Search the Dictionary

A cylindrical projection on each side of a piece, whether gun, mortar, or howitzer, serving to support it on the cheeks of the carriage. See Illust. of Cannon.

s try . . . to found a path. Milton. To try on. (a) To put on, as a garment, to ascertain whether it fits the person. (b) To attempt; to undertake. [Slang] Dickens.

d by carpenters, joiners, etc., for laying off right angles off right angles, and testing whether work is square.

A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid; as, a tubercle on a plant; a tubercle on a bone; the tubercles appearing on the body in leprosy.

ith one's companions; to come up with the enemy; to live up to engagements. As a boar was whetting his teeth, up comes a fox to him. L'Estrange.

Resembling a utricle or bag, whether large or minute; -- said especially with reference to the condition of certain substances, as sulphur, selenium, etc., when condensed from the vaporous state and deposited upon cold bodies, in which case they assume the form of small globules filled with liquid.

To pass off in fumes, or as a moist, floating substance, whether visible or invisible, to steam; to be exhaled; to evaporate.

To convert into vapor, as by the application of heat, whether naturally or artificially. Vaporizing surface. (Steam Boilers) See Evaporating surface, under Evaporate, v. t.

elative velocity, the velocity with which a body approaches or recedes from another body, whether both are moving or only one. -- Uniform velocity, velocity in which the same number of units of space are described in each successive unit of time. -- Variable velocity, velocity in which the space described varies from…

a venomous writer. Venomous snake (Zoöl.), any serpent which has poison glands and fangs, whether dangerous to man or not. These serpents constitute two tribes, the viperine serpents, or Solenoglypha, and the cobralike serpents, or Proteroglypha. The former have perforated, erectile fangs situated in the front part of…

The stomach. [Obs.] Whether I will or not, while I live, my heart beats, and my ventricle digests what is in it. Sir M. Hale.

Expressed in words, whether spoken or written, but commonly in spoken words; hence, spoken; oral; not written; as, a verbal contract; verbal testimony. Made she no verbal question Shak. We subjoin an engraving . . . which will give the reader a far better notion of the structure than any verbal description could convey…

cation of an equation (Math.), the operation of testing the equation of a problem, to see whether it expresses truly the conditions of the problem. Davies & Peck. (Math. Dict.)

True; real; actual; veritable. Whether thou be my very son Esau or not. Gen. xxvii. 21. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. Prov. xvii. 9. The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness. Milton. I looked on the consideration of public service or…

Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. "Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months." Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table an…

The quality or state of being violent; highly excited action, whether physical or moral; vehemence; impetuosity; force. That seal You ask with such a violence, the king, Mine and your master, with his own hand gave me. Shak. All the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn With the violence of this confl…

ges of volcanic matter, as the various kinds of basalt, trachyte, scoria, obsidian, etc., whether compact, scoriaceous, or vitreous.

Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes. An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its pr…

er or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind of obstructive action by the mouth organs. Also, a letter or character which represents such a sound. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 5, 146-…

A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, whether for defence, for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce, for the acquisition of territory, for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sove…