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The first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar. [Written also kalends.] The Greek calends, a time that will never come, as the Greeks had no calends.

The diameter of the bore, as a cannon or other firearm, or of any tube; or the weight or size of the projectile which a firearm will carry; as, an 8 inch gun, a 12-pounder, a 44 caliber. The caliber of empty tubes. Reid. A battery composed of three guns of small caliber. Prescott.

bodies, as of work shaped in a lathe or planer, timber, masts, shot, etc.; or the bore of firearms, tubes, etc.; -- called also caliper compasses, or caliber compasses. Caliper square, a draughtsman's or mechanic's square, having a graduated bar and adjustable jaw or jaws. Knight. -- Vernier calipers. See Vernier.…

l of repair in fractures of bone; a substance exuded at the site of fracture, which is at first soft or cartilaginous in consistence, but is ultimately converted into true bone and unites the fragments into a single piece.

A quick and lively dance. [Obs.] Make you dance canary With sprightly fire and motion. Shak.

The fourth of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The first point is the northern limit of the sun's course in summer; hence, the sign of the summer solstice. See Tropic.

e genus Iberis, cultivated in gardens. The name was originally given to the I. umbellata, first, discovered in the island of Candia.

r plants are sometimes called canes; as, the canes of a raspberry. Like light canes, that first rise big and brave. B. Jonson.

L., smaller dog], a constellation to the east of Orion, containing Procyon, a star of the first magnitude.

A great gun; a piece of ordnance or artillery; a firearm for discharging heavy shot with great force.

A man who manages, or fires, cannon.

A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority. Various canons which were made in councils held in the second centry. Hock.

A star of the first magnitude in the southern constellation Argo.

A corner; angle; niche. [Obs.] The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant. B. Jonson.

r many purposes in the arts and in manufactures. Also called India rubber (because it was first brought from India, and was formerly used chiefly for erasing pencil marks) and gum elastic. See Vulcanization. Mineral caoutchouc. See under Mineral.

First in importance; chief; principal. A capital article in religion Atterbury. Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity. I. Taylor.

lieutenant with the rank and duties of captain but with a lieutenant's pay, -- as in the first company of an English regiment.

ganic substances, or other substances containing carbon. It is formed in the explosion of fire damp in mines, and is hance called after damp; it is also know as choke damp, and mephilic air. Water will absorb its own volume of it, and more than this under pressure, and in this state becomes the common soda water of the…

To cover (an animal or vegatable substance) into a residue of carbon by the action of fire or some corrosive agent; to char.

en, some of with make up illuminating gas. -- Light carbureted hydrogen, marsh gas, CH4; fire damp.