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To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip. In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day. Dryden.

A genus (Lemna) of small plants, seen floating in great quantity on the surface of stagnant pools fresh water, and supposed to furnish food for ducks; -- called also duckmeat.

A way or road dug through a hill, or sunk below the surface of the land. [U.S.]

h (Bot.), a species of horsetail rush or Equisetum (E. hyemale) having a rough, siliceous surface, and used for scouring and polishing; -- called also scouring rush, and shave grass. See Equisetum. -- Dutch tile, a glazed and painted ornamental tile, formerly much exported, and used in the jambs of chimneys and the li…

The softer inorganic matter composing part of the surface of the globe, in distinction from the firm rock; soil of all kinds, including gravel, clay, loam, and the like; sometimes, soil favorable to the growth of plants; the visible surface of the globe; the ground; as, loose earth; rich earth. Give him a little earth…

A sound reflected from an opposing surface and repeated to the ear of a listener; repercussion of sound; repetition of a sound. The babbling echo mocks the hounds. Shak. The woods shall answer, and the echo ring. Pope.

Toward the outside or surface; -- opposed to entad. B. G. Wilder.

Pertaining to, or situated near, the surface; outer; -- opposed to ental. B. G. Wilder.

A quadrilateral, tailless kite, with convex surfaces exposed to the wind. This kite was extensively used by Eddy in his famous meteorological experiments. It is now generally superseded by the box kite.

To cause to disappear (as anything impresses or inscribed upon a surface) by rubbing out, striking out, etc.; to erase; to render illegible or indiscernible; as, to efface the letters on a monument, or the inscription on a coin.

To change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, esp. from the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, Glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce.

The formation of the whitish powder or crust on the surface of efflorescing bodies, as salts, etc.

ation through its walls. It may pass into the substance of an organ, or issue upon a free surface.

strain (of a given kind) which it produces; -- called also coefficient of resistance. -- Surface of elasticity (Geom.), the pedal surface of an ellipsoid (see Pedal); a surface used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction and their relation to the elastic force of the luminous ether in crystalline media.…

A sharp angle in any surface of wainscoting or other woodwork; the upright sides which flank any paneled work, as the sides of windows, where the jamb makes an elbow with the window back. Gwilt.

irections; also, by attraction for many substances, by a law involving attraction between surfaces of unlike polarity, and repulsion between those of like; by exhibiting accumulated polar tension when the circuit is broken; and by producing heat, light, concussion, and often chemical changes when the circuit passes bet…

ipitating a metal electro-chemical action, by which a coating is deposited, on a prepared surface, as in electroplating and electrotyping; galvanoplasty.

Possessing electrical polarity; positively electrified at one end, or on one surface, and negatively at the other; -- said of a conductor.

Sometimes a curve, or surface, or volume is considered as described by a moving point, or curve, or surface, the latter being at any instant called an element of the former.

Inlay; inlaid or mosaic work; something ornamental inserted in a surface. [Obs.] Milton.