MAT n.
An ornamental border made of paper, pasterboard, metal, etc., put under the glass which covers a framed picture; as, the mat of a daguerreotype. Mat grass. (Bot.) (a) A low, tufted, European grass (Nardus stricta). (b) Same as Matweed. -- Mat rush (Bot.), a kind of rush (Scirpus lacustris) used in England for making m…
METALLIC a.
n the state of the metal, as distinquished from its ores, as magnetic iron. -- Metallic paper, paper covered with a thin solution of lime, whiting, and size. When written upon with a pewter or brass pencil, the lines can hardly be effaced. -- Metallic tinking (Med.), a sound heard in the chest, when a cavity communic…
METEORIC a.
ic politician." Craik. Meteoric iron, Meteoric stone. (Min.) See Meteorite. -- Meteoric paper, a substance of confervoid origin found floating in the air, and resembling bits of coarse paper; -- so called because formerly supposed to fall from meteors. -- Meteoric showers, periodical exhibitions of shooting stars, oc…
MO a.
to the numerals themselves, to indicate the number of leaves made by folding a sheet of paper; as, sixteenmo or 16mo; eighteenmo or 18mo. It is taken from the Latin forms similarly used; as, duodecimo, sextodecimo, etc. A small circle, placed after the number and near its top, is often used for -mo; as, 16°, 18°, etc.…
MORSE ALPHABET n.
orse's telegraph. The letters are represented by dots and dashes impressed or printed on paper, as, .- (A), -... (B), -.. (D), . (E), .. (O), ... (R), -- (T), etc., or by sounds, flashes of light, etc., with greater or less intervals between them.