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The act of adjusting, or condition of being adjusted; act of bringing into proper relations; regulation. Success depends on the nicest and minutest adjustment of the parts concerned. Paley.

To take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc. ; esp. to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.

Admission to a more intimate relation; reception; as, the adoption of persons into hospitals or monasteries, or of one society into another.

The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church. [Originally, the relation of a patron (advocatus) or protector of a benefice, and thus privileged to nominate or present to it.]

The science of sensation in relation to nervous action. H. Spenser.

Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by with, to, or between. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh. 1 Kings iii. 1.

Denoting the aim or object; concerning; in relation to; as, to look after workmen; to inquire after a friend; to thirst after righteousness.

The office of an agent, or factor; the relation between a principal and his agent; business of one intrusted with the concerns of another.

A relative whose relationship can be traced exclusively through males.

ewing pictures by means of a lens, so as to present them in their natural proportions and relations.

That branch of mathematics which treats of the relations and properties of quantity by means of letters and other symbols. It is applicable to those relations that are true of every kind of magnitude.

algebraical writings. Algebraic curve, a curve such that the equation which expresses the relation between the coördinates of its points involves only the ordinary operations of algebra; -- opposed to a transcendental curve.

Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity. The alliance of the principles of the world with those of the gospel. C. J. Smith. The alliance . . . between logic and metaphysics. Mansel.

ty of existing in two or more conditions which are distinct in their physical or chemical relations.

To connect or form a relation between by similitude, resemblance, friendship, or love. These three did love each other dearly well, And with so firm affection were allied. Spenser. The virtue nearest to our vice allied. Pope.

Friendship, in a general sense, between individuals, societies, or nations; friendly relations; good understanding; as, a treaty of amity and commerce; the amity of the Whigs and Tories. To live on terms of amity with vice. Cowper.

A compound radical, NH4, having the chemical relations of a strongly basic element like the alkali metals.

Expressing a relation of dispersion, distribution, etc.; also, a relation of reciprocal action. What news among the merchants Shak. Human sacrifices were practiced among them. Hume. Divide that gold amongst you. Marlowe. Whether they quarreled among themselves, or with their neighbors. Addison.

ach other, esp. one by which an event is placed too early; falsification of chronological relation.

. Anallagmatic curves, a class of curves of the fourth degree which have certain peculiar relations to circles; -- sometimes called bicircular quartics. -- Anallagmatic surfaces, a certain class of surfaces of the fourth degree.