Search the Dictionary

A compound or mass formed by concretion, spontaneous union, or coalescence of separate particles of matter in one body. To divide all concretes, minerals and others, into the same number of distinct substances. Boyle.

A resinous substance flowing spontaneously from trees of Zanzibar, Madagascar, and South America (Trachylobium Hornemannianum, T. verrocosum, and Hymenæa Courbaril), and dug from earth where forests have stood in Africa; -- used chiefly in making varnishes. Ur

Overcome by liquor; tipsy. [Slang] Cut and dried, prepered beforehand; not spontaneous. -- Cut glass, glass having a surface ground and polished in facets or figures. -- Cut nail, a nail cut by machinery from a rolled plate of iron, in distinction from a wrought nail. -- Cut stone, stone hewn or chiseled to shape af…

llular Algæ having a siliceous covering of great delicacy, each individual multiplying by spontaneous division. By some authors diatoms are called Bacillariæ, but this word is not in general use.

Capable of subdividing spontaneously.

To divide into two by natural growth or spontaneous action; as, infusoria duplicate themselves.

The act or process of dividing by natural growth or spontaneous action; as, the duplication of cartilage cells. Carpenter. Duplication of the cube (Math.), the operation of finding a cube having a volume which is double that of a given cube.

is safer than nitroglycerin, being less liable to explosion from moderate shocks, or from spontaneous decomposition.

and independent organisms; as when a cell in an animal or plant, or its germ, undergoes a spontaneous division, and the parts again subdivide. See Segmentation, and Cell division, under Division.

Reproduction by spontaneous fission.

Reproducing by spontaneous fission. See Fission. -- Fis*sip"a*rous*ly, adv.

Not gained by importunity or purchase; gratuitous; spontaneous; as, free admission; a free gift.

Of or pertaining to free will; voluntary; spontaneous; as, a freewill offering. Frewill Baptists. See under Baptist.

An impure resin of turpentine, hardened on the outside of pine trees by the spontaneous evaporation of its essential oil. When purified, it is called yellow pitch, white pitch, or Burgundy pitch.

One portion of a fruit that spontaneously divides into halves.

Spontaneous generation, so called.

One who believes in the theory of spontaneous generation, or heterogenesis. Bastian.

on; especially, force so communicated as to produced motion suddenly, or immediately. All spontaneous animal motion is performed by mechanical impulse. S. Clarke.

opensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous. "Instinctive motion." Milton. "Instinctive dread." Cowper. With taste instinctive give Each grace appropriate. Mason. Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends Bp. Hall.…

Pertaining to, or having the nature of, an interjection; consisting of natural and spontaneous exclamations. Certain of the natural accompaniments of interjectional speech, such as gestures, grimaces, and gesticulations, are restrained by civilization. Earle.