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One of two great circles intersecting at right angles in the poles of the equator. One of them passes through the equinoctial points, and hence is denominated the equinoctial colure; the other intersects the equator at the distance of 90º from the former, and is called the solstitial colure. Thrice the equinoctial line…

One of the sections into which the hold of a ship is divided by water-tight bulkheads.

first made use of by the Greek geometer, Nicomedes, who invented it for the purpose of trisecting an angle and duplicating the cube.

A large hemipterous insect of the family Reduviidæ, often found in houses, esp. in the southern and western United States. It bites severely, and is one of the species called kissing bugs. It is also called big bedbug.

A conic section.

Of or pertaining to a cone; as, conic sections. Conic section (Geom.), a curved line formed by the intersection of the surface of a right cone and a plane. The conic sections are the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola. The right lines and the circle which result from certain positions of the plane are sometimes, though n…

That branch of geometry which treats of the cone and the curves which arise from its sections.

the curve, perpendicular to the line through the two foci. -- Conjugate diameters (Conic Sections), two diameters of an ellipse or hyperbola such that each bisects all chords drawn parallel to the other. -- Conjugate focus (Opt.) See under Focus. -- Conjugate mirrors (Optics), two mirrors so placed that rays from th…

s meet; converging; in close contact; as, the connivent petals of a flower, wings of an insect, or folds of membrane in the human system, etc.

A solid formed by the revolution of a conic section about its axis; as, a parabolic conoid, elliptic conoid, etc.; -- more commonly called paraboloid, ellipsoid, etc.

The outline of a horizontal section of the ground, or of works of fortification. Contour feathers (Zoöl.), those feathers that form the general covering of a bird. -- Contour of ground (Surv.), the outline of the surface of ground with respect to its undulation, etc. -- Contour line (Topographical Suv.), the line in…

rom one belief or course to another, as from one religion to another or from one party or sect to another. No attempt was made to convert the Moslems. Prescott.

Feeding upon dung, as certain insects.

The principal sect of Christians in Egypt and the valley of the Nile.

Used in sexual union; as, the copulatory organs of insects.

of the polyps by which corals are formed. They are often very erroneously called coral insects. -- Coral fish. See in the Vocabulary. -- Coral reefs (Phys. Geog.), reefs, often of great extent, made up chiefly of fragments of corals, coral sands, and the solid limestone resulting from their consolidation. They are c…

erbaceous composite plants, having the achenes two- horned and remotely resembling some insect; tickseed. C. tinctoria, of the Western plains, the commonest plant of the genus, has been used in dyeing.

The thorax of an insect.

The anterior rib in the wing of an insect.

shears) to cut the ribs and open the thoracic cavity, in post-mortem examinations and dissections. Knight.