Search the Dictionary

The act of consulting or conferring; deliberation of two or more persons on some matter, with a view to a decision. Thus they doubtful consultations dark Ended. Milton.

Contagion; contagious matter. "Contagium of measles." Tyndall.

Area or quantity of space or matter contained within certain limits; as, solid contents; superficial contents. The geometrical content, figure, and situation of all the lands of a kingdom. Graunt. Table of contents, or Contents, a table or list of topics in a book, showing their order and the place where they may be fo…

point maintained in an argument, or a line of argument taken in its support; the subject matter of discussion of strife; a position taken or contended for. All men seem agreed what is to be done; the contention is how the subject is to be divided and defined. Bagehot. This was my original contention, and I still maint…

power to decide controversy. Contentious jurisdiction (Eng. Eccl. Law), jurisdiction over matters in controversy between parties, in contradistinction to voluntary jurisdiction, or that exercised upon matters not opposed or controverted.

To make matter of controversy; to dispute or oppose by reasoning; to contend against in words or writings; to contest; to debate. Some controverted points had decided according to the sense of the best jurists. Macaulay.

being together; union; coalition. The conventions or associations of several particles of matter into bodies of any certain denomination. Boyle.

Quietly impudent; negligent of propriety in matters of minor importance, either ignorantly or willfully; presuming and selfish; audacious; as, cool behavior. Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Hawthorne.

Soot; coal dust; refuse matter, as the dirty grease which comes from axle boxes, or the refuse at the mouth of an oven. Phillips. Bailey.

The state of being a copartner or of having a joint interest in any matter.

treasures forth. Thomson. Hail, Son of God, Savior of men! thy name Shall be the copious matter of my song. Milton.

Manuscript or printed matter to be set up in type; as, the printers are calling for more copy.

lity. The one attributed corporeity to God. Bp. Stillingfleet. Those who deny light to be matter, do not therefore deny its corporeity. Coleridge.

ck. They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with semifluid hæmoglobin and other matters. In most mammals the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds, reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In Amphioxus, and most invertebrates,…

nomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter. -- Corpuscular theory (Opt.), the theory enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton, that light consists in the emission and rapid progression of minute particles or corpuscles. The theory is now generally rejected, and supplanted by…

rgy, under Conservation. -- Correlation of forces, the relation between the forces which matter, endowed with various forms of energy, may exert.

The product of corruption; putrid matter.

ct cognizance. The cosmothetic idealists . . . deny that mind is immediately conscious of matter. Sir W. Hamilton.

Retaining fecal matter in the bowels; having too slow a motion of the bowels; constipated.

An unnatural retention of the fecal matter of the bowels; constipation.