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An offer of two things, one of which may be chosen, but not both; a choice between two things, so that if one is taken, the other must be left. There is something else than the mere alternative of absolute destruction or unreformed existence. Burke.

A cloud formation similar to cirro-stratus, but heavier and at a lower level.

The metallic base of alumina. This metal is white, but with a bluish tinge, and is remarkable for its resistance to oxidation, and for its lightness, pertaining a specific gravity of about 2.6. Atomic weight 27.08. Symbol Al. Aluminium bronze or gold, a pale gold- colored alloy of aluminium and copper, used for journal…

h grows on old trees; German tinder; punk. It has been employed as a styptic by surgeons, but its common use is as tinder, for which purpose it is prepared by soaking it in a strong solution of niter. Ure.

ivocal; as, an ambiguous course; an ambiguous expression. What have been thy answers What but dark, Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding Milton.

A species of inflorescence; a catkin. The globular ament of a buttonwood. Coues.

To punish by a pecuniary penalty, the amount of which is not fixed by law, but left to the discretion of the court; as, the amerced the criminal in the sum on the hundred dollars.

atter is, or was originally, a fixed and certain sum prescribed by statue for an offense; but an amercement is arbitrary. Hence, the act or practice of affeering. [See Affeer.] Blackstone.

tics), a party of principles similar to those of the American party. It arose about 1843, but soon died out.

A square of white linen worn at first on the head, but now about the neck and shoulders, by priests of the Roman Catholic Church while saying Mass.

Milton. "Amidst acclamations." "Amidst the splendor and festivity of a court." Macaulay. But rather famish them amid their plenty. Shak.

rs of Jacob Amman, a strict Mennonite of the 17th century, who even proscribed the use of buttons and shaving as "worldly conformity". There are several branches of Amish Mennonites in the United States.

Expressing a relation of dispersion, distribution, etc.; also, a relation of reciprocal action. What news among the merchants Shak. Human sacrifices were practiced among them. Hume. Divide that gold amongst you. Marlowe. Whether they quarreled among themselves, or with their neighbors. Addison.

A unit, employed in calculating fall of pressure in distributing mains, equivalent to a current of one ampère flowing through one foot of conductor.

Of a mixed nature; partaking of two natures. Not in free and common socage, but in this amphibious subordinate class of villein socage. Blackstone.

ce is one that is capable of two meanings, not from the double sense of any of the words, but from its admitting of a double construction; e. g., "The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose." Whately.

y compressed laterally, and the anterior pairs or legs are directed downward and forward, but the posterior legs are usually turned upward and backward. The beach flea is an example. See Tetradecapoda and Arthrostraca.

Doubly prostyle; having columns at each end, but not at the sides. -- n.

Having the ovule inverted, but with the attachment near the middle of one side; half anatropous.

A genus of amphibians, inhabiting the Southern United States, having a serpentlike form, but with four minute limbs and two persistent gill openings; the Congo snake.