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s; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree. The sterne wind so loud gan to rout. Chaucer. I would outstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak. When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; Ambition shou…

Awakening or expressing the emotion of awe, adoration, veneration, heroic resolve, etc.; dignified; grand; solemn; stately; -- said of an impressive object in nature, of an action, of a discourse, of a work of art, of a spectacle, etc.; as, sublime scenery; a sublime deed. Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime. Pri…

al fact or circumstance on the record for the information of the court, at the death or insolvency of a party.

(Chem.), a white crystalline solid, SO3, obtained by oxidation of sulphur dioxide. It dissolves in water with a hissing noise and the production of heat, forming sulphuric acid, and is employed as a dehydrating agent. Called also sulphuric anhydride, and formerly sulphuric acid. -- Sulphur whale. (Zoöl.) See Sulphur-…

ion of sulphur dioxide, oxygen (from the air), steam, and nitric fumes. It attacks and dissolves many metals and other intractable substances, sets free most acids from their salts, and is used in the manufacture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, of soda, of bleaching powders, etc. It is also powerful dehydrating agent…

A problem to be solved, or an example to be wrought out. Macaulay. A sum in arithmetic wherein a flaw discovered at a particular point is ipso facto fatal to the whole. Gladstone. A large sheet of paper . . . covered with long sums. Dickens. Algebraic sum, as distinguished from arithmetical sum, the aggregate of two or…

The state of a solid when its particles are mixed with, but undissolved in, a fluid, and are capable of separation by straining; also, any substance in this state.

with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed; to make a promise, threat, or resolve on oath; also, to affirm solemnly by some sacred object, or one regarded as sacred, as the Bible, the Koran, etc. Ye shall swear by my name falsely. Lev. xix. 12. I swear by all the Roman gods. Shak.

To melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften; -- said of that which is frozen; as, the ice thaws.

The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a solvent; an extract of a part of the substance of a body communicated to the solvent.

A band or company of an organized military force instituted by James I. and dissolved by Charles II.; -- afterwards applied to the London militia. [Eng.] He felt that, without some better protection than that of the trainbands and Beefeaters, his palace and person would hardly be secure. Macaulay. A trainband captain e…

A turning; a trick; a subterfuge. [Obs.] To work, or solve, a traverse (Naut.), to reduce a series of courses or distances to an equivalent single one; to calculate the resultant of a traverse. -- Traverse board (Naut.), a small board hung in the steerage, having the points of the compass marked on it, and for each po…

To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, or the like. " I am resolved to forsake Malta, tread a pilgrimage to fair Jerusalem." Beau. & Fl. They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass. Shak.

k. This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat Dissolves to water, and doth lose its form. Shak.

ly tacitly; to take for granted; to assume. War, then, war, Open or understood, must be resolved. Milton.

To loose; to open; to take to piece; to unfasten; to untie; hence, to unravel; to solve; as, to undo a knot; to undo a puzzling question; to undo a riddle. Tennyson. Pray you, undo this button. Shak. She took the spindle, and undoing the thread gradually, measured it. Sir W. Scott.

To make fluid; to dissolve. [R.] The mountain stands; nor can the rising sun Unfix her frosts. Dryden.

To decompose, or resolve into parts; to destroy the form of; to unmake. [R.] Good.

Decomposed, or resolved into parts; having the form destroyed.

Hence, to clear from complication or difficulty; to unfold; to solve; as, to unravel a plot.