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epends on the action of the planets alone. -- Precession of the equinoxes (Astron.), the slow backward motion of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic, at the rate of 50.2" annually, caused by the action of the sun, moon, and planets, upon the protuberant matter about the earth's equator, in connection with its di…

A very slow photographic plate, giving good contrasts between high lights and shadows, used esp. for making lantern slides.

Ready and quick to act as occasion demands; meeting requirements readily; not slow, dilatory, or hesitating in decision or action; responding on the instant; immediate; as, prompt in obedience or compliance; -- said of persons. Very discerning and prompt in giving orders. Clarendon. Tell him I am prompt To lay my crown…

Speedy; hasty; swift; not slow; as, be quick Oft he her his charge of quick return Repeated. Milton.

A disease which produces abortion in the fruit or seeds. Henslow.

these particles. Radium, in turn, is believed to be formed indirectly by an immeasurably slow disintegration of uranium.

s established as a measure or criterion; degree; standard; rank; proportion; ratio; as, a slow rate of movement; rate of interest is the ratio of the interest to the principal, per annum. Heretofore the rate and standard of wit was different from what it is nowadays. South. In this did his holiness and godliness appear…

Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind; dexterous; prompt; easy; expert; as, a ready apprehension; ready wit; a ready writer or workman. "Ready in devising expedients." Macaulay. Gurth, whose temper was ready, through surly. Sir W. Scott.

less; tardy; behindhand; lagging; slack; hence, lacking earnestness or activity; languid; slow. Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness. Milton. These nervous, bold; those languid and remiss. Roscommon. Its motion becomes more languid and remiss. Woodward.

To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: accelerate.

To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast. To ride easy (Naut.), to lie at anchor without violent pitching or straining at the cables. -- To ride hard (Naut.), to pitch violently. -- To ride out. (a) To go upon a military expedition. [Obs.] Chaucer. (b) To…

Retarding; -- a direction for slower time; rallentado.

Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt. Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons. Macaulay. Rot, poor bachelor, in your club. Thackeray.

Buddling rundels joined the sound. Collins. By the very sides of the way . . . there are slow runnels, in which one can see the minnows swimming. Masson.

The act of one who, or of that which runs; as, the running was slow.

A slow Spanish dance of Saracenic origin, to an air in triple time; also, the air itself. She has brought us the newest saraband from the court of Queen Mab. Sir W. Scott.

h a scarce well-lighted flame. Milton. The eldest scarcely five year was of age. Chaucer. Slowly she sails, and scarcely stems the tides. Dryden. He had scarcely finished, when the laborer arrived who had been sent for my ransom. W. Irwing.

philosophy. The spirit of the old scholasticism . . . spurned laborious investigation and slow induction. J. P. Smith.

A Scotch round dance in 2-4 time, similar to the polka, only slower; also, the music for such a dance; -- not to be confounded with the Écossaise.

an extensive or discursive thinker, as Shakespeare was; for the motions of his mind were slow, solemn, and sequacious, like those of the planets. De Quincey.