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Delicacy or exactness of perception; minuteness of observation or of discrimination; precision.

A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment. To cut it off in the very nick. Howell. This nick of time is the critical occasion for the gainger of a point. L'Estrange.

fe which was destined to be so soon, and so fatally, overshadowed. Motley. High noon, the exact meridian; midday. -- Noon of night, midnight. [Poetic] Dryden.

Standard; original; exact; typical. Specifically:

ys attention to, anything; especially, one engaged in, or trained to habits of, close and exact observation; as, an astronomical observer. The observed of all observers. Shak. Careful observers may foretell the hour, By sure prognostic, when to dread a shower. Swift.

sonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. Macaulay.

ed up in a coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of style. Swift. He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and peddlers and to ordinaries. Bancroft.

Too exquisite; too exact or nice; too careful.

their apparent displacement when the eye changes its position, caused by their not being exactly in the focus of the object glass. -- Stellar parallax, the annual parallax of a fixed star.

motion of a reciprocating piece, as a piston rod, may be guided, either approximately or exactly in a straight line. Rankine. (b) (Mus.) The ascending or descending of two or more parts at fixed intervals, as thirds or sixths. -- Parallel rod (Locomotive Eng.), a metal rod that connects the crank pins of two or more…

To refrain from exacting as a penalty. I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it. Shak.

Such portion of any quantity, as when taken a certain number of times, will exactly make that quantity; as, 3 is a part of 12; -- the opposite of multiple. Also, a line or other element of a geometrical figure.

nner; in a high degree; as, a particularly fortunate man; a particularly bad failure. The exact propriety of Virgil I particularly regarded as a great part of his character. Dryden.

Exactly suitable; fit; convenient; timely. "Pat allusion." Barrow.

Exactly spherical; globular.

Exactly upright or vertical; pointing to the zenith; at right angles to the plane of the horizon; extending in a right line from any point toward the center of the earth.

t between two alternating-current generators when juxtaposed in parallel and not agreeing exactly in phase or period.

An arrangement of two photographic cameras, the plates of which may be brought into exactly the same plane, used in surveying and map making. From the differences between two pictures taken at the same moment, measurements in all dimensions of the region may be obtained.

of abject fortune. Milton. He lived when learning was at its highest pitch. Addison. The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends. Sharp.

Having opposite surfaces exactly plane and parallel, as a piece of glass.