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s ending where it began; a series of like events recurring in continuance; a cycle; a periodical revolution; as, the round of the seasons; a round of pleasures.

c grin of a bloody ruffian. Burke. Sardonic grin or laugh, an old medical term for a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving it an appearance of laughter.

ance from the sun nearly eight hundred and eighty millions of miles, and its year, or periodical revolution round the sun, nearly twenty-nine years and a half. It is surrounded by a remarkable system of rings, and has eight satellites.

p, whose existence was predicated under the provisional name ekaboron by means of the periodic law, and subsequently discovered by spectrum analysis in certain rare Scandinavian minerals (euxenite and gadolinite). It has not yet been isolated. Symbol Sc. Atomic weight 44

Something done or made every half month; esp., a semimonthly periodical. -- adv.

That which comes or happens once every half week, esp. a semiweekly periodical. -- adv.

A melodic phrase or passage successively repeated one tone higher; a rosalia.

or succession of part; a tale, or other writing, published in successive numbers of a periodical.

be of b is to the square root of the cube of b', or a:a'::sq. rootb3:sq. rootb'3. The periodic times of the planets are in the sesquiplicate ratio of their mean distances. Sir I. Newton.

Set speech, a speech carefully prepared before it is delivered in public; a formal or methodical speech.

Rigidly methodical, or adherent to rule or principle; exactly conformed to a standard; not allowing or employing unneccessary ornament, amplification, etc.; strict; -- said of style, argument, etc. "Restrained by reason and severe principles." Jer. Taylor. The Latin, a most severe and compendious language. Dryden.…

A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more o…

Spasmodic. [Obs.]

Of or pertaining to spasm; spasmodic; especially, pertaining to tonic spasm; tetanic.

Spasmodically.

One of the little hypogynous scales found in the flowers of grasses; a lodicule.

A disturbance in the formation of sounds. It is due essentially to long-continued spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, by which expiration is preented, and hence it may be considered as a spasmodic inspiration.

A convulsive motion, twitch, or spasm; a spasmodic effort. For she did speak in starts distractedly. Shak. Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry. L'Estrange.

By sudden fits or starts; spasmodically. Shak.

ther than localized contractions, and in always indicating an origin organic and not spasmodic.