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Gib \Gib\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Gibbed}; p. pr. & vb. n.       {Gibbing}.]       To secure or fasten with a gib, or gibs; to provide with a       gib, or gibs.          {Gibbed lathe}, an engine lathe in which the tool carriage is             held down to the bed by a gib instead of by a weight.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Diligence \Dil"i*gence\, n. [F. diligence, L. diligentia.]       1. The quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful             attention; -- the opposite of negligence.          2. Interested and persevering application; devoted and             painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken;             assiduity in service.                         That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified                      in; and the best of me is diligence.   --Shak.          3. (Scots Law) Process by which persons, lands, or effects             are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance             of witnesses or the production of writings.          {To do one's diligence}, {give diligence}, {use diligence},             to exert one's self; to make interested and earnest             endeavor.                         And each of them doth all his diligence To do unto                      the fest[82] reverence.                     --Chaucer.          Syn: Attention; industry; assiduity; sedulousness;                earnestness; constancy; heed; heedfulness; care;                caution. -- {Diligence}, {Industry}. Industry has the                wider sense of the two, implying an habitual devotion to                labor for some valuable end, as knowledge, property,                etc. Diligence denotes earnest application to some                specific object or pursuit, which more or less directly                has a strong hold on one's interests or feelings. A man                may be diligent for a time, or in seeking some favorite                end, without meriting the title of industrious. Such was                the case with Fox, while Burke was eminent not only for                diligence, but industry; he was always at work, and                always looking out for some new field of mental effort.                            The sweat of industry would dry and die, But for                         the end it works to.                        --Shak.                            Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which                         an historical writer ascribe to himself. --Gibbon.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Gobbetly \Gob"bet*ly\, adv.       In pieces. [Obs.] --Huloet.