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To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain. Dryden.

The amount of such contraction; the bulk or dimension lost by shrinking, as of grain, castings, etc.

ircuit through which a portion of the current may pass, for the purpose of regulating the amount passing in the main circuit.

The larva of any one of numerous species of bombycid moths, which spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon before changing to a pupa.

ficate issued by a government that there has been deposited with it silver to a specified amount, payable to the bearer on demand. In the United States and its possessions, it is issued against the deposit of silver coin, and is not legal tender, but is receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues.…

urns; a winding, or a series of windings; a wave line; a curve. A line of coast certainly amounting, with its sinuosities, to more than 700 miles. Sydney Smith.

on sermon; a skeleton crystal. Skeleton bill, a bill or draft made out in blank as to the amount or payee, but signed by the acceptor. [Eng.] -- Skeleton key, a key with nearly the whole substance of the web filed away, to adapt it to avoid the wards of a lock; a master key; -- used for opening locks to which it has no…

The act of slipping; also, the amount of slipping.

The gross amount; the mass; the lump. [Scot.]

Pulverized tobacco, etc., prepared to be taken into the nose; also, the amount taken at once.

The solid contents of a body; volume; amount of inclosed space.

te, used as a means of determining the reducing power of certain sugars and sirups by the amount of red cuprous oxide thrown down. -- Heavy solution (Min.), a liquid of high density, as a solution of mercuric iodide in potassium iodide (called the Sonstadt or Thoulet solution) having a maximum specific gravity of 3.2,…

Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount. We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good. Hooker.

A fusible white cast iron containing a large amount of carbon (from three and a half to six per cent) and some manganese. When the manganese reaches twenty-five per cent and upwards it has a granular structure, and constitutes the alloy ferro manganese, largely used in the manufacture of Bessemer steel. Called also spe…

Serving to take away, diminish, or rob; esp. (Med.), serving to diminish sensibily the amount of blood in the body; as, spoliative bloodletting.

s.] Halliwell. -- Statute fair. See Statute, n., 3, above. -- Statute labor, a definite amount of labor required for the public service in making roads, bridges, etc., as in certain English colonies. -- Statute merchant (Eng. Law), a bond of record pursuant to the stat. 13 Edw. I., acknowledged in form prescribed, o…

ent upon stimulation, or excitation, and disease as caused by excess or deficiency in the amount of stimulation.

capital of a bank or other company, in the form of transferable shares, each of a certain amount; money funded in government securities, called also the public funds; in the plural, property consisting of shares in joint-stock companies, or in the obligations of a government for its funded debt; -- so in the United Sta…

An instrument for measuring the amount of strabismus.

Force as measured; amount, numbers, or power of any body, as of an army, a navy, and the like; as, what is the strength of the enemy by land, or by sea