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ning to a cone; as, conic sections. Conic section (Geom.), a curved line formed by the intersection of the surface of a right cone and a plane. The conic sections are the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola. The right lines and the circle which result from certain positions of the plane are sometimes, though not generally…

One well versed in any subject; a skillful or knowing person; a critical judge of any art, particulary of one of the fine arts. The connoisseur is "one who knows," as opposed to the dilettant, who only "thinks he knows." Fairholt.

or congruity; harmony; accord; consistency; suitableness. The perfect consonancy of our persecuted church to the doctrines of Scripture and antiquity. Hammond. The optic nerve responds to the waves with which it is in consonance. Tyndall.

Fixedness or firmness of mind; persevering resolution; especially, firmness of mind under sufferings, steadiness in attashments, or perseverance in enterprise; stability; fidelity. A fellow of plain unoined constancy. Shak. Constancy and contempt of danger. Prescott.

With constancy; steadily; continually; perseveringly; without cessation; uniformly. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Acts. xii. 15.

n, or remaining in a particular state; permanence, as of condition, habits, abode, etc.; perseverance; constancy; duration; stay. Great plagues, and of long continuence. Deut. xxviii. 59. Patient continuance i well-doing. Rom. ii. 7.

To be steadfast or constant in any course; to persevere; to abide; to endure; to persist; to keep up or maintain a particular condition, course, or series of actions; as, the army continued to advance. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. John viii. 31.

One who continues; one who has the power of perseverance or persistence. "Indulgent continuers in sin." Hammond. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. Shak.

tion, etc. -- Contour line (Topographical Suv.), the line in which a horizontal plane intersects a portion of ground, or the corresponding line in a map or chart.

each contract new strength and light. Pope. Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high statiSwift.

state or quality of being contrary; opposition; inconsistency; contrariety; perverseness; obstinancy.

Showing contrariety; repugnant; perverse. [Archaic] Milton. She flew contrarious in the face of God. Mrs. Browning.

In a contrary order; conversely. Everything that acts upon the fluids must, at the same time, act upon the solids, and contrariwise. Arbuthnot.

Opposite; in an opposite direction; in opposition; adverse; as, contrary winds. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me. Lev. xxvi. 21. We have lost our labor; they are gone a contrary way. Shak.

invent; to design; to plan. What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of the universe than infinite wisdom. Tillotson. neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life. Hawthorne.

A controverser. [Obs.]

Exhibiting contumacy; contemning authority; obstinate; perverse; stubborn; disobedient. There is another very, efficacious method for subding the most obstinate, contumacious sinner. Hammond.

Stubborn perverseness; pertinacious resistance to authority. The bishop commanded him . . . to be thrust into the stocks for his manifest and manifold contumacy. Strype.

An assembly for religious worship; esp., such an assembly held privately, as in times of persecution, by Nonconformists or Dissenters in England, or by Covenanters in Scotland; -- often used opprobriously, as if those assembled were heretics or schismatics. The first Christians could never have had recourse to nocturna…

Qualified for conversation; disposed to converse; sociable; free in discourse. While young, humane, conversable, and kind. Cowper.