Search the Dictionary

th intellectualism. Schopenhauer and Fichte are typical exponents of the two types of metaphysical voluntarism, Schopenhauer teaching that the evolution of the universe is the activity of a blind and irrational will, Fichte holding that the intelligent activity of the ego is the fundamental fact of reality.…

A voluptuous person; one who makes his physical enjoyment his chief care; one addicted to luxury, and the gratification of sensual appetites. A good-humored, but hard-hearted, voluptuary. Sir W. Scott.

A condition of belligerency to be maintained by physical force. In this sense, levying war against the sovereign authority is treason.

A physician who treats diseases with water; an hydropathist.

r excitement of thought, feeling, or energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm. Wave front (Physics), the surface of initial displacement of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration advances. -- Wave length (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation…

Wanting physical strength. Specifically: --

To reduce or exhaust the physical strength or endurance of; to tire; to fatigue; as, to weary one's self with labor or traveling. So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers. Shak.

ht, Light weight, etc. See under Dead, Feather, etc. -- Weight of observation (Astron. & Physics), a number expressing the most probable relative value of each observation in determining the result of a series of observations of the same kind.

ous species of rotifers having a ciliated disk at the anterior end. -- Wheel barometer. (Physics) See under Barometer. -- Wheel boat, a boat with wheels, to be used either on water or upon inclined planes or railways. -- Wheel bug (Zoöl.), a large North American hemipterous insect (Prionidus cristatus) which sucks t…

a. & n. from Whirl, v. t. Whirling table. (a) (Physics) An apparatus provided with one or more revolving disks, with weights, pulleys, and other attachments, for illustrating the phenomena and laws of centrifugal force, and the like. (b) A potter's wheel.

tlesnake root. See under Rattlesnake. -- White lie. See under Lie. -- White light. (a) (Physics) Light having the different colors in the same proportion as in the light coming directly from the sun, without having been decomposed, as by passing through a prism. See the Note under Color, n., 1. (b) A kind of firework…

hat point, degree, end, conclusion, or design; whereunto; whereto; -- used in a sense not physical. Nor have I . . . whither to appeal. Milton. Any whither, to any place; anywhere. [Obs.] "Any whither, in hope of life eternal." Jer. Taylor. -- No whither, to no place; nowhere. [Obs.] 2 Kings v. 25.

l. [She] findeth there her friends hole and sound. Chaucer. They that be whole need not a physician. Matt. ix. 12. When Sir Lancelot's deadly hurt was whole. Tennyson. Whole blood. (Law of Descent) See under Blood, n., 2. -- Whole note (Mus.), the note which represents a note of longest duration in common use; a semib…

To stand against; to oppose; to resist, either with physical or moral force; as, to withstand an attack of troops; to withstand eloquence or arguments. Piers Plowman. I withstood him to the face. Gal. ii. 11. Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast. The little tyrant of his fields withstood. Gray.…

Exertion of strength or faculties; physical or intellectual effort directed to an end; industrial activity; toil; employment; sometimes, specifically, physically labor. Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed. Milton.

more bad or evil; less good; specifically, in poorer health; more sick; -- used both in a physical and moral sense. Or worse, if men worse can devise. Chaucer. [She] was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. Mark v. 26. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. 2 Tim. iii. 13. There are men who seem to believ…

Bad, evil, or pernicious, in the highest degree, whether in a physical or moral sense. See Worse. "Heard so oft in worst extremes." Milton. I have a wife, the worst that may be. Chaucer. If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer. Shak.

An organization for promoting the spiritual, intellectual, social, and physical welfare of young men, founded, June 6, 1844, by George Williams (knighted therefor by Queen Victoria) in London. In 1851 it extended to the United States and Canada, and in 1855 representatives of similar organizations throughout Europe and…

diations emanate in a strong magnetic field, first observed in 1896 by P. Zeeman, a Dutch physicist, and regarded as an important confirmation of the electromagnetic theory of light.

his patience had nearly reached zero. Absolute zero. See under Absolute. -- Zero method (Physics), a method of comparing, or measuring, forces, electric currents, etc., by so opposing them that the pointer of an indicating apparatus, or the needle of a galvanometer, remains at, or is brought to, zero, as contrasted wi…