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One who by gradual steps enters on, and takes possession of, what is not his own.

The act of entering gradually or silently upon the rights or possessions of another; unlawful intrusion. An unconstitutional encroachment of military power on the civil establishment. Bancroft.

ls forming a kind of cuticle inside of the proper cortical layer, or surrounding an individual fibrovascular bundle.

A hawk gradually changing the color of its feathers, commonly in the second year.

The hypothetical individual who is assumed as the person from whom any race, city, etc., took its name; as, Hellen is an eponym of the Hellenes.

osely to differences of judgment or method occasioned by temperamental qualities of individuals. -- Theory of equations (Math.), the branch of algebra that treats of the properties of a single algebraic equation of any degree containing one unknown quantity.

ence, supplemental to law, properly so called, and complemental of it. Equity had been gradually shaping itself into a refined science which no human faculties could master without long and intense application. Macaulay.

A gradual oxidation from exposure to air and moisture, as in the decay of old trees or of dead animals.

That erodes or gradually eats away; tending to erode; corrosive. Humble.

uantity and that which is taken or computed to be the true value; -- sometimes called residual error.

iffused inflammation of the skin, which, starting usually from a single point, spreads gradually over its surface. It is usually regarded as contagious, and often occurs epidemically.

The science of the formation of character, national and collective as well as individual. J. S. Mill.

the ethos (sense 1) of a people -- rather than realistic or emotional situations or individual character in a narrow sense; -- opposed to pathos.

the parts which compose a whole collection or aggregate number, considered in their individuality, all taken separately one by one, out of an indefinite bumber. Every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Ps. xxxix. 5. Every door and window was adorned with wreaths of flowers. Macaulay.

ch another curve, called the involute or evolvent, is described by the end of a thread gradually wound upon the former, or unwound from it. See Involute. It is the locus of the centers of all the circles which are osculatory to the given curve or evolvent.

sm has acquired the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it; a gradual unfolding of successive phases of growth or development.

ure to effect a cure. Expectation of life, the mean or average duration of the life individuals after any specified age.

To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant. The earth mourneth and fadeth away. Is. xxiv. 4.

To Descend, either suddenly or gradually; particularly, to descend by the force of gravity; to drop; to sink; as, the apple falls; the tide falls; the mercury falls in the barometer. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke x. 18.

A groupe of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.