Search the Dictionary

A typical figure, consisting of seven equal segments of a circle, used to denote the gifts of the Holy Chost, the seven sacraments as recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, etc. [R.]

To wind; to encircle. [R.] Evelyn.

ale of numbers in which the modulus is sixty. It is used in treating the divisions of the circle.

The sixth part of a circle.

The length of a perpendicular drawn from one extremity of an arc of a circle to the diameter drawn through the other extremity.

erican Indians formed by the union of the Tuscaroras and the Five Nations. -- Six points circle. (Geom.) See Nine points circle, under Nine.

em (Geom.), a problem which can be construed geometrically, only by the intersection of a circle and a conic section or of two conic sections. Hutton. -- Solid square (Mil.), a square body or troops in which the ranks and files are equal.

ch the heavenly bodies appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it.…

metry which treats of spherical magnitudes; the doctrine of the sphere, especially of the circles described on its surface. -- Spherical harmonic analysis. See under Harmonic, a. -- Spherical lune,portion of the surface of a sphere included between two great semicircles having a common diameter. -- Spherical opening…

The doctrine of the sphere; the science of the properties and relations of the circles, figures, and other magnitudes of a sphere, produced by planes intersecting it; spherical geometry and trigonometry.

erics in navigation and astronomy, being constructed of two cardboards containing various circles, and turning upon each other in such a manner that any possible spherical triangle may be readily found, and the measures of the parts read off by inspection.

The projected spot or circle of light used to illuminate brilliantly a single person or object or group on the stage; leaving the rest of the stage more or less unilluminated; hence, conspicuous public notice. [Cant or Colloq.]

appearance, -- a movement expressing contempt or dislike. Sir W. Scott. -- To square the circle (Math.), to determine the exact contents of a circle in square measure. The solution of this famous problem is now generally admitted to be impossible.

, common in fresh water. The stentors have a bell-shaped, or cornucopia-like, body with a circle of cilia around the spiral terminal disk. See Illust. under Heterotricha.

Applied to spokes when they are arranged alternately in two circles in the hub. See Straddle, v. i., and Straddle, v. t., 3. Knight.

The flat part of the corolla in ligulate florets, as those of the white circle in the daisy.

Approximately arctic; belonging to a region just without the arctic circle.

de by a plane not parallel to the base, but so inclined to the axis that the section is a circle; applied also to two similar triangles when so placed as to have a common angle at the vertex, the opposite sides not being parallel. Brande & C.

A circle or cluster of gas-burners for lighting and ventilating public buildings.

of the sun's apparent motion, or from the east southward and westward, and so around the circle; also, in the same direction as the movement of the hands of a watch lying face upward.