Search the Dictionary

Unsteady; fickle. [Obs.] O, stormy people, unsad and ever untrue. Chaucer.

Designating a method of shaft excavation by drifting to a point below, and then raising instead of sinking.

To furnish (rooms, carriages, bedsteads, chairs, etc.) with hangings, coverings, cushions, etc.; to adorn with furnishings in cloth, velvet, silk, etc.; as, to upholster a couch; to upholster a room with curtains.

To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver.

ng drapery for a bed, couch, window, or the like, especially that which hangs around a bedstead, from the bed to the floor. [Written also valence.] Valance of Venice gold in needlework. Shak.

A rope to steady the peak of a gaff.

metal (usually iron or steel) surfaces with zinc by exposing them to the vapor of zinc instead of, as in ordinary galvanizing, to molten zinc; -- called also Sherardizing. Vapor galvanizing is accomplished by heating the articles to be galvanized together with zinc dust in an air tight receptacle to a temperature of a…

Liable to vary; too susceptible of change; mutable; fickle; unsteady; inconstant; as, the affections of men are variable; passions are variable. Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. Shak. His heart, I know, how variable and vain! Milton. Variable exhaust (Steam Eng.), a blast pipe with an adjustable opening. --…

rbal change. And loses, though but verbal, his reward. Milton. Mere verbal refinements, instead of substantial knowledge. Whewell.

Liable to be turned in opinion; changeable; variable; unsteady; inconstant; as versatile disposition.

In the place of; in the stead; as, A. B. was appointed postmaster vice C. D. resigned.

A smith who works at the vice instead of at the anvil.

mammals, or as those plants the offspring of which are produced alive, either by bulbs instead of seeds, or by the seeds themselves germinating on the plant, instead of falling, as they usually do; -- opposed to oviparous. Viviparous fish. (Zoöl.) See Embiotocoid. -- Viviparous shell (Zoöl.), any one of numerous spec…

ctrical Congress in 1893 and by United States Statute as, that electro-motive force which steadily applied to a conductor whose resistance is one ohm will produce a current of one ampère. It is practically equivalent to

To move staggeringly or unsteadily from one side to the other; to vacillate; to move the manner of a rotating disk when the axis of rotation is inclined to that of the disk; -- said of a turning or whirling body; as, a top wabbles; a buzz saw wabbles. wobble.

her counties. Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire are divided into wapentakes, instead of hundreds. [Written also wapentac.] Selden. Blackstone.

ense; protection. For the best ward of mine honor. Shak. The assieged castle's ward Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain. Spenser. For want of other ward, He lifted up his hand, his front to guard. Dryden.

who keep watch on deck when a vessel is at anchor. -- To be on the watch, to be looking steadily for some event. -- Watch and ward (Law), the charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace. Wharton. Burril…

ch the changes of atmospheric pressure are indicated by the motion of a column of water instead of mercury. It requires a column of water about thirty-three feet in height.

A thermometer filled with water instead of mercury, for ascertaining the precise temperature at which water attains its maximum density. This is about 39º Fahr., or 4º Centigrade; and from that point down to 32º Fahr., or 0º Centigrade, or the freezing point, it expands.