Search the Dictionary

The process of constructive metabolism by which carbohydrates are formed from water vapor and the carbon dioxide of the air in the chlorophyll-containing tissues of plants exposed to the action of light. It was formerly called assimilation, but this is now commonly used as in animal physiology. The details of the proce…

exas, New Mexico, and Arizona, a broad, level spot, on which subsequently becomes dry by evaporation. Bartlett.

of a precipitate; as, water precipitates camphor when in solution with alcohol. The light vapor of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold. W. Irving.

An instrument for measuring the tension of the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, being essentially a wet and dry bulb hygrometer.

ving it a fibrous structure. It is supposed to be produced by the disengagement of watery vapor without liquid or plastic lava. It is much used, esp. in the form of powder, for smoothing and polishing. Called also pumice stone.

Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky. Shak. The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, . . . pass without noise. Bacon. And the night rack came rolling up. C. Kingsley.

which the more volatile portions are separated from the less volatile by the process of evaporation and condensation; a rectifier.

Vapor; steam; smoke; fume. As hateful to me as the reek of a limekiln. Shak.

OPottery) A piece of ware covered with a vaporable flux and placed in a kiln, to communicate a glaze to the other articles. Knight.

An apparatus for rapidly cooling heated liquids or vapors, connected with a still, etc. Refrigerator car (Railroad), a freight car constructed as a refrigerator, for the transportation of fresh meats, fish, etc., in a temperature kept cool by ice.

In distillation, a vessel filled with cold water, surrounding the worm, the vapor in which is thereby condensed.

specified deductions are made; residue. "I think so," is the whole residuum . . . after evaporating the prodigious pretensions of the zealot demagogue. L. Taylor.

tempers cold air passing through it, and may also be used for the inhalation of medicated vapors.

White frost; hoarfrost; congealed dew or vapor. The trees were now covered with rime. De Quincey.

To ascend or float in a fluid, as gases or vapors in air, cork in water, and the like.

The inspissated juice of ripe fruit, obtained by evaporation of the juice over a fire till it acquires the consistence of a sirup. It is sometimes mixed with honey or sugar. [Written also rhob, and rohob.]

. In the United States this name is sometimes given to salt in large crystals, formed by evaporation from sea water in large basins or cavities. -- Rock seal (Zoöl.), the harbor seal. See Seal. -- Rock shell (Zoöl.), any species of Murex, Purpura, and allied genera. -- Rock snake (Zoöl.), any one of several large py…

the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, and is also produced, by evaporation and crystallization, from sea water and other water impregnated with saline particles.

A building or place where salt is made by boiling or by evaporation; salt works.

Loose, vapory clouds driven swiftly by the wind. Borne on the scud of the sea. Longfellow. The scud was flying fast above us, throwing a veil over the moon. Sir S. Baker.