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wear; as, to veer, or wear, a vessel. To veer and haul (Naut.), to pull tight and slacken alternately. Totten. -- To veer away or out (Naut.), to let out; to slacken and let run; to pay out; as, to veer away the cable; to veer out a rope.

vision. { 1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and oöphoric. Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as…

To have the constituent particles move to and fro, with alternate compression and dilation of parts, as the air, or any elastic body; to quiver.

A limited reciprocating motion of a particle of an elastic body or medium in alternately opposite directions from its position of equilibrium, when that equilibrium has been disturbed, as when a stretched cord or other body produces musical notes, or particles of air transmit sounds to the ear. The path of the particle…

Regular change or succession from one thing to another; alternation; mutual succession; interchange. God made two great lights . . . To illuminate the earth and rule the day In their vicissitude, and rule the night. Milton.

oem written in tercets with but two rhymes, the first and third verse of the first stanza alternating as the third verse in each successive stanza and forming a couplet at the close. E. W. Gosse.

A greenish chloritic mineral common in certain igneous rocks, as diabase, as a result of alternation.

and an ampere. For direct current it is a measure of power and is the same as a watt; for alternating current it is a measure of apparent power.

-- Wandering Jew (Bot.), any one of several creeping species of Tradescantia, which have alternate, pointed leaves, and a soft, herbaceous stem which roots freely at the joints. They are commonly cultivated in hanging baskets, window boxes, etc. -- Wandering kidney (Med.), a morbid condition in which one kidney, or,…

servation of the public peace. Wharton. Burrill. -- Watch and watch (Naut.), the regular alternation in being on watch and off watch of the two watches into which a ship's crew is commonly divided. -- Watch barrel, the brass box in a watch, containing the mainspring. -- Watch bell (Naut.), a bell struck when the hal…

Without any power (cf. Watt); -- said of an alternating current or component of current when it differs in phase by ninety degrees from the electromotive force which produces it, or of an electromotive force or component thereof when the current it produces differs from it in phase by 90 degrees.

Vicissitude of season; meteorological change; alternation of the state of the air. Bacon.

In case; if; -- used to introduce the first or two or more alternative clauses, the other or others being connected by or, or by or whether. When the second of two alternatives is the simple negative of the first it is sometimes only indicated by the particle not or no after the correlative, and sometimes it is omitted…

bridle. -- Wrist clonus. Etym: [NL. clonus, fr. Gr. Clonic.] (Med.) A series of quickly alternating movements of flexion and extension of the wrist, produced in some cases of nervous disease by suddenly bending the hand back upon the forearm. -- Wrist drop (Med.), paralysis of the extensor muscles of the hand, affec…

animal in one of its inferior stages of development, as one of the intermediate forms in alternate generation.