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Having the ovule inverted, but with the attachment near the middle of one side; half anatropous.

A piece of malleable iron, wrought into the shape of a bar in the middle, but unwrought at the ends.

d with circles. Annular eclipse (Astron.), an eclipse of the sun in which the moon at the middle of the eclipse conceals the central part of the sun's disk, leaving a complete ring of light around the border.

One of a group of perching birds, having the middle toe more or less united to the outer and inner ones.

ing arsenic, and used for secret poisoning, made by an Italian woman named Tofana, in the middle of the 17th century, who is said to have poisoned more than 600 persons. Francis. -- Aqua vitæ Etym: [L., water of life. Cf. Eau de vie, Usquebaugh], a name given to brandy and some other ardent spirits. Shak.…

the hind foot are even in number, and the third digit of each foot (corresponding to the middle finger in man) is asymmetrical and paired with the fourth digit, as in the hog, the sheep, and the ox; - - opposed to Perissodactyla.

rly supposed to live in the heavenly bodies or the aërial regions, and represented in the Middle Ages as fallen angels, spirits of the dead, or spirits originating in fire.

s; especially at the entrance of a basilica or other church. The name was extended in the Middle Ages to the open churchyard or cemetery.

To make or take auguries; to augur; to predict. [Obs.] C. Middleton.

Past the middle of life; in the third stage. An autumnal matron. Hawthorne. Autumnal equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator, as it proceeds southward, or when it passes the ~ point. -- ~= point, the point of the equator intersected by the ecliptic, as the sun proceeds southward; the first point of Libra.…

Hutton. -- Axis of the Ionic capital (Arch.), a line passing perpendicularly through the middle of the eye of the volute. -- Neutral axis (Mech.), the line of demarcation between the horizontal elastic forces of tension and compression, exerted by the fibers in any cross section of a girder. -- Optic axis of a cryst…

t the wind strikes them alternately in front and behind, in order to keep the ship in the middle of a river or channel while the current or tide carries the vessel against the wind. Hence: (Fig.) To take opposite positions alternately; to assert and deny. [Colloq.] -- To back out, To back down, to retreat or withdraw f…

A French school of the middle of the 19th century centering in the village of Barbizon near the forest of Fontainebleau. Its members went straight to nature in disregard of academic tradition, treating their subjects faithfully and with poetic feeling for color, light, and atmosphere. It is exemplified, esp. in landsca…

A member of the radical section of the Democratic party in New York, about the middle of the 19th century, which was hostile to extension of slavery, public debts, corporate privileges, etc., and supported Van Buren against Cass for president in 1848; --opposed to Hunker. [Political Cant, U. S.]

A round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads.

of skirt ( often of velvet or brocade, but sometimes of mailed armor) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower. [Obs.]

, anciently supposed to have a specially important function in the animal economy, as the middle vein of the right arm.

The middle of the anterior margin of the great foramen of the skull.

The richest kind of stuff used in garments in the Middle Ages, the web being gold, and the woof silk, with embroidery : -- made originally at Bagdad. [Spelt also baudkin, baudkyn, bawdekin, and baldakin.] Nares.

Belted cattle, cattle originally from Dutch stock, having a broad band of white round the middle, while the rest of the body is black; -- called also blanketed cattle.