EXCHEQUER n.
management of the royal revenue. [Eng.] Hence, the treasury; and, colloquially, pecuniary possessions in general; as, the company's exchequer is low. Barons of the exchequer. See under Baron. -- Chancellor of the exchequer. See under Chancellor. -- Exchequer bills or bonds (Eng.), bills of money, or promissory bills,…
EXPEDITIOUS a.
Possessed of, or characterized by, expedition, or efficiency and rapidity in action; performed with, or acting with, expedition; quick; having celerity; speedily; as, an expeditious march or messenger. -- Ex`pe*di"tious*ly, adv. -- Ex`pe*di"tious*ness, n.
FIT n.
A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit melancholy, of passion, or of laughter. All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain. Swift. The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of jealously. Macaulay.…
FLUORINE n.
f which it is the first member. It always occurs combined, is very active chemically, and possesses such an avidity for most elements, and silicon especially, that it can neither be prepared nor kept in glass vessels. If set free it immediately attacks the containing material, so that it was not isolated until 1886. It…
FOLIATION n.
The property, possessed by some crystalline rocks, of dividing into plates or slabs, which is due to the cleavage structure of one of the constituents, as mica or hornblende. It may sometimes include slaty structure or cleavage, though the latter is usually independent of any mineral constituent, and transverse to the…