Search the Dictionary

his office, and seasonably commit the opponent with the respondent, like a long-practiced moderator! Dr. H. More.

chorus and its evolutions, afterward by the Romans to persons of distinction, and by the moderns to a band of instrumental musicians.

Eager or immoderate excitement or action; the state of turgescence of any organ; erethism; esp., the height of venereal excitement in sexual intercourse.

or according to usage; to correct in regard to spelling. In the coalesced into ith, which modern reaction has orthographized to i' th'. Earle.

Especially, in modern use, the glass in one compartment of a window sash.

amental figures, formerly used for the internal and external decoration of houses. (b) In modern architecture, the plastering of the inside of flues, intended to give a smooth surface and help the draught.

and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses than the drawing- room. Esp., in modern times, the dining room of a house having few apartments, as a London house, where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor.

Such as may be allowed to pass without serious objection; tolerable; admissable; moderate; mediocre. My version will appear a passable beauty when the original muse is absent. Dryden.

Tolerably; moderately.

inspiring fountain of the Muses, to spring from Mount Helicon. On this account he is, in modern times, associated with the Muses, and with ideas of poetic inspiration. Each spurs his jaded Pegasus apace. Byron.

That which is perceived. Sir W. Hamilton. The modern discussion between percept and concept, the one sensuous, the other intellectual. Max Müller.

, payable on Lammas or St.Peter's day; -- called also Rome scot, and hearth money. (b) In modern times, a voluntary contribution made by Roman Catholics to the private purse of the pope. -- Peter's fish (Zoöl.), a haddock; -- so called because the black spots, one on each side, behind the gills, are traditionally said…

pertaining to Ptolemy Philadelphus, or to one of the cities named Philadelphia, esp. the modern city in Pennsylvania.

ary phosphorus in closed vessels. It is not poisonous, is not phosphorescent, and is only moderately active chemically. It is valuable as a chemical reagent, and is used in the composition of the friction surface on which safety matches are ignited. -- Solar phosphori (Chem.), phosphorescent substances which shine in…

k art as worn by Orientals, assumed to have been conical in shape. It has been adopted in modern art as the so-called liberty cap, or cap of liberty.

A celestial body which revolves about the sun in an orbit of a moderate degree of eccentricity. It is distinguished from a comet by the absence of a coma, and by having a less eccentric orbit. See Solar system.

A small plaque, esp., in modern medal engraving, a small and delicate bas-relief, whether cast or struck from a die, or of form other than circular.

The modern dialects spoken in the north of Germany, taken collectively; modern Low German. See Low German, under German.

fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant's plea. In chancery practice, a plea is…

er cases have excepted from its domain the development and administration of private law. Modern political science defines the power as a branch of internal administration in the exercise of which the executive should move within the lines of general principles prescribed by the constitution or the legislature, and in…