Search the Dictionary

t Britain. -- Indirect demonstration, a mode of demonstration in which proof is given by showing that any other supposition involves an absurdity (reductio ad absurdum), or an impossibility; thus, one quantity may be proved equal to another by showing that it can be neither greater nor less. -- Indirect discourse. (G…

rtain; as, infallible evidence; infallible success; an infallible remedy. To whom also he showed himself alive, after his passion, by many infallible proofs. Acts i. 3.

To show; to manifest; to prove. [Obs.] The first part is not the proof of the second, but rather contrariwise, the second inferreth well the first. Sir T. More. This doth infer the zeal I had to see him. Shak.

Not hospitable; not disposed to show hospitality to strangers or guests; as, an inhospitable person or people. Have you no touch of pity, that the poor Stand starved at your inhospitable door Cowper.

tions of morality,innate and written in divine letters. Fleming (Origen). If I could only show,as I hope I shall . . . how men, barely by the use of their natural faculties, may attain to all the knowledge they have, without the help of any innate impressions; and may arrive at certainty without any such original notio…

r guilty of, a particular crime or offense; as, the innocence of the prisoner was clearly shown.

being an island or consisting of islands; insulation. The insularity of Britain was first shown by Agricola, who sent his fleet round it. Pinkerton.

polarized light; thus, a section of a uniaxial crystal, cut normal to the vertical axis, shows a series of concentric colored rings with a single black cross; -- so called because produced by the interference of luminous waves. -- Interference fringe. (Optics) See Fringe.

To apprehend and represent by means of art; to show by illustrative representation; as, an actor interprets the character of Hamlet; a musician interprets a sonata; an artist interprets a landscape.

p, and the like; want of patience and forbearance; illiberality; bigotry; as, intolerance shown toward a religious sect. These few restrictions, I hope, are no great stretches of intolerance, no very violent exertions of despotism. Burke.

A method of reasoning in which the orator shows that arguments advanced by his adversary in opposition to him are really favorable to his cause.

, and Gray.] (Bot.) A genus of twining plants with showy monopetalous flowers, including the morning-glory, the sweet potato, and the cypress vine.

A genus of plants having showy flowers and bulbous or tuberous roots, of which the flower-de-luce (fleur-de-lis), orris, and other species of flag are examples. See Illust. of Flower-de-luce.

Not reverent; showing a want of reverence; expressive of a want of veneration; as, an irreverent babbler; an irreverent jest.

Having equal pressure. Isopiestic lines, lines showing, in a diagram, the relations of temperature and volume, when the elastic force is constant; -- called also isobars.

Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang] Ivory black. See under Black, n. -- Ivory gull (Zoöl.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). -- Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whiti…

A genus of bignoniaceous Brazilian trees with showy trumpet- shaped flowers.

terns to the future historian." Lowell. (b) A lantern made of a pumpkin so prepared as to show in illumination the features of a human face, etc. -- Yellow Jack (Naut.), the yellow fever; also, the quarantine flag. See Yellow flag, under Flag.

ice. -- Jamaica rose (Bot.), a West Indian melastomaceous shrub (Blakea trinervis), with showy pink flowers.

Airy; showy; finical; hence, characterized by an affected or fantastical manner.