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Capable of alteration; subject to change; changeable in form, qualities, or nature. Things of the most accidental and mutable nature. South.

A thing which is to be changed; something which must be altered; -- used chiefly in the plural.

Change; alteration, either in form or qualities. The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are no fit matter for this present argument. Bacon.

, or to remove the effect of, a sharp or flat which has preceded it, and to restore the unaltered note.

er, and upon which the weight of the wall rests, when a building is shored up to allow of alterations in the lower part. -- Needle furze (Bot.), a prickly leguminous plant of Western Europe; the petty whin (Genista Anglica). -- Needle gun, a firearm loaded at the breech with a cartridge carrying its own fulminate, wh…

hristian faith, composed and adopted by the Council of Nice, against Arianism, A. D. 325, altered and confirmed by the Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381, and by subsequent councils.

One of the portions into which the Psalter was divided, each consisting of nine psalms, designed to be used at a night service. Hook.

Having nodes or prominences; having the alternate joints enlarged, as the antennæ of certain insects.

this finger, and before the turning down of this." J. Webster (1607). -- Now . . . now, alternately; at one time . . . at another time. "Now high, now low, now master up, now miss." Pope.

Any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly…

fact that it [a belief] invariably exists being the obverse of the fact that there is no alternative belief. H. Spencer.

; compliant; plausible; insinuating. "This oily rascal." Shak. His oily compliance in all alterations. Fuller. Oily grain (Bot.), the sesame. -- Oily palm, the oil palm.

nt for autographically recording the wave forms of varying currents, esp. rapidly varying alternating currents.

An alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which bears antheridia and archegonia, and so has sexual fructification, as contrasted with the sporophore, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless number. In ferns the oöphore is a minute prothallus; in mosses it…

A greenish spotted porphyry, being a diabase whose pyroxene has been altered to uralite; -- first found in the Pyreness. So called from the colored spots which give it a mottled appearance. -- O*phi"ic, a.

The power of choosing; the right of choice or election; an alternative. There is an option left to the United States of America, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation. Washington.

A particle that marks an alternative; as, you may read or may write, -- that is, you may do one of the things at your pleasure, but not both. It corresponds to either. You may ride either to London or to Windsor. It often connects a series of words or propositions, presenting a choice of either; as, he may study law, o…

A current alternating in direction.

An apparatus for recording or indicating alternating-current wave forms or other electrical oscillations, usually consisting of a galvanometer with strong field, in which the mass of the moving part is very small and frequency of vibration very high. -- Os`cil*lo*graph"ic (#), a.

Alternate; second; -- used esp. in connection with every; as, every other day, that is, each alternate day, every second day.