Search the Dictionary

mal or actual course or procedure; regular proceeding; as, the process of vegetation or decomposition; a chemical process; processes of nature. Tell her the process of Antonio's end. Shak.

Chemical properties, or those which are conditioned by affinity and composition; thus, combustion, explosion, and certain solutions are reactions occasioned by chemical properties. Chemical properties are identical when there is identity of composition and structure, and change according as the composition changes. 3.…

resembling prose; in the form of prose; unpoetical; writing or using prose; as, a prosaic composition. Cudworth.

ge not cast in poetical measure or rhythm; -- contradistinguished from verse, or metrical composition. I speak in prose, and let him rymes make. Chaucer. Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. Milton. I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry, that is; prose -- words in t…

ats of the quantity of syllables, of accent, and of the laws of versification or metrical composition.

A nitrogenous phosphorized principle found in brain tissue. By decomposition it yields neurine, fatty acids, and other bodies.

A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God. Humus devout and holy psalms Singing everlastingly. Milton.

Pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained by the decomposition of vulpinic acid, as a white crystalline substance.

t of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.

A substance, usually nitrogenous, which is liable to undergo decomposition when in contact with air and moisture at ordinary temperatures.

Tending to decomposition or decay; decomposed; rotten; -- said of animal or vegetable matter; as, putrid flesh. See Putrefaction.

ogenous base, C5H5N, obtained from the distillation of bone oil or coal tar, and by the decomposition of certain alkaloids, as a colorless liquid with a peculiar pungent odor. It is the nucleus of a large number of organic substances, among which several vegetable alkaloids, as nicotine and certain of the ptomaïnes, ma…

or from white to dark green and black, and includes many varieties differing in color and composition, as diopside, malacolite, salite, coccolite, augite, etc. They are all silicates of lime and magnesia with sometimes alumina and iron. Pyroxene is an essential constituent of many rocks, especially basic igneous rocks,…

A substance resembling gun cotton in composition and properties, but distinct in that it is more highly nitrified and is soluble in alcohol, ether, etc.; -- called also pyroxyle.

Producing decomposition, as diseases which are supposed to be accompanied or caused by decomposition.

A composition in four parts, each performed by a single voice or instrument.

A quartet; -- applied chiefly to instrumental compositions.

om, as is apple-tree bark, horse- chestnut leaves, etc., but originally obtained by the decomposition of quercitrin. Called also meletin.

A composition for five voices or instruments; also, the set of five persons who sing or play five-part music.

Having a rank smell or taste, from chemical change or decomposition; musty; as, rancid oil or butter.