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To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf.

The letting of one timber into another by alternate scores or projections, as in shipbuilding.

To soil, or change the appearance of, especially by an alternation induced by the air, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color. "Tarnished lace." Fuller. Used also figuratively; as, to tarnish one's honor.…

strument for producing music (Tel*har"mo*ny []), at a distant point or points by means of alternating currents of electricity controlled by an operator who plays on a keyboard. The music is produced by a receiving instrument similar or analogous to the telephone, but not held to the ear. The pitch corresponds with freq…

A transformer without iron, for high frequency alternating or oscillating currents; an oscillation transformer.

sensibility, used to determine slight differences and degrees of heat. It is composed of alternate bars of antimony and bismuth, or any two metals having different capacities for the conduction of heat, connected with an astatic galvanometer, which is very sensibly affected by the electric current induced in the syste…

The alternate rising and falling of the waters of the ocean, and of bays, rivers, etc., connected therewith. The tide ebbs and flows twice in each lunar day, or the space of a little more than twenty- four hours. It is occasioned by the attraction of the sun and moon (the influence of the latter being three times that…

Bricks alternately projecting at the end of a wall, in order that they may be bonded into a continuation of it when the remainder is carried up. Toothing plane, a plane of which the iron is formed into a series of small teeth, for the purpose of roughening surfaces, as of veneers.

Cylindrical with alternate swellings and contractions; having the surface covered with rounded prominences.

r quaver of the voice in singing, or of the sound of an instrument, produced by the rapid alternation of two contiguous tones of the scale; as, to give a trill on the high C. See Shake.

Successive course; opportunity enjoyed by alternation with another or with others, or in due order; due chance; alternate or incidental occasion; appropriate time. "Nobleness and bounty . . . had their turns in his [the king's] nature." His turn will come to laugh at you again. Denham . Every one has a fair turn to be…

Alternately disposed on exactly opposite sides of the stem so as to from two ranks; distichous.

aves, which successively rise or swell rise or swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating motion, similar to that of waves. Undulatory theory, or Wave theory (of light) (Opt.), that theory which regards its various phenomena as due to undulations in an ethereal medium, propagated from the radiant with immen…

he like; -- rarely occurring except in the phrase ups and downs. [Colloq.] Ups and downs, alternate states of elevation and depression, or of prosperity and the contrary. [Colloq.] They had their ups and downs of fortune. Thackeray.

Amphibole resulting from the alternation of pyroxene by paramorphism. It is not uncommon in massive eruptive rocks.

e act of vacillating; a moving one way and the other; a wavering. His vacillations, or an alternation of knowledge and doubt. Jer. Taylor.

es. It is represented in heraldry by a series of small shields placed close together, and alternately white and blue. Fairholt. No vair or ermine decked his garment. Sir W. Scott. Counter vair (Her.), a fur resembling vair, except in the arrangement of the patches or figures.

Having the capacity of varying or changing; capable of alternation in any manner; changeable; as, variable winds or seasons; a variable quantity.

ng; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing; modification; alternation; mutation; diversity; deviation; as, a variation of color in different lights; a variation in size; variation of language. The essences of things are conceived not capable of any such variation. Locke.…

To change to something else; to transmute; to exchange; to alternate. Gods, that never change their state, Vary oft their love and hate. Waller. We are to vary the customs according to the time and country where the scene of action lies. Dryden.