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dead animals; -- also called sexton beetle and burying beetle. There are many kinds, belonging mostly to the family Silphidæ. -- Carrion buzzard (Zoöl.), a South American bird of several species and genera (as Ibycter, Milvago, and Polyborus), which act as scavengers. See Caracara. -- Carrion crow, the common Europea…

ng an elastic top, to illustrate the effect of the compression or expansion of air in changing the specific gravity of bodies. -- Cartesion oval (Geom.), a curve such that, for any point of the curve mr + m'r' = c, where r and r' are the distances of the point from the two foci and m, m' and c are constant; -- used by…

Belonging to the family of which the pink and the carnation are the types.

A lodging for soldiers in garrison towns, usually near the rampart; barracks. Bescherelle.

A pungent, bitter, aromatic, gingerlike root, obtained from the East Indies.

A feudal tenure, obliging the tenant to perform service within the realm, without limitation of time.

A male person castrated for the purpose of improving his voice for singing; an artificial, or male, soprano. Swift.

Belonging to a camp. Sir T. Browne.

Belonging to, or in the manner of, a catachresis; wrested from its natural sense or form; forced; far-fatched. -- Cat`a*chres"tic*al*ly, adv. [A] catachrestical and improper way of speaking. Jer. Taylor.

The curve formed by a rope or chain of uniform density and perfect flexibility, hanging freely between two points of suspension, not in the same vertical line.

s resembling caterpillars. Caterpillar catcher, or Caterpillar eater (Zoöl.), a bird belonging to the family of Shrikes, which feeds on caterpillars. The name is also given to several other birds. -- Caterpillar hunter (Zoöl.), any species of beetles of the genus Callosoma and other allied genera of the family Carabid…

A meeting, especially a preliminary meeting, of persons belonging to a party, to nominate candidates for public office, or to select delegates to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding measures of party policy; a political primary meeting. This day learned that the caucus club meets, at certain times, in the g…

Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens. "The twelve celestial signs." Shak.

A genus of delicate branching corals, made up of minute cells, belonging to the Bryozoa.

Belonging to the most recent division of geological time, including the tertiary, or Age of mammals, and the Quaternary, or Age of man. [Written also cænozoic, cainozoic, kainozoic.] See Geology.

Belonging to a censor, or to the correction of public morals. Junius.

An instrument for drawing lines through a point, or lines converging to a center.

Converging to a center; -- applied to lines drawn so as to meet in a point or center.

Belonging to, or resembling, the cephalopods.

A hypochondriacal condition verging upon insanity, occurring in those whose brains have been unduly taxed; -- called also brain fag.