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A rain cloud; one of the four principal varieties of clouds. See Cloud.

A game at dice, properly called novem quinque (L., nine five), the two principal throws being nine and five. [Obs.] Shak.

E. toft, tuft; tone, tune; number, F. nombre. The letter o has several vowel sounds, the principal of which are its long sound, as in bone, its short sound, as in nod, and the sounds heard in the words orb, son, do (feod), and wolf (book). In connection with the other vowels it forms several digraphs and diphthongs. S…

The face of a coin which has the principal image or inscription upon it; -- the other side being the reverse.

That which occupies or engages the time and attention; the principal business of one's life; vocation; employment; calling; trade. Absence of occupation is not rest. Cowper. Occupation bridge (Engin.), a bridge connecting the parts of an estate separated by a railroad, a canal, or an ordinary road.

The principal opercular bone or operculum of fishes.

The principal opercular bone in the upper and posterior part of the gill cover.

One of the principal divinities of Egypt, the brother and husband of Isis. He was figured as a mummy wearing the royal cap of Upper Egypt, and was symbolized by the sacred bull, called Apis. Cf. Serapis. -- O*sir"i*an, a.

Worthy of the palm; palmy; preëminent; superior; principal; chief; as, palmary work. Br. Horne.

Antiq.) A military cloak worn by a general and his principal officers.

class of Hungarian mountaineers serving in the Austrian army; -- so called from Pandur, a principal town in the region from which they originally came. [Written also pandoor.] Her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars. Campbell.

In France, before the Revolution of 1789, one of the several principal judicial courts. Parliament heel, the inclination of a ship when made to careen by shifting her cargo or ballast. -- Parliament hinge (Arch.), a hinge with so great a projection from the wall or frame as to allow a door or shutter to swing back fla…

A white amorphous or granular substance which consists principally of potassium carbonate, and has a strong alkaline reaction. It is obtained by lixiviating wood ashes, and evaporating the lye, and has been an important source of potassium compounds. It is used in making soap, glass, etc.

h the hind limbs are articulated. When fully ossified, the arch usually consists of three principal bones on each side, the ilium, ischium, and pubis, which are often closely united in the adult, forming the innominate bone. See Innominate bone, under Innominate.

The number of years in which the simple interest of any sum becomes equal to the principal.

that on which the objects are represented as standing. When this plane is oblique to the principal face of the object, the perspective is called oblique perspective; when parallel to that face, parallel perspective. -- Perspective shell (Zoöl.), any shell of the genus Solarium and allied genera. See Solarium.…

A white, crystalline compound, C10H13O2N, used in medicine principally as an antipyretic.

One of the principal rivers of Hades, in the channel of which fire flowed instead of water.

Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.

The class of Vertebrata that includes the fishes. The principal divisions are Elasmobranchii, Ganoidei, and Teleostei.