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Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.

l necessity in regard to the origin and existence of things, especially as applied to the actings or choices of the will; -- opposed to libertarian.

a, having somewhat the form, and the essential structure, of the bell of a jellyfish, and acting as a swimming organ.

Having the quality of acting upon or affecting the nerves; quieting nervous excitement. -- n.

Overscrupulous or exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious in small matters. Curious not knowing, not exact but nice. Pope. And to taste Think not I shall be nice. Milton.

Legislative; enacting laws; as, a nomothetical power. [R.] Bp. Barlow.

Not attracting notice; not conspicuous. Noteless as the race from which he sprung. Sir W. Scott.

peats the same tone, as in the accompanying example. -- Oblique muscle (Anat.), a muscle acting in a direction oblique to the mesial plane of the body, or to the associated muscles; -- applied especially to two muscles of the eyeball. -- Oblique narration. See Oblique speech. -- Oblique planes (Dialing), planes whic…

, The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray. Pope His discourse tends obliquely to the detracting from others. Addison.

To annul indirectly by enacting a new and contrary law, instead of by expressly abrogating or repealing the old one. [Obs.] Bailey.

A military engine acting like a sling, which threw stones from a bag or wooden bucket, and was operated by machinery. Fairholt.

tes or Oöphyta), which have their sexual reproduction accomplished by motile antherozoids acting on oöspheres, either while included in their oögonia or after exclusion.

Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects; as, an operative motive. It holds in all operative principles. South.

ion of the optic axis that objects are most distinctly seen. (b) The line in a doubly refracting crystal, in the direction of which no double refraction occurs. A uniaxial crystal has one such line, a biaxial crystal has two. -- Optical circle (Opt.), a graduated circle used for the measurement of angles in optical ex…

Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end. [R.] Those organic arts which enable men to discourse and write perspicuously. Milton.

Making an organic or organized structure; producing an organism; acting through, or resulting from, organs. Prof. Park.

To do or beyond; to exceed in acting. [R.] He has made me heir to treasures Would make me outact a real window's whining. Otway.

To act or perform to excess; to exaggerate in acting; as, he overacted his part.

ned by water which shoots over the top of it, filling the buckets on the farther side and acting chiefly by its we'ght.

An ode recanting, or retracting, a former one; also, a repetition of an ode.