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d through an entire piece of music, while the other parts of the harmony are indicated by figures beneath the bass; the same as thorough bass or figured bass; basso continuo. [It.] -- Continued fever (Med.), a fever which presents no interruption in its course. -- Continued fraction (Math.), a fraction whose numerator…

The outline of a figure or body, or the line or lines representing such an outline; the line that bounds; periphery. Titian's coloring and contours. A. Drummond.

To give greater effect to, as to a figure or other object, by putting it in some relation of opposition to another figure or object. the figures of the groups must not be all on side . . . but must contrast each other by their several position. Dryden.

wed from without, in opposition to concave. Drops of water naturally form themselves into figures with a convex surface. Whewell. Double convex, convex on both sides; convexo-convex.

Fig.: Any moral influence by which persons are caught, held, or drawn, as if by a cord; an enticement; as, the cords of the wicked; the cords of sin; the cords of vanity. The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds. Tennyson.

The dead body of a human being; -- used also Fig. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. D. Webster. Corpse candle. (a) A thick candle formerly used at a lich wake, or the customary watching with a corpse on the night before its interment. (b) A luminous appearance, resembling the fla…

ar philosophy, that which attempts to account for the phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter. -- Corpuscular theory (Opt.), the theory enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton, that light consists in the emission and rapid progression of minute particles or corpuscles…

in the dimensions and arrangement of its parts; -- followed by with or to; as, concurring figures correspond with each other throughout. None of them [the forms of Sidney's sonnets] correspond to the Shakespearean type. J. A. Symonds.

erse; or the science which teaches the constitution of the whole system of worlds, or the figure, disposition, and relation of all its parts.

Leaping from each other; -- said of two figures on a coast of arms.

A coverlet for a bed, -- originally stitched or woven in squares or figures. On which a tissue counterpane was cast. Drayton.

abitant of a city; a rustic; a husbandman or farmer. A simple countryman that brought her figs. Shak.

In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay. Spenser. Cratch cradle, a representation of the figure of the cratch, made upon the fingers with a string; cat's cradle; -- called also scratch cradle.

Fig.: To cut off, as if in harvest. Death . . . .crops the growing boys. Creech.

A piece of money stamped with the figure of a cross, also, that side of such a piece on which the cross is stamped; hence, money in general. I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. Shak.

A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions. The cross, too, by degrees, become the crucifix. Milman. And kissing oft her crucifix, Unto the block she drew. Warner.…

Bearing the cross; marked with the figure of a cross. Sir. T. Browne.

Fig.: A little; a bit; as, a crumb of comfort.

arm or shoulder, to support the lame or infirm in walking. I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other. Shak. Rhyme is a crutch that lifts the weak alone. H. Smith.

Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid. "The crystalline sky." Milton. Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its mot…