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(December 25) and in some States a legal holiday, in memory of the birth of Christ, often celebrated by a particular church service, and also by special gifts, greetings, and hospitality. Christmas box. (a) A box in which presents are deposited at Christmas. (b) A present or small gratuity given to young people and ser…

A curve invented by Diocles, for the purpose of solving two celebrated problems of the higher geometry; viz., to trisect a plane angle, and to construct two geometrical means between two given straight lines.

f art, of politics. Tennyson. He [Goldsmith] was one of the nine original members of that celebrated fraternity which has sometimes been called the Literary Club, but which has always disclaimed that epithet, and still glories in the simple name of the Club. Macaulay.

A celebrated prison, attached to the Palais de Justice in Paris.

reflexive pronoun. Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father. Addison.

A celebrated collection of tales, supposed to be related in ten days; -- written in the 14th century, by Boccaccio, an Italian.

enriches, or beautifies; something added by way of embellishment; ornament. The hall was celebrated for . . . the richness of its decoration. Motley.

One celebrated upon the completion of sixty, or, according to some, seventy-five, years from the beginning of the thing commemorated.

tes Digest. A complete digest of Hindu and Mahommedan laws after the model of Justinian's celebrated Pandects. Sir W. Jones. They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called the Rights of Man. Burke.

e Roman Bacchanalia; the greater Dionysia were held at Athens in March or April, and were celebrated with elaborate performances of both tragedies and comedies.

The Coryphæna hippuris, a fish of about five feet in length, celebrated for its surprising changes of color when dying. It is the fish commonly known as the dolphin. See Coryphænoid.

Pertaining to Eleusis, in Greece, or to secret rites in honor of Ceres, there celebrated; as, Eleusinian mysteries or festivals.

A church festival celebrated on the 6th of January, the twelfth day after Christmas, in commemoration of the visit of the Magi of the East to Bethlehem, to see and worship the child Jesus; or, as others maintain, to commemorate the appearance of the star to the Magi, symbolizing the manifestation of Christ to the Gentl…

A follower of Eudoxius, patriarch of Antioch and Constantinople in the 4th century, and a celebrated defender of the doctrines of Arius.

Celebrated in fame or public report; renowned; mach talked of; distinguished in story; -- used in either a good or a bad sense, chiefly the former; often followed by for; as, famous for erudition, for eloquence, for military skill; a famous pirate. Famous for a scolding tongue. Shak.

t of a mistake in reckoning the change from Old Style to New Style, it has generally been celebrated on the 22d.

ella, esp. G. dorcas; -- called also algazel, corinne, korin, and kevel. The gazelles are celebrated for the luster and soft expression of their eyes. [Written also gazel.]

ant (Mus.), plain song, or canto fermo, a kind of unisonous music, according to the eight celebrated church modes, as arranged and prescribed by Pope Gregory I. (called "the Great") in the 6th century. -- Gregorian modes, the musical scales ordained by Pope Gregory the Great, and named after the ancient Greek scales,…

e. Feast of Guardian Angels (R. C. Ch.) a church festival instituted by Pope Paul V., and celebrated on October 2d. -- Guardian angel. (a) The particular spiritual being believed in some branches of the Christian church to have guardianship and protection of each human being from birth. (b) Hence, a protector or defen…

for eight days (beginning with the 25th day of Kislev, corresponding to December), and is celebrated everywhere, chiefly as a festival of lights, by the Jews.