Search the Dictionary

An old term for a vertical section of a building; -- called also sciagraphy. See Vertical section, under Section.

A cutting; an intersection; as, the point of secancy of one line by another. [R.] Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. ).

parts into which any body naturally separates or is divided; a part divided or cut off; a section; a portion; as, a segment of an orange; a segment of a compound or divided leaf.

A rolled or hammered piece, as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.

A split of a sheepskin; one of the thin sections made by splitting a sheepskin with a cutting knife or machine.

hich at the central office, predictions concerning the weather are telegraphed to various sections, where they are made known by signals publicly displayed. -- Signal station, the place where a signal is displayed; specifically, an observation office of the signal service.

A shallow sailboat with a rectilinear or V-shaped cross section.

- Solid problem (Geom.), a problem which can be construed geometrically, only by the intersection of a circle and a conic section or of two conic sections. Hutton. -- Solid square (Mil.), a square body or troops in which the ranks and files are equal.

tions of under floors in order to deaden sounds. -- Sound bow, in a series of transverse sections of a bell, that segment against which the clapper strikes, being the part which is most efficacious in producing the sound. See Illust. of Bell. -- Sound post. (Mus.) See Sounding post, under Sounding.

A country, region, or place situated farther to the south than another; the southern section of a country. "The queen of the south." Matt. xii. 42.

A nonplane curve formed by the intersection of the surface of an oblique cone with the surface of a sphere whose center is at the vertex of the cone.

The dissection, or anatomy, of the viscera.

Specif (Leather Manuf.), one of the sections of a skin made by dividing it into two or more thicknesses.

The rib of a groined vault, as being the solid abutment for each section of vaulting.

id block of houses; also, an open place or area for public use, as at the meeting or intersection of two or more streets. The statue of Alexander VII. stands in the large square of the town. Addison.

A section of memory in a computer used for temporary storage of data, in which the last datum stored is the first retrieved.

An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution. See État Major.

d meaning of a set. See Pair, n., 1. -- Run of stars (Arch.), a single set of stairs, or section of a stairway, from one platform to the next. -- Stair rod, a rod, usually of metal, for holding a stair carpet to its place. -- Up stairs. See Upstairs in the Vocabulary.

n optical instrument used in determining the position of the planes of light-vibration in sections of crystals.

The science or art of cutting solids into certain figures or sections, as arches, and the like; especially, the art of stonecutting.