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, to take the lead; to be under the lead of another. At the time I speak of, and having a momentary lead, . . . I am sure I did my country important service. Burke.

mpanion in the crowd. Like following life thro' creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect. Pope .

Affair worthy of account; thing of consequence; importance; significance; moment; -- chiefly in the phrases what matter no matter, and the like. A prophet some, and some a poet, cry; No matter which, so neither of them lie. Dryden.

nation to the maximum of happiness, and the minimum of misery. P. Colquhoun. Maximum thermometer, a thermometer that registers the highest degree of temperature attained in a given time, or since its last adjustment.

To serve as the measure of; as, the thermometer measures changes of temperature.

, opaque, glistening liquid (commonly called quicksilver), and is used in barometers, thermometers, ect. Specific gravity 13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8. Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one atom. It was named by the alchemists after the god Mercury, and designated by his symbol, mercur…

hich transmits automatically to a central station atmospheric changes as marked by the anemometer, barometer, thermometer, etc.

A suffix denoting that by which anything is measured; as, barometer, chronometer, dynamometer.

A microseismometer; specif., a microseismometer producing a graphic record.

A point of time; a moment. I go this minute to attend the king. Dryden.

A militiaman who was to be ready to march at a moment's notice; -- a term used in the American Revolution.

A myodynamometer.

Evolving; being evolved or produced. Nascent state (Chem.), the supposed instantaneous or momentary state of an uncombined atom or radical just separated from one compound acid, and not yet united with another, -- a hypothetical condition implying peculiarly active chemical properties; as, hydrogen in the nascent state…

A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate his future destinies; a horoscope. The Nativity, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day. -- To cast, or calculate, one's nativity (Astrol.), to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies…

Of trifling moment; nimportant; trivial. [Obs.] The letter was not nice, but full of charge Of dear import. Shak.

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.

The middle or highest point of the part of the ecliptic which is at any given moment above the horizon. It is the ninetieth degree of the ecliptic, reckoned from the points in which it is intersected by the horizon.

At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now. I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago. Arbuthnot.

ude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc.

ow away from, the land. -- To be off. (a) To depart; to escape; as, he was off without a moment's warning. (b) To be abandoned, as an agreement or purpose; as, the bet was declared to be off. [Colloq.] -- To come off, To cut off, To fall off, To go off, etc. See under Come, Cut, Fall, Go, etc. -- To get off. (a) To u…