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on of having the natural powers obstructed in their usual course; the arrest of the vital functions; death. [Poetic] To die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot. Shak.

ssigned to be done, by a particular thing, or that which anything is fitted to perform; a function; -- answering to duty in intelligent beings. They [the eyes] resign their office and their light. Shak. Hesperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the earth. Milton. In this experiment the several intervals of the t…

Discharging an office or function. [Obs.] The stomach and other parts official unto nutrition. Sir T. Browne.

To discharge, perform, or supply, as an official duty or function. [Obs.] Merely to officiate light Round this opacous earth. Milton.

The science which treats of the structure, functions, and diseases of the eye.

means to determine the accomodative and refractive states of the eye and the scope of its function in general."

To invest with ministerial or sacerdotal functions; to introduce into the office of the Christian ministry, by the laying on of hands, or other forms; to set apart by the ceremony of ordination. Meletius was ordained by Arian bishops. Bp. Stillingfleet.

structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole; as, the heart, lungs, etc., are organs of animals; the root, stem, foliage, etc., are organs of plants.

Of or pertaining to an organ or its functions, or to objects composed of organs; consisting of organs, or containing them; as, the organic structure of animals and plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic remains. Cf. Inorganic.

In an organic manner; by means of organs or with reference to organic functions; hence, fundamentally. Gladstone.

ng; a living body, either vegetable or animal, compozed of different organs or parts with functions which are separate, but mutually dependent, and essential to the life of the individual.

istence; an organism; specif. (Biol.), an arrangement of parts for the performance of the functions necessary to life. The cell may be regarded as the most simple, the most common, and the earliest form of organization. McKendrick.

To furnish with organs; to give an organic structure to; to endow with capacity for the functions of life; as, an organized being; organized matter; -- in this sense used chiefly in the past participle. These nobler faculties of the mind, matter organized could never produce. Ray.

cs in the skeleton, esp. in the pelvis and hind legs, which in some genera had only three functional toes, and supported the body in walking as in Iguanodon. See Illust. in Appendix.

That branch of natural history which treats of the origin and functions of eggs.

, from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; bodily distress; bodily suffering; an ache; a smart. "The pain of Jesus Christ." Chaucer.

Abolition of function, whether complete or partial; esp., the loss of the power of voluntary motion, with or without that of sensation, in any part of the body; palsy. See Hemiplegia, and Paraplegia. Also used figuratively. "Utter paralysis of memory." G. Eliot. Mischievous practices arising out of the paralysis of the…

ial differentials, Partial differential coefficients, Partial differentiation, etc. (of a function of two or more variables), the differentials, differential coefficients, differentiation etc., of the function, upon the hypothesis that some of the variables are for the time constant. -- Partial fractions (Alg.), fract…

A table or other means for calculating the periodical functions of women. Dunglison.

The science of the special functions of the several parts of the brain, or of the supposed connection between the various faculties of the mind and particular organs in the brain.