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Having the form of an egg; having a figure such that any section in the direction of the shorter diameter will be circular, and any in the direction of the longer diameter will be oval.

A roofing tile, of peculiar form, having a transverse section resembling an elongated S laid on its side (

A kind of curve; one of the conic sections formed by the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane parallel to one of its sides. It is a curve, any point of which is equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed straight line, called the directrix. See Focus.

rated by the rotation of a parabola about its axis; any surface of the second order whose sections by planes parallel to a given line are parabolas.

A distinct part of a discourse or writing; any section or subdivision of a writing or chapter which relates to a particular point, whether consisting of one or many sentences. The division is sometimes noted by the mark

c secretion (Physiol.), the fluid, generally thin and watery, secreted from a gland after section or paralysis of its nerves, as the pralytic saliva.

Specifically (Conic Sections), in the ellipse and hyperbola, a third proportional to any diameter and its conjugate, or in the parabola, to any abscissa and the corresponding ordinate.

A mock moon; an image of the moon which sometimes appears at the point of intersection of two lunar halos. Cf. Parhelion.

A lesson from the Torah, or Law, from which at least one section is read in the Jewish synagogue on every Sabbath and festival.

The surface of the sand of one section of a mold where it meets that of another section.

See Pasch. Pasque flower (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Anemone, section Pulsatilla. They are perennial herbs with rather large purplish blossoms, which appear in early spring, or about Easter, whence the common name. Called also campana.

A number of lines that intersect in one point, the point of intersection being called the pencil point.

The act or practice of opening a vein for letting blood, in the treatment of disease; venesection; bloodletting.

The dissection of plants; vegetable anatomy.

cially, a top view, as of a machine, or the representation or delineation of a horizontal section of anything, as of a building; a graphic representation; a diagram.

taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.

A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine. See Orlop. Platform car, a railway car without permanent raised sides or covering; a f -- Platform scale, a weighing machine, with a flat platform on which objects are weighed.

A form of dentine which shows sinuous lines of structure in a transverse section of the tooth.

conventional place for reference, or zero of reckoning, in the heavens, usually the intersection of two or more great circles of the sphere, and named specifically in each case according to the position intended; as, the equinoctial points; the solstitial points; the nodal points; vertical points, etc. See Equinoctial…

h the two points of contact of the two tangents drawn from a given point to a given conic section. The given point is called the pole of the line. If the given point lies within the curve so that the two tangents become imaginary, there is still a real polar line which does not meet the curve, but which possesses other…