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Having sixteen leaves to a sheet; as, a decimosexto form, book, leaf, size.

An aspect of the planets when they are distant from each other the twelfth part of a circle, or thirty degrees. Hutton.

Having the ratio of one to six; as, a subsextuple proportion. Bp. Wilkins.

An instrument for taking altitudes, as a quadrant, sextant, etc. Knight.

ed for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.

beetle (Zoöl.), the general name of many species of beetles, of the tribe Necrophaga; the sexton beetle; -- so called from their habit of burying small dead animals by digging away the earth beneath them. The larvæ feed upon decaying flesh, and are useful scavengers. -- To bury the hatchet, to lay aside the instrument…

Carrion beetle (Zoöl.), any beetle that feeds habitually on dead animals; -- also called sexton beetle and burying beetle. There are many kinds, belonging mostly to the family Silphidæ. -- Carrion buzzard (Zoöl.), a South American bird of several species and genera (as Ibycter, Milvago, and Polyborus), which act as s…

efiance; challenge. Childish, unworthy dares Are not enought to part our powers. Chapman. Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Cæsar. Shak.

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

To mark divisions on; to graduate; as, to divide a sextant.

Roman calendar by Numa. In common years this month contains twenty-eight days; in the bissextile, or leap year, it has twenty- nine days.

t formerly used at sea for taking the altitudes of heavenly bodies, now superseded by the sextant; -- called also cross- staff. Brande & C.

hose divisible by 100 aud not by 400, has 366 days; all other years have 365 days. See Bissextile, and Note under Style, n., 7.

A measure of half a sextary. Arbuthnot.

l, or a plane reflector adjusted to the true level artificially; -- used chiefly with the sextant for observing the double altitude of a celestial body. -- Celestial horizon. (Astron.) See def. 2, above. -- Dip of the horizon (Astron.), the vertical angle between the sensible horizon and a line to the visible horizon…

. -- Index finger. See Index, 5. -- Index glass, the mirror on the index of a quadrant, sextant, etc. -- Index hand, the pointer or hand of a clock, watch, or other registering machine; a hand that points to something. -- Index of a logarithm (Math.), the integral part of the logarithm, and always one less than the…

plied particularly to the odd day (Feb. 29) inserted in the calendar of leap year. See Bissextile, n.

. Bissextile; a year containing 366 days; every fourth year which leaps over a day more than a common year, giving to February twenty-nine days. See Bissextile.

t go, under Great. Thackeray. -- Little hours (R. C. Ch.), the offices of prime, tierce, sext, and nones. Vespers and compline are sometimes included. -- Little ones, young children. The men, and the women, and the little ones. Deut. ii. 34.

method of finding a ship's longitude by comparing the local time of taking (by means of a sextant or circle) a given lunar distance, with the Greenwich time corresponding to the same distance as ascertained from a nautical almanac, the difference of these times being the longitude. -- Lunar month. See Month. -- Lunar…