Search the Dictionary

spring or abutment, including, and having especial reference to, the loading or filling behind the shell of the vault. The reins are to a vault nearly what the haunches are to an arch, and when a vault gives way by thrusting outward, it is because its reins are not sufficiently filled up.

To withdraw from; to leave behind; to desist from; to abandon; to quit; as, to relinquish a pursuit. We ought to relinquish such rites. Hooker. They placed Irish tenants upon the lands relinquished by the English. Sir J. Davies.

To stay behind while others withdraw; to be left after others have been removed or destroyed; to be left after a number or quantity has been subtracted or cut off; to be left as not included or comprised. Gather up the fragments that remain. John vi. 12. Of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are f…

business; not careful or prompt in fulfilling engagements; negligent; careless; tardy; behindhand; lagging; slack; hence, lacking earnestness or activity; languid; slow. Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness. Milton. These nervous, bold; those languid and remiss. Roscommon. Its motion becomes more languid and re…

Delay; obstacle; hindrance. [Obs.] Milton.

To hinder; to delay. [Obs.] Johnson.

cave's bosom. Chapman. Pebbles reposed in those cliffs amongst the earth . . . are left behind. Woodward.

A screen or partition wall behind an altar.

ior. My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind. Prior. The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme. Hawthorne.

A certain hindrance or opposition to the passage of an electrical current or discharge offered by conducting bodies. It bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm. Resista…

To hinder from unlimited enjoiment; to abridge. Though they two were committed, at least restrained of their liberty. Clarendon.

The act or process of restraining, or of holding back or hindering from motion or action, in any manner; hindrance of the will, or of any action, physical or mental. No man was altogether above the restrains of law, and no man altogether below its protection. Macaulay.

A shelf behind the altar, for display of lights, vases of wlowers, etc.

To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: accelerate.

The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: acceleration. The retardations of our fluent motion. De Quinsey.

Any extension of a church behind the higggggggh altar, as a chapel; also, in an apsidal church, all the space beyond the line of the back or eastern face of the altar.

Copulating backward, or from behind.

Copulation from behind. Sir T. Browne.

*vert"ive*ly, adv. The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves A yellow waste of idle sands behind. Thomson.

One of numerous minute rodlike structures formed of two or more cells situated behind the retinulæ in the compound eyes of insects, etc. See Illust. under Ommatidium.