Search the Dictionary

Having the qualities which constitute beauty; pleasing to the sight or the mind. A circle is more beautiful than a square; a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram. Lord Kames.

That which is constituted of two figures, things, or parts; two; duality. Fotherby.

The act or art of managing the bow in playing on stringed instruments. Bowing constitutes a principal part of the art of the violinist, the violist, etc. J. W. Moore.

ffoon, as low jests, ridiculous pranks, vulgar tricks and postures. Nor that it will ever constitute a wit to conclude a tart piece of buffoonery with a "What makes you blush" Spectator.

ck and charcoal, and enters largely into mineral coals. In its pure crystallized state it constitutes the diamond, the hardest of known substances, occuring in monometric crystals like the octahedron, etc. Another modification is graphite, or blacklead, and in this it is soft, and occurs in hexagonal prisms or tables.…

da water of the shops, and the carbonated water of natural springs. Combined with lime it constitutes limestone, or common marble and chalk. Plants imbibe it for their nutrition and growth, the carbon being retained and the oxygen given out. -- Carbonic oxide (Chem.), a colorless gas, CO, of a light odor, called more…

1. (R.C.Ch.) One of the ecclesiastical prince who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college. The clerics of the supreme Chair are called Cardinals, as undoubtedly adhering more nearly to the hinge by which all things are moved. Pope Leo IX.

, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word. Case is properly a falling off from the nominative or first state of word; the name for which, however, is now, by extension of its signi…

e animal and the vegetable kingdom. In the animal kindom it is chiefly found in milk, and constitutes the main part of the curd separated by rennet; in the vegetable kingdom it is found more or less abundantly in the seeds of leguminous plants. Its reactions resemble those of alkali albumin. [Written also caseine.]…

The substance which constitutes the essential part of the solid framework of plants, of ordinary wood, linen, paper, etc. It is also found to a slight extent in certain animals, as the tunicates. It is a carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, isomeric with starch, and is convertible into starches and sugars by the action of heat an…

Pertaining to, or serving to constitute, the character; showing the character, or distinctive qualities or traits, of a person or thing; peculiar; distinctive. Characteristic clearness of temper. Macaulay.

Whatever constitutes a burden on property, as rents, taxes, lines, etc.; costs; expense incurred; -- usually in the plural.

rporation and defining its powers and privileges. Also, an instrument in writing from the constituted authorities of an order or society (as the Freemasons), creating a lodge and defining its powers.

ic has been dissolved, as at Westminster, it yet remaineth a city. Blackstone When Gorges constituted York a city, he of course meant it to be the seat of a bishop, for the word city has no other meaning in English law. Palfrey

in species of plants which possess flowers of two or more kinds, the closed ones being so constituted as to insure self-fertilization. Darwin.

genus of naked pteropods. One species (Clione papilonacea), abundant in the Arctic Ocean, constitutes a part of the food of the Greenland whale. It is sometimes incorrectly called Clio.

rmit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth Macaulay. The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom. I. Taylor. Body cloth. See under Body. -- Cloth of gold, a fabric woven wholly or partially of threads of gold. -- Cloth measure, the me…

ombustion (Chem.), a gas as oxygen, the combination of which with a combustible, as coal, constitutes combustion.

That which constitutes, or is regarded as, an equivalent; that which makes good the lack or variation of something else; that which compensates for loss or privation; amends; remuneration; recompense. The parliament which dissolved the monastic foundations . . . vouchsafed not a word toward securing the slightest compe…

nes in space being considered, the entire system of lines which satisfy a single relation constitute a complex; as, all the lines which meet a given curve make up a complex. The lines which satisfy two relations constitute a congruency of lines; as, the entire system of lines, each one of which meets two given surfaces…