Search the Dictionary

is form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world. Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also silicium.

The sucking proboscis of certain parasitic insects and crustaceans.

A tribe of parasitic copepod Crustacea including a large number of species that are parasites of fishes, as the lerneans. They have a mouth adapted to suck blood.

f officers, but in which there are few enlisted men. -- Skeleton shrimp (Zoöl.), a small crustacean of the genus Caprella. See Illust. under Læmodipoda.

Any terrestrial isopod crustacean of the genus Porcellio and allied genera; a sow bug.

The act of casting off the skin or shell, as do insects and crustaceans; ecdysis.

come vesicles (first flat, subsequently umbilicated) and then pustules, and finally thick crusts which slough after a certain time, often leaving a pit, or scar.

To break in pieces by violence; to dash to pieces; to crush. Here everything is broken and smashed to pieces. Burke.

ng a number of spermatozoa. They are present in many annelids, brachiopods, mollusks, and crustaceans. In cephalopods the structure of the capsule is very complex.

To crush; to quash; to squash. [Colloq. or Slang, Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

The scale, or exopodite, of an antenna of a crustacean.

To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.

A sudden or crushing fall. [Obs.] erbert.

Fig.: To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass; to crush. In a civil war, people must expect to be crushed and squeezed toward the burden. L'Estrange.

To quell; to crush; to silence or put down. [Colloq.] Oh 't was your luck and mine to be squelched. Beau. & Fl. If you deceive us you will be squelched. Carlyle.

Any one of numerous stomapod crustaceans of the genus Squilla and allied genera. They make burrows in mud or beneath stones on the seashore. Called also mantis shrimp. See Illust. under Stomapoda.

The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.

ed on a stalk, or peduncle; -- opposed to sessile-eyed. Said especially of podophthalmous crustaceans. Stalked- eyed crustaceans. (Zoöl.) See Podophthalmia.

To crush; to pulverize; specifically (Metal.), to crush by the blow of a heavy stamp, as ore in a mill. I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small. Deut. ix. 21.

or greenish black mineral occurring in foliated flates, also in velvety bronze-colored incrustations. It is a hydrous silicate of iron and alumina.