Search the Dictionary

The curve which a body describes in space, as a planet or comet in its orbit, or stone thrown upward obliquely in the air.

The curve described by any point in a wheel rolling on a line; a cycloid; a roulette; in general, the curve described by any point fixedly connected with a moving curve while the moving curve rolls without slipping on a second fixed curve, the curves all being in one plane. Cycloids, epicycloids, hypocycloids, cardioid…

Italy; -- specifically designating one of the five orders of architecture recognized and described by the Italian writers of the 16th century, or characteristic of the order. The original of this order was not used by the Greeks, but by the Romans under the Empire. See Order, and Illust. of Capital.…

of double curvature. See Plane curve, under Curve. -- Twisted surface (Geom.), a surface described by a straight line moving according to any law whatever, yet so that the consecutive positions of the line shall not be in one plane; a warped surface.

Not speakable; incapable of being uttered or adequately described; inexpressible; unutterable; ineffable; as, unspeakable grief or rage. -- Un*speak"a*bly, adv. Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Pet. i. 8.

A vessel similar to that described in the first definition above, or the representation of one in a solid block of stone, or the like, used for an ornament, as on a terrace or in a garden. See Illust. of Niche.

r only one. -- Uniform velocity, velocity in which the same number of units of space are described in each successive unit of time. -- Variable velocity, velocity in which the space described varies from instant, either increasing or decreasing; -- in the former case called accelerated velocity, in the latter, retard…

To relate or describe in verse; to compose in verse. I'll versify the truth, not poetize. Daniel.

are in some exact ratio to one another. When one end of such a rod is fixed, the free end describes in vibrating the corresponding Lissajous figure. So called because devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

ing on etched meteoric iron; -- so called after A. B. Widmanstätten, of Vienna, who first described them in

ent, and simple certainty is appropriately expressed; as, "You will go," or "He will go," describes a future event as a fact only. To emphasize will denotes (according to the tone or context) certain futurity or fixed determination.

A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.

Discovered, or first described, by Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733-1794), the founder of modern embryology. Wolffian body, the mesonephros. -- Wolffian duct, the duct from the Wolffian body.

Discovered or described by Olanus Wormius, a Danish anatomist. Wormian bones, small irregular plates of bone often interposed in the sutures between the large cranial bones.

tion. Shak. As none but she, who in that court did dwell, Could know such worth, or worth describe so well. Waller. To think how modest worth neglected lies. Shenstone.

One who describes animals, their forms and habits.