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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



762 words match “FIGURE”

INELEGANCE; INELEGANCY n.
, beauty, or polish in language, composition, or manners. The notorious inelegance of her figure. T. Hook.
INFERIOR a.
n of another court known as the superior, or higher, court. -- Inferior letter, Inferior figure (Print.), a small letter or figure standing at the bottom of the line (opposed to superior letter or figure), as in A2, Bn, 2 and n are inferior characters. -- Inferior tide, the tide corresponding to the moon's transit of…
INFORM v.
ng power to; to give life to; to imbue and actuate with vitality; to animate; to mold; to figure; to fashion. "The informing Word." Coleridge. Let others better mold the running mass Of metals, and inform the breathing brass. Dryden. Breath informs this fleeting frame. Prior. Breathes in our soul,informs our mortal par…
INSCRIBABLE a.
Capable of being inscribed, -- used specif. (Math.) of solids or plane figures capable of being inscribed in other solids or figures.
INSTANTANEOUS a.
n, velocity, etc. Instantaneous center of rotation (Kinematics), in a plane or in a plane figure which has motions both of translation and of rotation in the plane, is the point which for the instant is at rest. -- Instantaneous axis of rotation (Kinematics), in a body which has motions both of translation and rotatio…
INTAGLIO n.
A cutting or engraving; a figure cut into something, as a gem, so as to make a design depressed below the surface of the material; hence, anything so carved or impressed, as a gem, matrix, etc.; -- opposed to cameo. Also used adjectively.
INTEGRATOR n.
That which integrates; esp., an instrument by means of which the area of a figure can be measured directly, or its moment of inertia, or statical moment, etc., be determined.
INTERFERENCE n.
e act or state of interfering, or of claiming a right to the same invention. Interference figures (Optics), the figures observed when certain sections of crystallized bodies are viewed in converging polarized light; thus, a section of a uniaxial crystal, cut normal to the vertical axis, shows a series of concentric col…
INTERIOR a.
ountry. Interior angle (Geom.), an angle formed between two sides, within any rectilinear figure, as a polygon, or between two parallel lines by these lines and another intersecting them; -- called also internal angle. -- Interior planets (Astron.), those planets within the orbit of the earth. -- Interior screw, a sc…
INVERSE a.
direct operation with -1 as an index. Thus sin-1 x means the arc whose sine is x. Inverse figures (Geom.), two figures, such that each point of either figure is inverse to a corresponding point in the order figure. -- Inverse points (Geom.), two points lying on a line drawn from the center of a fixed circle or sphere,…
INVERSION n.
A peculiar method of transformation, in which a figure is replaced by its inverse figure. Propositions that are true for the original figure thus furnish new propositions that are true in the inverse figure. See Inverse figures, under Inverse.
INVESTMENT n.
That with which anyone is invested; a vestment. Whose white investments figure innocence. Shak.
INWROUGHT p.
; worked into any fabric so as to from a part of its texture; wrought or adorned, as with figures. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim. Milton.
IRREGULAR a.
al; unsymmetrical; erratic; no straight; not uniform; as, an irregular line; an irregular figure; an irregular verse; an irregular physician; an irregular proceeding; irregular motion; irregular conduct, etc. Cf. Regular. Mazes intricate, Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular Then most when most irregular they seem. Milt…
ISAGON n.
A figure or polygon whose angles are equal.
ISOCEPHALISM n.
A peculiarity in the design of bas-relief by which the heads of human figures are kept at the same height from the ground, whether the personages are seated, standing, or mounted on horseback; -- called also isokephaleia.
ISOPERIMETRICAL a.
Having equal perimeters of circumferences; as, isoperimetrical figures or bodies.
ISOPERIMETRY n.
The science of figures having equal perimeters or boundaries.
JACK n.
sed. -- Jack-of-the-buttery (Bot.), the stonecrop (Sedum acre). -- Jack-of-the-clock, a figure, usually of a man, on old clocks, which struck the time on the bell. -- Jack-on-both-sides, one who is or tries to be neutral. -- Jack-out-of-office, one who has been in office and is turned out. Shak. -- Jack the Giant…
JACQUARD a.
ho died in 1834. Jacquard apparatus or arrangement, a device applied to looms for weaving figured goods, consisting of mechanism controlled by a chain of variously perforated cards, which cause the warp threads to be lifted in the proper succession for producing the required figure. -- Jacquard card, one of the perfor…
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