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A reflector of polished metal, especially one used in reflecting telescopes. See Speculum metal, below.

ural plants, that need pruning by study. Bacon. The public men of England, with much of a peculiar kind of ability. Macaulay.

A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy.

Modulation of the voice in speaking; manner of speaking or pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a German accent. "Beguiled you in a plain accent." Shak. "A perfect accent." Thackeray. The tender accent of a woman's cry. Prior.

To inure or habituate to a climate different from that which is natural; to adapt to the peculiarities of a foreign or strange climate; said of man, the inferior animals, or plants.

proportion of two atoms of the former to two of the latter. It is a colorless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odor, and is produced for use as an illuminating gas in a number of ways, but chiefly by the action of water on calcium carbide. Its light is very brilliant. Watts.

f alkalies or bases, combining with them to form salts, at the same time losing their own peculiar properties. They all contain hydrogen, united with a more negative element or radical, either alone, or more generally with oxygen, and take their names from this negative element or radical. Those which contain no oxygen…

A peculiar larval form of Phoronis, a genus of marine worms, having a circle of ciliated tentacles.

Given to action rather than contemplation; practical; operative; - - opposed to Ant: speculative or Ant: theoretical; as, an active rather than a speculative statesman.

lity; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, coceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion.

He is addicted to his study. Beau. & Fl. That part of mankind that addict their minds to speculations. Adventurer. His genius addicted him to the study of antiquity. Fuller. A man gross . . . and addicted to low company. Macaulay.

A morbid condition causing a peculiar brownish discoloration of the skin, and thought, at one time, to be due to disease of the suprarenal capsules (two flat triangular bodies covering the upper part of the kidneys), but now known not to be dependent upon this causes exclusively. It is usually fatal.…

A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account. A bill of adventure (Com.), a writing setting forth that the goods shipped are at the owner's risk.

A word, phrase, idiom, or custom peculiar to Africa or Africans. "The knotty Africanisms . . . of the fathers." Milton.

Exchange business; also, stockjobbing; the maneuvers of speculators to raise or lower the price of stocks or public funds. Vanity and agiotage are to a Parisian the oxygen and hydrogen of life. Landor.

A rodent of the genus Dasyprocta, about the size of a rabbit, peculiar to South America and the West Indies. The most common species is the Dasyprocta agouti.

One of a peculiar race inhabiting Yesso, the Kooril Islands etc., in the northern part of the empire of Japan, by some supposed to have been the progenitors of the Japanese. The Ainos are stout and short, with hairy bodies.

The peculiar look, appearance, and bearing of a person; mien; demeanor; as, the air of a youth; a heavy air; a lofty air. "His very air." Shak.

The bleak, a small European fish having scales of a peculiarly silvery color which are used in making artificial pearls.

a class of caustic bases, such as soda, potash, ammoma, and lithia, whose distinguishing peculiarities are solubility in alcohol and water, uniting with oils and fats to form soap, neutralizing and forming salts with acids, turning to brown several vegetable yellows, and changing reddened litmus to blue. Fixed alkalie…