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different bodies into one mass by fusion. The incorporation of metals by simple colliquefaction. Bacon.

The act of making compact, or the state of being compact. [Obs.] Bacon.

Act of touching. [Obs.]

process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.

Action in opposition; hindrance resistance. [They] do not . . . overcome the counteraction of a false principle or of stubborn partiality. Johnson.

A taking away or withdrawing. [Obs.] The detraction of the eggs of the said wild fowl. Bacon.

slits, causing the appearance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars. Remarked by Grimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called diffraction. Whewell. Diffraction grating. (Optics) See under Grating. -- Diffraction spectrum. (O…

See Syndicalism, below.

s. The ambitious man has little happiness, but is subject to much uneasiness and dissatisfaction. Addison.

The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet.

ld; compulsion to give or furnish; a levying by force; a driving to compliance; as, the exaction to tribute or of obedience; hence, extortion. Take away your exactions from my people. Ezek. xlv. 9. Daily new exactions are devised. Shak. Illegal exactions of sheriffs and officials. Bancroft.

A heating or warming; calefaction. [Obs.] Blount.

The act of extracting, or drawing out; as, the extraction of a tooth, of a bone or an arrow from the body, of a stump from earth, of a passage from a book, of an essence or tincture.

Tumult; discord; dissension. They remained at Newbury in great faction among themselves. Clarendon.

Belonging to a faction; being a partisan; taking sides. [Obs.] Always factionary on the party of your general. Shak.

One of a faction. Abp. Bancroft.

One who promotes faction.

especially by violence. [Obs.] Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking up. Foxe.

Of or pertaining to fractions or a fraction; constituting a fraction; as, fractional numbers.

By fractions or separate portions; as, to distill a liquid fractionally, that is, so as to separate different portions.