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An ecclesiastical vestment or cloak, semicircular in form, reaching from the shoulders nearly to the feet, and open in front except at the top, whereit is united by a band or clasp. It is worn in processions and on some other occasions. Piers plowman. A hundred and sixty priests all in their copes. Bp. Burnet.…

A children's game in which one player is inclosed by a circle of others holding a rope.

A circle, usually colored, seen in peculiar states of the atmosphere around and close to a luminous body, as the sun or moon.

Resembling, or situated like, a crown or circlet; as, the coronary arteries and veins of the heart.

tive tissue. Quain's Anat. Red blood corpuscles (Physiol.), in man, yellowish, biconcave, circular discs varying from 1/3500 to 1/3200 of an inch in diameter and about 1/12400 of an inch thick. They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with semifluid hæmoglobin and other matters. In most mammals the red corpusc…

s, as in a picture, statue, poem, or play, as is appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described. I began last night to read Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel . . . .I was extremely delighted with the poetical beauty of some parts . . . .The costume, too, is admirable. Sir J. Macki…

A set or circle of persons who meet familiarly, as for social, literary, or other purposes; a clique. "The queen of your coterie." Thackeray.

in one second by the current produced by an electro-motive force of one volt acting in a circuit having a resistance of one ohm, or the quantitty transferred by one ampère in one second. Formerly called weber.

A circuit or particular portion of a state or kingdom, separated from the rest of the territory, for certain purposes in the administration of justice and public affairs; -- called also a shire. See Shire. Every county, every town, every family, was in agitation. Macaulay.

A circulating gazette of news; a newspaper.

Court breeding, education acquired at court. -- Court card. Same as Coat card. -- Court circular, one or more paragraphs of news respecting the sovereign and the royal family, together with the proceedings or movements of the court generally, supplied to the newspapers by an officer specially charged with such duty.…

e end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. See Bell crank.

hen the money can be drawn in fractional sums in several different places, it is called a circular letter of credit. -- Public credit. (a) The reputation of, or general confidence in, the ability or readiness of a government to fulfull its pecuniary engagements. (b) The ability and fidelity of merchants or others who…

tended with risk; dangerous; as, the critical stage of a fever; a critical situation. Our circumstances are indeed critical. Burke. The small moment, the exact point, the critical minute, on which every good work so much depends. South. Critical angle (Optics), that angle of incidence of a luminous ray at which it is w…

tached the upper shrouds. At the head of lower masts in large vessels, they support a semicircular platform called the "top."

A wreath or garland, or any ornamental fillet encircling the head, especially as a reward of victory or mark of honorable distinction; hence, anything given on account of, or obtained by, faithful or successful effort; a reward. "An olive branch and laurel crown." Shak. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we…

s imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavently bodies. -- Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, servi…

A suborder of Bryozoa, usually having a circle of bristles below the tentacles.

A curve of the third degree. Circular cubic. See under Circular.

ersome contrivance or machine. He holds them in utter contempt, as lumbering, cumbersome, circuitous. I. Taylor. -- Cum"ber*some*ly, adv. -- Cum"ber*some*ness,n.