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use, but preserved to the present day as the literary and sacred dialect of India. It is nearly allied to the Persian, and to the principal languages of Europe, classical and modern, and by its more perfect preservation of the roots and forms of the primitive language from which they are all descended, is a most impor…

mote from the sun. Its diameter is seventy thousand miles, its mean distance from the sun nearly eight hundred and eighty millions of miles, and its year, or periodical revolution round the sun, nearly twenty-nine years and a half. It is surrounded by a remarkable system of rings, and has eight satellites.…

ies of elasmobranch fishes of the genus Pristis. They have a sharklike form, but are more nearly allied to the rays. The flattened and much elongated snout has a row of stout toothlike structures inserted along each edge, forming a sawlike organ with which it mutilates or kills its prey.

To cut down perpendicularly, or nearly so; as, to scarp the face of a ditch or a rock. From scarped cliff and quarried stone. Tennyson. Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain. Emerson.

also, the system itself, which confers thirty-three degrees, of which the first three are nearly identical with those of the York rite.

Buckler-shaped; round or nearly round.

s of smaller size (M. angustirostris) occurs on the coast of Lower California, but is now nearly extinct.

A roof or ceiling covering a semicircular room or recess, or one of nearly that shape, as the apse of a church, a niche, or the like. It is approximately the quarter of a hollow sphere.

Divided nearly to the base into seven parts; as, a septempartite leaf.

Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign,…

albumin (Physiol. Chem.), an albuminous body, closely related to egg albumin, present in nearly all serous fluids; esp., the albumin of blood serum. -- Serum globulin (Physiol. Chem.), paraglobulin. -- Serum of milk (Physiol. Chem.), the whey, or fluid portion of milk, remaining after removal of the casein and fat.…

A well-like excavation in the earth, perpendicular or nearly so, made for reaching and raising ore, for raising water, etc.

the day shall come when . . . , " since a promise or threat and an authoritative prophecy nearly coincide in significance. In shall with the first person, the necessity of the action is sometimes implied as residing elsewhere than in the speaker; as, I shall suffer; we shall see; and there is always a less distinct and…

A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted. To take shape, to assume a definite form.

, variety argenteus) found in the northern parts of Asia, Europe, and America. Its fur is nearly black, with silvery tips, and is highly valued. Called also black fox, and silver-gray fox. -- Silver gar. (Zoöl.) See Billfish (a) -- Silver grain (Bot.), the lines or narrow plates of cellular tissue which pass from the…

Nearly corresponding; resembling in many respects; somewhat like; having a general likeness.

The third month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; -- supposed to correspond nearly with our month of June.

as to the amount or payee, but signed by the acceptor. [Eng.] -- Skeleton key, a key with nearly the whole substance of the web filed away, to adapt it to avoid the wards of a lock; a master key; -- used for opening locks to which it has not been especially fitted. -- Skeleton leaf, a leaf from which the pulpy part ha…

r a branch of a tree, fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.

ng to the genus Helix and many allied genera of the family Helicidæ. They are abundant in nearly all parts of the world except the arctic regions, and feed almost entirely on vegetation; a land sanil.