Search the Dictionary

The act of swelling beyond the surrounding surface. Cooke (1615).

Falsely or imperfectly dipteral, as a temple with the inner range of columns surrounding the cella omitted, so that the space between the cella wall and the columns is very great, being equal to two intercolumns and one column. -- n.

An inclosure surrounding a well to prevent persons from falling into it; a well curb. Weale.

The green, or plot of smooth turf, surrounding a hole. "The term putting green shall mean the ground within twenty yards of the hole, excepting hazards." Golf Rules.

A square or quadrangular space or inclosure, such a space or court surrounded by buildings, esp. such a court in a college or public school in England.

Soft, wet, miry land, which shakes or yields under the feet. "A spot surrounded by quagmires, which rendered it difficult of access." Palfrey.

preparations are remarkable for maintaining themselves at a higher temperature than their surroundings, and for their radiations, which are of three kinds: alpha rays, beta rays, and gamma rays (see these terms). By reason of these rays they ionize gases, affect photographic plates, cause sores on the skin, and produce…

Lifted up; showing above the surroundings; as, raised or embossed metal work.

To surround or protect with, or as with, a rampart or ramparts. Those grassy hills, those glittering dells, Proudly ramparted with rocks. Coleridge. Rampart gun (Fort.), a cannon or large gun for use on a rampart and not as a fieldpiece.

one of the rural noncombatants who were concentrated by the military authorities in areas surrounding the fortified towns, and later were reconcentrated in the smaller limits of the towns themselves.

In distillation, a vessel filled with cold water, surrounding the worm, the vapor in which is thereby condensed.

One of the group of pigmented cells which surround the retinophoræ of invertebrates. See Illust. under Ommatidium.

Having the percussion fulminate in a rim surrounding the base, distinguished from center-fire; -- said of cartridges; also, using rim-fire cartridges; as, a rim-fire gun. Such cartridges are now little used.

blackbird (Zoöl.), the ring ousel. -- Ring canal (Zoöl.), the circular water tube which surrounds the esophagus of echinoderms. -- Ring dotterel, or Ringed dotterel. (Zoöl.) See Dotterel, and Illust. of Pressiroster. -- Ring dropper, a sharper who pretends to have found a ring (dropped by himself), and tries to ind…

To cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc.; as, to roast a potato in ashes. In eggs boiled and roasted there is scarce difference to be discerned. BAcon.

To surround; to encircle; to encompass. The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow. Shak.

year, or periodical revolution round the sun, nearly twenty-nine years and a half. It is surrounded by a remarkable system of rings, and has eight satellites.

in which anything occurs, or in which the action of a story, play, or the like, is laid; surroundings amid which anything is set before the imagination; place of occurence, exhibition, or action. "In Troy, there lies the scene." Shak. The world is a vast scene of strife. J. M. Mason.

One of the smooth areas surrounding the tubercles of a sea urchin.

Pertaining to, or surrounding, scrobiculæ; as, scrobicular tubercles.