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Not producing the proper effect; without effect; inefficient; weak; useless; futile; unavailing; as, an ineffectual attempt; an ineffectual expedient. Pope. The peony root has been much commended, . . . and yet has been by many found ineffectual. Boyle.

Ineffectualness. [R.]

Without effect; in vain. Hereford . . . had been besieged for abouineffectually by the Scots. Ludlow.

Want of effect, or of power to produce it; inefficacy. The ineffectualness of some men's devotion. Wake.

Not effective.

The production or absorption of heat at the junction of two metals on the passage of a current. Heat generated by the passage of the current in one direction will be absorbed if the current is reversed.

The widening and duplication, triplication, etc., of spectral lines when the radiations emanate in a strong magnetic field, first observed in 1896 by P. Zeeman, a Dutch physicist, and regarded as an important confirmation of the electromagnetic theory of light.

y generalizations from facts arrives at principles and definitions, or infers causes from effects. This is the reverse of a priori reasoning.

hich deduces consequences from definitions formed, or principles assumed, or which infers effects from causes previously known; deductive or deductively. The reverse of a posteriori.

heir or devisee. Blackstone. Defense in abatement, Plea in abatement, (Law), plea to the effect that from some formal defect (e.g. misnomer, want of jurisdiction) the proceedings should be abated.

periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and dairy or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when g…

Rendering fruitless or ineffectual. [Obs.] "Plunged in that abortive gulf." Milton.

Unusual appearance or effect. [Obs.] Chaucer.

the perspective plane meets this plane. -- Accidental lights (Paint.), secondary lights; effects of light other than ordinary daylight, such as the rays of the sun darting through a cloud, or between the leaves of trees; the effect of moonlight, candlelight, or burning bodies. Fairholt.

Accidental character or effect. Ruskin.

To bring to an issue of full success; to effect; to perform; to execute fully; to fulfill; as, to accomplish a design, an object, a promise. This that is written must yet be accomplished in me. Luke xxii. 37.

Completed; effected; established; as, an accomplished fact.

That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed. That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. Wordsworth. Hence, in specific uses:

An instrument for measuring the actinic effect of rays of light.

the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. One wise in council, one in action brave. Pope.