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A large indefinite quantity. [Colloq.] The worthies of antiquity bought the rarest pictures with bushels of gold, without counting the weight or the number of the pieces. Dryden.

Affair; concern; matter; -- used in an indefinite sense, and modified by the connected words. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women. Shak. Bestow Your needful counsel to our business. Shak.

calculus, a method of investigating mathematical questions by using the ratio of certain indefinitely small quantities called differentials. The problems are primarily of this form: to find how the change in some variable quantity alters at each instant the value of a quantity dependent upon it. -- Exponential calcul…

Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; -- sometimes used independenty as a noun, and meaning certain persons. It came to pass when he was in a certain city. Luke. v. 12. About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace und decorum. Macaulay. For certain, assuredly. -- Of a certain,…

To move swiftly; -- usually with indefinite it. Straight flies as chek, and clips it down the wind. Dryden.

of a whole is put for a part, or that of a part for a whole, or a definite number for an indefinite.

a person connected with another by marriage rather than by blood; -- used in a loose and indefinite, and sometimes a comprehensive, sense.

bject, tend toward a single point. -- Converging series (Math.), a series in which if an indefinitely great number of terms be taken, their sum will become indefinitely near in value to a fixed quantity, which is called the sum of the series; -- opposed to a diverging series.

A peculiar person; -- in an indefinite sense; as, a queer customer; an ugly customer. [Colloq.] Dickens.

A part or portion; a share; hence, an indefinite quantity, degree, or extent, degree, or extent; as, a deal of time and trouble; a deal of cold. Three tenth deals [parts of an ephah] of flour. Num. xv. 9. As an object of science it [the Celtic genius] may count for a good deal . . . as a spiritual power. M. Arnold. She…

ion of a variable to the increment of the variable itself, when these increments are made indefinitely small. -- Differential coupling, a form of slip coupling used in light machinery to regulate at pleasure the velocity of the connected shaft. -- Differential duties (Polit. Econ.), duties which are not imposed equal…

eries the sum of whose terms does not approach a finite limit when the series is extended indefinitely; -- opposed to a converging series.

fall, and that second object causes a third to fall, etc.; the process can be repeated an indefinite number of times. Derived from an entertainment using dominoes arranged in a row, each standing on edge and therefore easily knocked over; when the first is made to fall against the next, it starts a sequence which ends…

Uncertainty of meaning; ambiguity; indefiniteness. " The doubtfulness of his expressions." Locke.

An indefinite small number. Milton. A baker's dozen, thirteen; -- called also a long dozen.

arts of the earth; the regions or countries which lie east of Europe; the orient. In this indefinite sense, the word is applied to Asia Minor, Syria, Chaldea, Persia, India, China, etc.; as, the riches of the East; the diamonds and pearls of the East; the kings of the East. The gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers…

An instrument for exciting electricity, and repeating the charge indefinitely by induction, consisting of a flat cake of resin, shelllac, or ebonite, upon which is placed a plate of metal.

lid an element may be infinitesimal portion between any two planes that are separated and indefinitely small distance. In the calculus, element is sometimes used as synonymous with differential.

An imaginary liquor capable of transmuting metals into gold; also, one for producing life indefinitely; as, elixir vitæ, or the elixir of life.

In some other place; in other places, indefinitely; as, it is reported in town and elsewhere.