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One of the simple substances, as supposed by the ancient philosophers; one of the imaginary principles of matter.

Pertaining to the elements, first principles, and primary ingredients, or to the four supposed elements of the material world; as, elemental air. "Elemental strife." Pope.

ral being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. Shak.

The highest heaven, where the pure element of fire was supposed by the ancients to subsist. The empyrean rung With hallelujahs. Milton.

nting; the production of certain wonderful effects by the aid of demons, or the agency of supposed spirits; the use of magic arts, spells, or charms; incantation. After the last enchantment you did here. Shak.

Something supposed to condense within itself all the virtues and qualities of a substance from which it is extracted; essence. [Obs.]

An extinct marine reptile from the coal measures of Nova Scotia; -- so named because supposed to be of the earliest known reptiles.

A Hebrew dry measure, supposed to be equal to two pecks and five quarts. ten ephahs make one homer.

me. -- Equation of the center (Astron.), the difference between the place of a planet as supposed to move uniformly in a circle, and its place as moving in an ellipse. -- Equations of condition (Math.), equations formed for deducing the true values of certain quantities from others on which they depend, when differen…

s, to equivocate is the work of duplicity. All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate. Bp. Stillingfleet.

A personification, in German and Scandinavian mythology, of a spirit natural power supposed to work mischief and ruin, esp. to children.

A substance reddened by acids, which is supposed to be contained in flowers.

Same as Eskimo. It is . . . an error to suppose that where an Esquimau can live, a civilized man can live also. McClintock.

High estimation or value; great regard; favorable opinion, founded on supposed worth. Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem. Shak.

A medium of great elasticity and extreme tenuity, supposed to pervade all space, the interior of solid bodies not excepted, and to be the medium of transmission of light and heat; hence often called luminiferous ether.

A yellowish coloring matter found in plants grown in darkness, which is supposed to be an antecedent condition of chlorophyll. Encyc. Brit.

gas, first prepared by Davy, evolved from potassium chlorate and hydrochloric acid. It is supposed to consist of chlorine tetroxide with some free chlorine.

Furnishing evidence; asserting; proving; evidential. When a fact is supposed, although incorrectly, to be evidentiary of, a mark of, some other fact. J. S. Mill.

Possessed of the supposed evil eye; also, looking with envy, jealousy, or bad design; malicious. Shak.

That theory of generation which supposes the germ to preëxist in the parent, and its parts to be developed, but not actually formed, by the procreative act; -- opposed to epigenesis.