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A rare nonmetallic element found in certain minerals, as tantalite, samarskite, and fergusonite, and isolated as a dark powder which becomes steel-gray by burnishing. Symbol Ta. Atomic weight 182.0. Formerly called also tantalium.

An instrument consisting of a fine, sharp hook attached to a handle, and used mainly for taking up arteries, and the like.

A tentacle.

Luminescence exhibited by a substance on being moderately heated. It is shown esp. by certain substances that have been exposed to the action of light or to the cathode rays. ---lu`mi*nes"cent (#), a.

A bell; also, a set or combination of bells or metal plates used as a musical instrument or as a toy.

Having three lights [R.]

A tubercle.

To deprive of lead, as of a leaden coffin. [R.] Burke.

To strip of plumes or feathers; hence, to humiliate.

A rampart; a wall, as in a fortification.

Same as Ascidium, n., 1.

kin, and rendered clear and white, -- used as for writing upon, and for binding books. Vellum cloth, a fine kind of cotton fabric, made very transparent, and used as a tracing cloth.

Resembling vellum.

A delicate funnel-like membrane around the flagellum of certain Infusoria. See Illust. a of Protozoa.

Any one of numerous species of club-shaped, compound Alcyonaria belonging to Veretillum and allied genera, of the tribe Pennatulacea. The whole colony can move about as if it were a simple animal.

A cavity into which, in certain bryozoans, the esophagus and anus open.

A flag or standard.

One of the movable, slender, spinelike organs or parts with which certain bryozoans are furnished. They are regarded as specially modified zooids, of nearly the same nature as Avicularia.

A bond of union; a tie.

oined together [by the ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume (volumen). Encyc. Brit.