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Having the inflorescence curved or circinate at the end, like a scorpion's tail.

A leguminous plant (Ornithopus scorpides) of Southern Europe, having curved pods.

s (Bot.), a climbing knotweed (Polygonum sagittatum) with a square stem beset with fine recurved prickles along the angles. -- Scratch wig. Same as Scratch, 4, above. Thackeray.

mewhat irregular surface, as a baseboard to a floor which is out of level, a board to the curves of a molding, or the like; -- so called because the workman marks, or scribe, with the compasses the line that he afterwards cuts.

A line that cuts another; especially, a straight line cutting a curve in two or more points.

Of or pertaining to the square root of the cube of a quantity. Semicubical parabola, a curve in which the ordinates are proportional to the square roots of the cubes of the abscissas.

ine, or the length of a right line, drawn from the center of a circle, a sphere, or other curved figure, to its circumference or periphery; a radius.

One branch of a parabola, being terminated at the principal vertex of the curve.

A pruning knife with a curved blade. Knight.

The hinged and curved bar of a padlock, by which it is hung to the staple. Knight. Shackle joint (Anat.), a joint formed by a bony ring passing through a hole in a bone, as at the bases of spines in some fishes.

Steep; precipitous; abrupt; as, a sharp ascent or descent; a sharp turn or curve.

A similar instrument the blades of which are extensions of a curved spring, -- used for shearing sheep or skins.

Bot.), the common mullein. See Mullein. -- Shepherd's crook, a long staff having the end curved so as to form a large hook, -- used by shepherds. -- Shepherd's needle (Bot.), the lady's comb. -- Shepherd's plaid, a kind of woolen cloth of a checkered black and white pattern. -- Shephered spider (Zoöl.), a daddy lon…

A curved piece of polished horn, wood, or metal used to facilitate the entrance of the foot into a shoe.

A reaping instrument consisting of a steel blade curved into the form of a hook, and having a handle fitted on a tang. The sickle has one side of the blade notched, so as always to sharpen with a serrated edge. Cf. Reaping hook, under Reap. When corn has once felt the sickle, it has no more benefit from the sunshine. S…

f the genus Eutoxeres, native of Central and South America. They have a long and strongly curved bill. Called also the sickle-billed hummer.

A plant of the genus Coronilla (C. scorpioides); -- so named from its curved pods.

The thickness of a rib or timber, measured, at right angles with its side, across the curved edge; as, a timber having a siding of ten inches.

Curved in two directions, like the letter S, or the Greek s. Sigmoid flexure (Anat.), the last curve of the colon before it terminates in the rectum. See Illust. under Digestive. -- Sigmoid valves. (Anat.) See Semilunar valves, under Semilunar.

ngle, below. Artificial sines, logarithms of the natural sines, or logarithmic sines. -- Curve of sines. See Sinusoid. -- Natural sines, the decimals expressing the values of the sines, the radius being unity. -- Sine of an angle, in a circle whose radius is unity, the sine of the arc that measures the angle; in a r…