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The distance from a point in a curve to the chord; also, the versed sine of an arc; -- so called from its resemblance to an arrow resting on the bow and string. [Obs.]

o Jupiter, but more remote 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 sa…

or more sets of spaces graduated and numbered on its surface, for measuring or laying off distances, etc., as in drawing, plotting, and the like. See Gunter's scale.

A distance of twenty yards; -- a term used in ancient archery and gunnery. Halliwell.

-- Second cousin, the child of a cousin. -- Second-cut file. See under File. -- Second distance (Art), that part of a picture between the foreground and the background; -- called also middle ground, or middle distance. [R.] -- Second estate (Eng.), the House of Peers. -- Second girl, a female house-servant who does…

clination too great for the compass of a micrometer. When it is used for measuring zenith distances of stars, it is called a zenith sector. Dip sector, an instrument used for measuring the dip of the horizon. -- Sector of a sphere, or Spherical sector, the solid generated by the revolution of the sector of a circle ab…

a prayer book or missal. -- Service line (Tennis), a line parallel to the net, and at a distance of 21 feet from it. -- Service of a writ, process, etc. (Law), personal delivery or communication of the writ or process, etc., to the party to be affected by it, so as to subject him to its operation; the reading of it…

. rootb'3. The periodic times of the planets are in the sesquiplicate ratio of their mean distances. Sir I. Newton.

An instrument for measuring angular distances between objects, -- used esp. at sea, for ascertaining the latitude and longitude. It is constructed on the same optical principle as Hadley's quadrant, but usually of metal, with a nicer graduation, telescopic sight, and its arc the sixth, and sometimes the third, part of…

Measured by sixty degrees; fixed or indicated by a distance of sixty degrees. Glanvill.

rs from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle. To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. -- To sheer up, to approach obliquely.

A flat tablet or ledge of any material set horizontally at a distance from the floor, to hold objects of use or ornament.

By extension, in commercial usage, to commit to any conveyance for transportation to a distance; as, to ship freight by railroad.

Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight. The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it. Isa. xxviii. 20.

To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.

The flight of a missile, or the distance which it is, or can be, thrown; as, the vessel was distant more than a cannon shot.

st such she shows before a rising storm. Dryden. All round a hedge upshoots, and shows At distance like a little wood. Tennyson.

Side posts (Carp.), posts in a truss, usually placed in pairs, each post set at the same distance from the middle of the truss, for supporting the principal rafters, hanging the tiebeam, etc. -- Side rod. (a) One of the rods which connect the piston-rod crosshead with the side levers, in a side-lever engine. (b) See…

Distance to which the sight can reach or be thrown. [R.] Cowley.

A shoot running along under ground, forming new plants at short distances.