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e constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural co…

Characteristic of the negro.

Pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, negroes, or of the Negritos, Papuans, and the Melanesian races; negritic.

which a thing may be known; a visible sign; a character; a distinctive mark or feature; a characteristic quality. Whosoever appertain to the visible body of the church, they have also the notes of external profession. Hooker. She [the Anglican church] has the note of possession, the note of freedom from party titles,th…

Of, pertaining to, or resembling a nun; characteristic of a nun. -- Nun"nish*ness, n.

Resembling, or characteristic of, a nymph.

Having, or imparting, the odor characteristic of the bouquet of wine; specifically used, formerly, to designate an acid whose ethereal salts were supposed to occasion the peculiar bouquet, or aroma, of old wine. Cf. OEnanthylic. OEnanthic acid, an acid obtained from oenanthic ether by the action of alkalies. -- OEnant…

The condition or characteristics of an old maid. G. Eliot.

Of or pertaining to the opera or to operas; characteristic of, or resembling, the opera.

resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing.

ny one of the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which are especially characteristic ingredients of organic compounds; also, by extension, to other elements sometimes found in the same connection; as sulphur, phosphorus, etc.

Designating, or pertaining to, certain beds, chiefly limestone, characteristic of the latest period of the Silurian age. Oriskany period, a subdivision of the American Paleozoic system intermediate or translational in character between the Silurian and Devonian ages. See Chart of Geology.

An order of herbivorous dinosaurs with birdlike characteristics in the skeleton, esp. in the pelvis and hind legs, which in some genera had only three functional toes, and supported the body in walking as in Iguanodon. See Illust. in Appendix.

Connection with, or affinity to, one variety of isomerism, characteristic of the benzene compounds; -- contrasted with meta- or para-; as, the ortho position; hence, designating any substance showing such isomerism; as, an ortho compound.

A substance formerly supposed to give to soup and broth their characteristic odor, and probably consisting of one or several of the class of nitrogenous substances which are called extractives.

smic tetroxide (Chem.), a white volatile crystalline substance, OsO4, the most stable and characteristic of the compounds of osmium. It has a burning taste, and gives off a vapor, which is a powerful irritant poison, violently attacking the eyes, and emitting a strong chlorinelike odor. Formerly improperly called osmic…

Of or pertaining to, or characteristic of, Ossian, a legendary Erse or Celtic bard. The compositions might be fairly classed as Ossianic. G. Eliot.

A micaceous mineral occurring in small scales. It is characteristic of certain crystalline schists.

Resembling, or characteristic of, an owl.

from, or contained in, sorrel, or oxalis; specifically, designating an acid found in, and characteristic of, oxalis, and also certain plant of the Buckwheat family. Oxalic acid (Chem.), a dibasic acid, existing combined in oxalis as an acid potassium oxalate, and in many plant tissues as the calcium oxalate. It is prep…