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rincipal points of the compass, or intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west. (b) (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir. -- Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Lidra, Cancer, and Capricorn. -- Cardinal teeth (Zoöl.), the central t…

One who cheers; one who, or that which, gladdens. "Thou cheerer of our days." Wotton. "Prime cheerer, light." Thomson.

One who colors; an artist who excels in the use of colors; one to whom coloring is of prime importance. Titian, Paul Veronese, Van Dyck, and the rest of the good colorists. Dryden.

ber (Math.), one which can be divided exactly by a number exceeding unity, as 6 by 2 or 3.prime number. -- Composite photograph or portrait, one made by a combination, or blending, of several distinct photographs. F. Galton. -- Composite sailing (Naut.), a combination of parallel and great circle sailing. -- Composi…

Same as Leader. Prime conductor (Elec.), the largest conductor of an electrical machine, serving to collect, accumulate, or retain the electricity.

The arc of the horizon, contained between the vertical plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, reckoned from the north or south.

To take away the prime beauty and grace of; to rob of the choicest ornament. He died innocent and before the sweetness of his soul was defloured and ravished from him. Jer. Taylor.

e of mercury, which when struck, explodes with violence and a loud report. -- Detonating primer, a primer exploded by a fuse; -- used to explode gun cotton in blasting operations. -- Detonating tube, a strong tube of glass, usually graduated, closed at one end, and furnished with two wires passing through its sides a…

blood. Lev. iv. 6. [Wat'ry fowl] now dip their pinions in the briny deep. Pope. While the prime swallow dips his wing. Tennyson.

A small volume containing the daily service for the "little hours," viz., prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline.

d; endowment; gift. How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower! Sir J. Davies. Man in his primeval dower arrayed. Wordsworth.

An efficient cause; a prime mover. God . . . moveth mere natural agents as an efficient only. Hooker.

That which flows out; emanation; effluence. Prime cheerer, light! . . . Efflux divine. Thomson.

A kind of printing type, in size between Pica and Great Primer. See Type.

ose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth. Gal. iii. 1. He has evidently in the prime of youth. W. Irving.

out; quenched; as, a fire, a light, or a lamp, is extinct; an extinct volcano. Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct. Milton.

te of potassium, antimony, sulphide, etc, which readily ignites by friction. -- Friction primer, Friction tube, a tube used for firing cannon by means of the friction of a roughened wire in the friction powder or composition with which the tube is filled -- Friction wheel (Mach.), one of the wheels in frictional geari…

A primeval larval form; a double-walled sac from which, according to the hypothesis of Haeckel, man and all other animals, that in the first stages of their individual evolution pass through a two-layered structural stage, or gastrula form, must have descended. This idea constitutes the Gastræa theory of Haeckel. See G…

excellent; eminently auspicious; as, golden opinions. Golden age. (a) The fabulous age of primeval simplicity and purity of manners in rural employments, followed by the silver, bronze, and iron ages. Dryden. (b) (Roman Literature) The best part (B. C. 81 -- A. D. 14) of the classical period of Latinity; the time when…

r, on which the alphabet, digits, and often the Lord's Prayer, were written or printed; a primer. "He teaches boys the hornbook." Shak.