Search the Dictionary

operation of masticating; chewing, as of food. Mastication is a necessary preparation of solid aliment, without which there can be no good digestion. Arbuthnot.

Of solid or weighty character; not insubstantial; of cinsequence; not be dispensed with; important. Discourse, which was always material, never trifling. Evelyn. I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down only such as are most material to our present purpose. Locke.

To reduce from a solid to a liquid state, as by heat; to liquefy; as, to mell wax, tallow, or lead; to melt ice or snow.

e process of becoming melted. Melting point (Chem.), the degree of temperature at which a solid substance melts or fuses; as, the melting point of ice is 0º Centigrade or 32º Fahr., that of urea is 132º Centigrade. -- Melting pot, a vessel in which anything is melted; a crucible.

Any substance which dissolves a solid body; a solvent. The proper menstruum to dissolve metal. Bacon. All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction. Quincy.

ich gives rules for finding the length of lines, the areas of surfaces, or the volumes of solids, from certain simple data of lines and angles.

One of the solid parts of a battlemented parapet; a battlement. See Illust. of Battlement.

the earth's atmosphere would be deflagrated and appear as a meteor. These bodies [small, solid bodies] before they come into the air, I call meteoroids. H. A. Newton.

. (found in benzine, kerosene, etc.); while the highest members are white, waxy, or fatty solids, as paraffin proper.

rt equally distant from the extremities or exterior limits, as of a line, a surface, or a solid; an intervening point or part in space, time, or order of series; the midst; central portion; specif., the waist. Chaucer. "The middle of the land." Judg. ix. 37. In this, as in most questions of state, there is a middle. Bu…

y members of the cabinet and their supporters; -- also, the persons occupying them. "Very solid and very brilliant talents distinguish the ministerial benches." Burke.

e up of many ingredients; esp., as opposed to solution, a liquid preparation in which the solid ingredients are not completely dissolved.

some plastic material. Also, in painting, drawing, etc., the expression or indication of solid form. [Written also modelling.] Modeling plane, a small plane for planing rounded objects. -- Modeling wax, beeswax melted with a little Venice turpentine, or other resinous material, and tinted with coloring matter, usuall…

A mass of fleshy or other more or less solid matter generated in the uterus.

The bark, or a vegetable extract brought in solid cakes from South America and believed to be derived from the bark, of the tree Chrysophyllum glycyphloeum. It is used as an alterative and astringent.

coid degeneration, a form of degeneration in which the tissues are transformed into a semisolid substance resembling mucus. Quain.

A solid crystalline substance, C5H13NO2, found in the toadstool (Agaricus muscarius), and in putrid fish. It is a typical ptomaine, and a violent poison.

toplasm, often of considerable size, which creep very slowly over the surface and ingest solid food. -- Myx`o*my*ce"tous (#), a.

One of two basic amido derivatives of naphthalene, C10H7.NH2, forming crystalline solids.

e titles of Roman Catholic orders. See Oblate, n. Oblate ellipsoid or spheroid (Geom.), a solid generated by the revolution of an ellipse about its minor axis; an oblatum. See Ellipsoid of revolution, under Ellipsoid.