to recover damages in trespass; to recover debt and costs in a legal action or that is owing

In some seasons these pests are exceedingly numerous, and in the Eastern Counties the “Black Canker,” as it is called, lays waste entire fields of turnips.

Various have been the contrivances for effecting the separation of storage and breeding departments in a hive. […] An empty box or hive, pushed beneath a full one, is denominated a Nadir,—a mode of practice not always advisable except in the case of swarms of the same year, or towards the latter end of very abundant seasons. A still smaller addition to a common hive consists of merely a few bands of straw, on which it is raised temporarily, and this constitutes an eke. […] The entrance to the stock-hive must be stopped, and one made at the bottom of the eke or nadir.

Next, you're looking for a sparkplug to put in the lead-off position. This is someone who will rev up the team with a mark right away. Watch out for the sputterer, the misfirer, or anyone who fuels up with a gallon of ethyl alcohol before frame one.