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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



463 words match “CHARACTERISTIC”

PHYSIOGNOMY n. 2 definitions
The art and science of discovering the predominant temper, and other characteristic qualities of the mind, by the outward appearance, especially by the features of the face.
PHYSIOLOGY n.
reats of the phenomena of living organisms; the study of the processes incidental to, and characteristic of, life.
PICTURESQUE a.
hat is picturesque as placed in relation to the beautiful and the sublime It is . . . the characteristic pushed into a sensible excess. De Quincey. -- Pic`tur*esque"ly, adv. -- Pic`tur*esque"ness, n.
PLASTIC a.
Pertaining or appropriate to, or characteristic of, molding or modeling; produced by, or appearing as if produced by, molding or modeling; -- said of sculpture and the kindred arts, in distinction from painting and the graphic arts. Medallions . . . fraught with the plastic beauty and grace of the palmy days of Italian…
PLEOMORPHISM n.
each of which may exhibit, according to undetermined conditions, all or some of the forms characteristic of the different genera and species.
POINT n.
That which arrests attention, or indicates qualities or character; a salient feature; a characteristic; a peculiarity; hence, a particular; an item; a detail; as, the good or bad points of a man, a horse, a book, a story, etc. He told him, point for point, in short and plain. Chaucer. In point of religion and in point…
POLARISTIC a.
ngement or disposition; arising from, or dependent upon, the possession of poles or polar characteristics; as, polaristic antagonism.
POMPEIAN a.
Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, Pompeii, an ancient city of Italy, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a. d., and partly uncovered by modern excavations.
PORCINE a.
Of or pertaining to swine; characteristic of the hog. "Porcine cheeks." G. Eliot.
POSITIVE a.
than the latter, as quartz and ice; -- opposed to negative crystal, or one in which this characteristic is reversed, as Iceland spar, tourmaline, etc. -- Positive degree (Gram.), that state of an adjective or adverb which denotes simple quality, without comparison or relation to increase or diminution; as, wise, nobl…
PREPOTENCY n.
of the parents, as compared with the other, to transmit more than his or her own share of characteristics to their offspring.
PRESCRIPTION n.
fixed by law. Bacon. That profound reverence for law and prescription which has long been characteristic of Englishmen. Macaulay.
PRODUCTUS n.
An extinct genus of brachiopods, very characteristic of the Carboniferous rocks.
PROSE a.
Possessing or exhibiting unpoetical characteristics; plain; dull; prosaic; as, the prose duties of life.
PROTEAN a.
Of or pertaining to Proteus; characteristic of Proteus. " Protean transformations." Cudworth.
PROVINCIAL a.
Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. "Provincial airs and graces." Macaulay.
PROVINCIALISM n.
rovince or a district remote from the mother country or from the metropolis; a provincial characteristic; hence, narrowness; illiberality. M. Arnold.
PROVINCIALITY n.
The quality or state of being provincial; peculiarity of language characteristic of a province. T. Warton.
PSEUDO-SYMMETRY n.
A kind of symmetry characteristic of certain crystals which from twinning, or other causes, come to resemble forms of a system other than that to which they belong, as the apparently hexagonal prisms of aragonite.
PSYCHANALYSIS n.
Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856- --) of Vienna. The method rests upon the theory that hysteria is characteristically due to repression of desires consciously rejected but subconsciously persistent; it consists in a close analysis of the patient's mental history, stress being laid upon the dream life, and of treatment by means…
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