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canal or passage; as, the aqueduct of Sylvius, a channel connecting the third and fourth ventricles of the brain.

A group of Annelida remarkable for having no external segments or distinct ventral nerve ganglions.

opeller, etc. Archimedean screw, or Archimedes' screw, an instrument, said to have been invented by Archimedes, for raising water, formed by winding a flexible tube round a cylinder in the form of a screw. When the screw is placed in an inclined position, and the lower end immersed in water, by causing the screw to rev…

Warm, applied to the passions and affections; passionate; fervent; zealous; vehement; as, ardent love, feelings, zeal, hope, temper. An ardent and impetuous race. Macaulay.

A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps, and vagabonds; flash.

To invent and offer reasons to support or overthrow a proposition, opinion, or measure; to use arguments; to reason. I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will. Milton.

o receive and apply the magnetic force. In the ordinary horseshoe magnet, it serves to prevent the dissipation of the magnetic force.

A cessation of arms for a short time, by convention; a temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement; a truce.

answering to a trigger, by which the burning match was applied. The musket was a later invention. [Written also harquebus.]

st. [R.] The arrestation of the English resident in France was decreed by the National Convention. H. M. Williams.

rt, skill, or contrivance; dexterous; skillful. He [was] too artful a writer to set down events in exact historical order. Dryden.

One who makes or contrives; a deviser, inventor, or framer. "Artificer of fraud." Milton. The great Artificer of all that moves. Cowper.

taneous growth; as, artificial grasses. Gibbon. Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. Johnson. -- Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and n…

One of the class of diviners among the Etruscans and Romans, who foretold events by the inspection of the entrails of victims offered on the altars of the gods.

Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried. [Obs.] Through many hard assays which did betide. Spenser.

Effects of an insolvent debtor or bankrupt, applicable to the payment of debts.

A contract or convention between Spain and other powers for furnishing negro slaves for the Spanish dominions in America, esp. the contract made with Great Britain in 1713.

ll as the dwarf the way to her assigned. Spenser. It is not easy to assign a period more eventful. De Quincey.

animals. Not conversing the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation. Sir T. Browne.

Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death.