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earth's crust, which allows of the gradual accumulation of sediment, and hence forms the first step in the making of a mountain range; -- opposed to geanticlinal.

That from which anything springs; origin; first principle; as, the germ of civil liberty. Disease germ (Biol.), a name applied to certain tiny bacterial organisms or their spores, such as Anthrax bacillus and the Micrococcus of fowl cholera, which have been demonstrated to be the cause of certain diseases. See Germ the…

The process of germinating; the beginning of vegetation or growth in a seed or plant; the first development of germs, either animal or vegetable. Germination apparatus, an apparatus for malting grain.

ic; magniloquent. The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque With which we bantered little Lilia first. Tennyson.

elf is so pivoted to its support that it can turn about a diameter at right angles to the first. Gimbal joint (Mach.), a universal joint embodying the principle of the gimbal. -- Gimbal ring, a single gimbal, as that by which the cockeye of the upper millstone is supported on the spindle.

y means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk, And girt thee with the sword. Shak.

A native hydrated silicate of alumina, lime, and potash, first noticed near Rome.

The act of softening, breaking, or yielding. "Upon the first giving of the weather." Addison. Giving in, a falling inwards; a collapse. -- Giving out, anything uttered or asserted; an outgiving. His givings out were of an infinite distance From his true meant design. Shak.

A remarkable vitreous sponge, of the genus Hyalonema, first brought from Japan. It has a long stem, consisting of a bundle of long and large, glassy, siliceous fibers, twisted together.

To pick up or gather anything by degrees. Piecemeal they this acre first, then that; Glean on, and gather up the whole estate. Pope.

A kind of Scotch whisky, named from the district in which it was first made. W. E. Aytoun.

Twilight (of morning or evening); the gloaming. When the faint glooming in the sky First lightened into day. Trench. The balmy glooming, crescent-lit. Tennyson.

To growl; to snarl. And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first. Shak.

One of the so-called philosophers in the first ages of Christianity, who claimed a true philosophical interpretation of the Christian religion. Their system combined Oriental theology and Greek philosophy with the doctrines of Christianity. They held that all natures, intelligible, intellectual, and material, are deriv…

A Japanese game, played on a checkerboard, in which the object of the game is to be the first in placing five pieces, or men, in a row in any direction.

A god or goddess; a divinity. [Obs.] Adoring first the genius of the place, The nymphs and native godheads yet unknown. Dryden.

a pawnbroker's office or shop; -- originally taken from the coat of arms of Lombardy, the first money lenders in London having been Lombards. -- Golden bull. See under Bull, an edict. -- Golden chain (Bot.), the shrub Cytisus Laburnum, so named from its long clusters of yellow blossoms. -- Golden club (Bot.), an aqu…

An instrument, first used in the East, made of an alloy of copper and tin, shaped like a disk with upturned rim, and producing, when struck, a harsh and resounding noise. O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong. Longfellow.

A follower of Wyclif, the first English religious reformer; hence, a Puritan. [Obs.] Latimer. The persecution was carried on against the gospelers with much fierceness by those of the Roman persuasion. Strype.

nflammation of the fibrous and ligamentous parts of the joints, and almost always attacks first the great toe, next the smaller joints, after which, it may attack the greater articulations. It is attended with various sympathettic phenomena, particularly in the digestive organs. It may also attack internal organs, as t…