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A prescribed or set form; an established rule; a fixed or conventional method in which anything is to be done, arranged, or said.

To cause to become antiquated, rigid, or fixed, as by fossilization; to mummify; to deaden. Ten layers of birthdays on a woman's head Are apt to fossilize her girlish mirth. Mrs. Browning.

Converted into a fossil; antiquated; firmly fixed in views or opinions. A fossilized sample of confused provincialism. Earle.

adopted country. -- Foster lean Etym: [foster + AS. læn a loan See Loan.], remuneration fixed for the rearing of a foster child; also, the jointure of a wife. [Obs.] Wharton. -- Foster mother, a woman who takes a mother's place in the nurture and care of a child; a nurse. -- Foster nurse, a nurse; a nourisher. [R.]…

Not under an arbitrary or despotic government; subject only to fixed laws regularly and fairly administered, and defended by them from encroachments upon natural or acquired rights; enjoying political liberty.

son who chooses to bring it to the mint; in a modified sense, such coinage when done at a fixed charge proportionate to the cost of the operation.

The free coinage of silver; often, specif., the free coinage of silver at a fixed ratio with gold, as at the ratio of 16 to 1, which ratio for some time represented nearly or exactly the ratio of the market values of gold and silver respectively.

A short piece of wire, or other material fixed across the finger board of a guitar or a similar instrument, to indicate where the finger is to be placed.

Not fixed; not durable; liable to disappear or fall away; volatile; uncertain; evanescent; liable to fade; -- applied to material and immaterial things; as, fugitive colors; a fugitive idea. The me more tender and fugitive parts, the leaves . . . of vegatables. Woodward. Fugitive compositions, Such as are short and occ…

Macaulay. Sinking fund, the aggregate of sums of money set apart and invested, usually at fixed intervals, for the extinguishment of the debt of a government, or of a corporation, by the accumulation of interest.

ing certain principles in statics, consisting of a cord or chain attached at one end to a fixed point, and having the other passed over a pulley and sustaining a weight, while one or more other weights are suspended from the cord at points between the fixed support and the pulley. -- Funicular polygon (Mech.), the pol…

d to be one of a combination or gang of saws hung together in a frame or sash, and set at fixed distances apart. -- Gang tide. See Gang week (below). -- Gang tooth, a projecting tooth. [Obs.] Halliwell. -- Gang week, Rogation week, when formerly processions were made to survey the bounds of parishes. Halliwell. --…

A Spanish mode of execution by strangulation, with an iron collar affixed to a post and tightened by a screw until life become extinct; also, the instrument by means of which the punishment is inflicted.

A kind of internal-combustion engine (which see) using fixed gas; also, broadly, any internal-combustion engine.

ge to file your worm and groove to equal breadth by. Moxon. There is not in our hands any fixed gauge of minds. I. Taylor.

A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention. With secret gaze Or open admiration him behold. Milton.

ed by means of a wedge, key, or screw. Gib and key, or Gib and cotter (Steam Engine), the fixed wedge or gib, and the driving wedge,key, or cotter, used for tightening the strap which holds the brasses at the end of a connecting rod.

Stated; fixed; as, in a given time. Given name, the Christian name, or name given by one's parents or guardians, as distinguished from the surname, which is inherited. [Colloq.]

A broadsword fixed on a pike; a kind of halberd.

A weapon formerly used, consisting of a large blade fixed on the end of a pole, whose edge was on the outside curve; also, a light lance with a long sharp-pointed head. Wilhelm.