Search the Dictionary

ve is similar to the intersection of the surface with a parallel to the tangent plane and indefinitely near it. It is an ellipse when the curvature is synclastic, and an hyperbola when the curvature is anticlastic.

Indefinitely large or extensive; great; vast; immense; gigantic; prodigious. Infinite riches in a little room. Marlowe. Which infinite calamity shall cause To human life. Milton.

Infinitely or indefinitely small; less than any assignable quantity or value; very small. Infinitesimal calculus, the different and the integral calculus, when developed according to the method used by Leibnitz, who regarded the increments given to variables as infinitesimal.

ounted, enumerated, or numbered, for multitude; countless; numberless; unnumbered, hence, indefinitely numerous; of great number. Innumerable as the stars of night. Milton. -- In*nu"mer*a*ble*ness, n. -- In*nu"mer*a*bly, adv.

of an hyperbola (or other curve) (Geom.), the branches of the curve which extend outward indefinitely. -- Legs of a triangle, the sides of a triangle; -- a name seldom used unless one of the sides is first distinguished by some appropriate term; as, the hypothenuse and two legs of a right-angled triangle. On one's le…

Belonging to a legion; consisting of a legion or legions, or of an indefinitely great number; as, legionary soldiers; a legionary force. "The legionary body of error." Sir T. Browne.

A trade name applied somewhat indefinitely to some of the volatile products obtained in refining crude petroleum. It is a complex and variable mixture of several hydrocarbons, generally boils below 170º Fahr., and is more inflammable than safe kerosene. It is used as a solvent, as a carburetant for air gas, and for ill…

One, or any one, indefinitely; -- a modified survival of the Saxon use of man, or mon, as an indefinite pronoun. A man can not make him laugh. Shak. A man would expect to find some antiquities; but all they have to show of this nature is an old rostrum of a Roman ship. Addison.

A picture produced by a process in which development after exposure may be deferred indefinitely, so as to permit transportation of exposed plates; also, the process itself.

A very great number; an indefinitely large number. Millions of truths that a man is not concerned to know. Locke.

An immense number; a very great many; an indefinitely large number.

Having an indefinitely great or countless number of leaves.

, again and again; repeatedly. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Now and then, at one time and another; indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals. "A mead here, there a heath, and now and then a wood." Drayton. -- Now now, at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.] "Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and be…

Left over after a definite round number has been taken or mentioned; indefinitely, but not greatly, exceeding a specified number; extra. Sixteen hundred and odd years after the earth was made, it was destroyed in a deluge. T. Burnet. There are yet missing of your company Some few odd lads that you remember not. Shak.…

At some one period of time; -- used indefinitely. My soul had once some foolish fondness for thee. Addison. That court which we shall once govern. Bp. Hall.

Denoting a person or thing conceived or spoken of indefinitely; a certain. "I am the sister of one Claudio" [Shak.], that is, of a certain man named Claudio.

To make perpetual; to cause to endure, or to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion; to eternize. Addison. Burke.

A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present.

ondition of a person. -- Physical geography. See under Geography. -- Physical point, an indefinitely small portion of matter; a point conceived as being without extension, yet having physical properties, as weight, inertia, momentum, etc.; a material point. -- Physical signs (Med.), the objective signs of the bodily…

To place in the pigeonhole of a case or cabinet; hence, to put away; to lay aside indefinitely; as, to pigeonhole a letter or a report.