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A metallic wire used for regulating the resistance of a circuit, or varying the strength of an electric current, by inserting a greater or less length of it in the circuit.

A cord by which the gas bag of a balloon may be ripped open for a limited distance to release the gas quickly and so cause immediate descent.

= Rip cord.

Bordering on the sea; situated beside the sea. Drayton.

See Seaboard.

A light sword used for thrusting only; especially, the sword worn by civilians of rank in the eighteenth century.

Skin of bacon. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

See Sward. [R.] Milton.

Foul matter; excretion; dregs; filthy, useless, or rejected matter of any kind; specifically (Med.), the foul matter that collects on the teeth and tongue in low fevers and other conditions attended with great vital depression.

A sordine.

Filthy; foul; dirty. [Obs.] A sordid god; down from his hoary chin A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean. Dryden.

Sordidness. [Obs.]

The quality or state of being sordid.

See Damper, and 5th Mute.

An order that aims to limit losses by fixing a figure at which purchases shall be sold or sales bought in, as where stock is bought at 100 and the broker is directed to sell if the market price drops to 98.

Somewhat cordate; somewhat like a heart in shape.

Situated on the ventral side of the notochord; as, the subnotochordal rod.

A division of an order; a group of genera of a little lower rank than an order and of greater importance than a tribe or family; as, cichoraceous plants form a suborder of Compositæ.

The quality or state of being subordinate, or subject to control; subordination, as, to bring the imagination to act in subordinacy to reason. Spectator.

Subordinacy; subordination. [Obs.] Dr. H. More. Sir W. Temple.