Search the Dictionary

A circle; esp., a circle, or nearly circular orbit, described by the revolution of a heavenly body; an orbit. The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs. Bacon. You seem to me as Dian in her orb. Shak. In orbs Of circuit inexpressible they stood, Orb within…

Made, or being, in the form of an orb; having a circular, or nearly circular, or a spheroidal, outline. Orbiculate leaf (Bot.), a leaf whose outline is nearly circular.

Having the front of the head, or the skull, nearly perpendicular, not retreating backwards above the jaws; -- opposed to Ant: prognathous. See Gnathic index, under Gnathic.

It has long and very strong legs, adapted for rapid running; only two toes; a long neck, nearly bare of feathers; and short wings incapable of flight. The adult male is about eight feet high.

quadrupeds, especially the domestic animal when castrated and grown to its full size, or nearly so. The word is also applied, as a general name, to any species of bovine animals, male and female. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field. Ps. viii. 7.

ipley. -- Oxford tie, a kind of shoe, laced on the instep, and usually covering the foot nearly to the ankle.

rown fur, with four parallel rows of white spots along its sides; the spotted cavy. It is nearly allied to the agouti and the Guinea pig.

fusible. It is unique in its power of occluding hydrogen, which it does to the extent of nearly a thousand volumes, forming the alloy Pd2H. It is used for graduated circles and verniers, for plating certain silver goods, and somewhat in dentistry. It was so named in 1804 by Wollaston from the asteroid Pallas, which wa…

The sweetbread, a gland connected with the intestine of nearly all vertebrates. It is usually elongated and light-colored, and its secretion, called the pancreatic juice, is discharged, often together with the bile, into the upper part of the intestines, and is a powerful aid in digestion. See Illust. of Digestive appa…

renaceous fossil Foraminifera found in the Cretaceous rocks. The species are globular, or nearly so, and are of all sizes up to that of a tennis ball.

Cleft so that the divisions reach nearly, but not quite, to the midrib, or the base of the blade; -- said of a leaf, and used chiefly in composition; as, three-parted, five-parted, etc. Gray.

Divided nearly to the base; as, a partite leaf is a simple separated down nearly to the base.

Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf. Patent leather, a varnished or lacquered leather, used for boots and shoes, and in carriage and harness work. -- Patent office, a government bureau for the examination of inventions and the granting of patents. -- Patent right. (a) T…

and skimmings, which concentrate the silver in the molten bath, the final skimmings being nearly pure lad. The processwas invented in 1833 by Hugh Lee Pattinson, an English metallurgist.

To raise to a position perpendicular, or more nearly so; as, to peak oars, to hold them upright; to peak a gaff or yard, to set it nearer the perpendicular.

ticle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Pearls which are round, or nearly round, and of fine luster, are highly esteemed as jewels, and compare in value with the precious stones.

rfishes and echini. Those of starfishes have two movable jaws, or blades, and are usually nearly, or quite, sessile; those of echini usually have three jaws and a pedicel. See Illustration in Appendix.

woolly, and ash-gray on the back and sides. The horns are black, long, slender, straight, nearly smooth, and very sharp. Called also rheeboc, and rehboc.

Shieldlike, with the outline nearly circular; peltate. Henslow.

Nearly annular; having nearly the form of a ring. "Penannular relics." D. Wilson.