Search the Dictionary

rocess of putting a mast or masts into a vessel; also, the scientific principles which determine the position of masts, and the mechanical methods of placing them. Masting house (Naut.), a large building, with suitable mechanism overhanging the water, used for stepping and unstepping the masts of vessels.…

A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; an emulous struggle. "Many a warlike match." Drayton. A solemn match was made; he lost the prize. Dryden.

of a school or hospital. Jury of matrons (Law), a jury of experienced women called to determine the question of pregnancy when set up in bar of execution, and for other cognate purposes.

rs, mean error. -- Mean line. (Crystallog.) Same as Bisectrix. -- Mean noon, noon as determined by mean time. -- Mean proportional (between two numbers) (Math.), the square root of their product. -- Mean sun, a fictitious sun supposed to move uniformly in the equator so as to be on the meridian each day at mean noo…

mensions or capacity of anything, reckoned according to some standard; size or extent, determined and stated; estimated extent; as, to take one's measure for a coat. The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Job xi. 9.

Regulated or determined by a standard; hence, equal; uniform; graduated; limited; moderated; as, he walked with measured steps; he expressed himself in no measured terms. -- Meas"ured*ly, adv.

ference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being; phylosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.…

er, a metallic ring fixed in the focus of the object glass of a telescope, and used to determine differences of right ascension and declination between stars by observations of the times at which the stars cross the inner or outer periphery of the ring. -- Double image micrometer, a micrometer in which two images of a…

insane, or imbecile. -- To make up one's mind, to come to an opinion or decision; to determine. -- To put in mind, to remind. "Regard us simply as putting you in mind of what you already know to be good policy." Jowett (Thucyd. ).

or otherwise remove, the substratum or foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine; hence, to ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means. They mined the walls. Hayward. Too lazy to cut down these immense trees, the spoilers... had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavity. Sir W. S…

, whether by simple, contingent, or necessary assertion; the form of the syllogism, as determined by the quantity and quality of the constituent proposition; mood.

nceived of as endowed with the power to produce all the changes they undergo, and thus determine all physical and spiritual phenomena.

ich the text and action are not interrupted by set arias, duets, etc., the music being determined throughout by dramatic appropriateness; musical drama of this character, in general. It involves the use of a kind of melodious declamation, the development of leitmotif, great orchestral elaboration, and a fusion of poetr…

A race or people, as determined by common language and character, and not by political bias or divisions; a nation. the fulfillment of his mission is to be looked for in the condition of nationalities and the character of peoples. H. W. Beecher.

Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or dispos…

t eighty feet of shale supporting a greater thickness of limestone, which is gradually undermined by the removal of the shale. See Chart of Geology.

Any melody determined by inviolable rules. [Obs.]

To determine, adjudge, or record (a plaintiff) as having dropped his suit, upon his withdrawal or failure to follow it up. "When two are joined in a writ, and one is nonsuited." Z. Swift.

beset by a spirit from without. Tylor. Whether by obsession or possession, I will not determine. Burton.

s only were observed, but the nature and relations of whose productive agencies were undetermined; -- so called by the schoolmen. -- Occult sciences, those sciences of the Middle Ages which related to the supposed action or influence of occult qualities, or supernatural powers, as alchemy, magic, necromancy, and astro…