Search the Dictionary

, the grain of timber which is transverse to the annular rings or plates; the direction of the medullary rays in oak and some other timber. Knight.

Capable of being split, cleft, or divided in the direction of the grain, like wood, or along natural planes of cleavage, like crystals. This crystal is a pellucid, fissile stone. Sir I. Newton.

Having alternate curvatures in opposite directions; bent in a zigzag manner.

To move now in one direction and now in another; to be wavering or unsteady; to be irresolute or undetermined; to vacillate.

A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; as, the fluctuations of the sea.

The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.

To go or come after; to move behind in the same path or direction; hence, to go with (a leader, guide, etc.); to accompany; to attend. It waves me forth again; I'll follow it. Shak.

(In the field of a telescope) In the direction from which stars are apparently moving (in consequence of the erth's rotation); as, a small star, north following or south following. In the direction toward which stars appear to move is called preceding.

To represent on a plane surface, as if extended in a direction toward the spectator or nearly so; to shorten by drawing in perspective.

xcept the backsight; any sight or bearing taken by a compass or theodolite in a forward direction.

Straight forward; in a straight direction. [Archaic] Sir P. Sidney.

Allowing passage in either of four directions; as, a four-way cock, or valve. Francis. Four-way cock, a cock connected with four pipes or ports, and having two or more passages in the plug, by which the adjacent pipes or ports may be made to communicate; formerly used as a valve in the steam engine, and now for various…

To have or turn the face or front in any direction; as, the house fronts toward the east.

her the supports to which its ends are Fastened, when acted upon by forces applied in a direction transverse to the rope, as in the archer's bow. -- Funicular curve. Same as Catenary. -- Funicular machine (Mech.), an apparatus for illustrating certain principles in statics, consisting of a cord or chain attached at o…

ition to turn or incline towards the earth; the influence of gravity in determining the direction of growth of an organ.

A contrivance for permitting a body to incline freely in all directions, or for suspending anything, as a barometer, ship's compass, chronometer, etc., so that it will remain plumb, or level, when its support is tipped, as by the rolling of a ship. It consists of a ring in which the body can turn on an axis through a d…

A hinge joint; an articulation, admitting of flexion and extension, or motion in two directions only, as the elbow and the ankle.

r and lower bars connected by a series of diagonal bars sloping alternately in opposite directions so as to divide the space between the bars into a series of triangles. Knight. -- Sandwich girder, a girder consisting of two parallel wooden beams, between which is an iron plate, the whole clamped together by iron bolt…

To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. "Your arrow hath glanced". Shak. On me the curse aslope Glanced on the ground. Milton.

Flying off (after striking) in an oblique direction; as, a glancing shot.