Search the Dictionary

The act of convicting; the act of proving, finding, or adjudging, guilty of an offense. The greater certainty of conviction and the greater certainty of punishment. Hallam.

allel to the celestial equator. -- Declination compass (Physics), a compass arranged for finding the declination of the magnetic needle. -- Declination of the compass or needle, the horizontal angle which the magnetic needle makes with the true north-and-south line.

less than the lower. -- Diminished, or Diminishing, scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the volute. Gwilt. -- Diminishing rule (Arch.), a board cut with a concave edge, for fixing the entasis and curvature of a shaft. -- Diminishing stile (Arch.), a stile…

Finding out or ascertaining something previously unknown or unrecognized; as, Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. A brilliant career of discovery and conquest. Prescott. We speak of the "invention" of printing, the discovery of America. Trench.

The process of finding how many times one number or quantity is contained in another; the reverse of multiplication; also, the rule by which the operation is performed.

lication of cartilage cells. Carpenter. Duplication of the cube (Math.), the operation of finding a cube having a volume which is double that of a given cube.

ean and apparent places of the equinox. -- Equation of payments (Arith.), the process of finding the mean time of payment of several sums due at different times. -- Equation of time (Astron.), the difference between mean and apparent time, or between the time of day indicated by the sun, and that by a perfect clock g…

reka! eureka!" (I have found it! I have found it!), upon suddenly discovering a method of finding out how much the gold of King Hiero's crown had been alloyed. Hence, an expression of triumph concerning a discovery.

The process of finding the roots of an equation. [Obs.]

g intellect that bred them. Milton. The extraction of roots. (Math.) (a) The operation of finding the root of a given number or quantity. (b) The method or rule by which the operation is performed; evolution.

To be agitated or excited by violent emotions. But finding no redress, ferment an rage. Milton. The intellect of the age was a fermenting intellect. De Quincey.

of low power and large field of view, attached to a larger telescope, for the purpose of finding an object more readily.

Apt to censure or cavil; faultfinding; captious. [Obs.] Whitlock.

s specific gravity, as in the boilers of ocean steamers. -- Sea gauge, an instrument for finding the depth of the sea. -- Siphon gauge, a glass siphon tube, partly filled with mercury, -- used to indicate pressure, as of steam, or the degree of rarefaction produced in the receiver of an air pump or other vacuum; a ma…

xpedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen. Chymists have been more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them. Boyle.

A wife; a helpmate. The Lord God created Adam, . . . and afterwards, on his finding the want of a helpmeet, caused him to sleep, and took one of his ribs and thence made woman. J. H. Newman.

l of indictment by a grand jury when there was not sufficient evidence to warrant them in finding it a true bill. The phrase now used is, "No bill," "No true bill," or "Not found," though in some jurisdictions "Ignored" is still used. Wharton (Law Dict. ). Burn.

To charge with a crime, in due form of law, by the finding or presentment of a grand jury; to find an indictment against; as, to indict a man for arson. It is the peculiar province of a grand jury to indict, as it is of a house of representatives to impeach.

rnment. It differs from an indictment in criminal cases chiefly in not being based on the finding of a grand juri. See Indictment.

The finding of the jury upon such inquiry. Coroner's inquest, an inquest held by a coroner to determine the cause of any violent, sudden, or mysterious death. See Coroner. -- Inquest of office, an inquiry made, by authority or direction of proper officer, into matters affecting the rights and interests of the crown or…