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, or actually represented in some material; the symbol of Christ's death; the ensign and chosen symbol of Christianity, of a Christian people, and of Christendom. The custom of making the sign of the cross with the hand or finger, as a means of conferring blessing or preserving from evil, is very old. Schaff-Herzog Enc…

a Germanica), the water bug. It is common aboard ships, and in houses in cities, esp. in those with hot-water pipes.

an undertaking; a chief end. [Obs.] O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm . . . . Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end. Shak.

Indistinctly crystalline; -- applied to rocks and minerals, whose state of aggregation is so fine that no distinct particles are visible, even under the microscope.

The series or division of flowerless plants, or those never having true stamens and pistils, but propagated by spores of various kinds.

ile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavently bodies. -- Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodlike cells derived from the…

A minute mineral form like those common in glassy volcanic rocks and some slags, not having a definite crystalline outline and not referable to any mineral species, but marking the first step in the crystallization process. According to their form crystallites are called trichites, belonites, globulites, etc.…

A man whose wife is unfaithful; the husband of an adulteress. Shak.

A woman whose husband is unfaithful to her. [Obs.]

r its long, curiously-shaped fruit. -- Squirting cucumber, a plant (Ecbalium Elaterium) whose small oval fruit separates from the footstalk when ripe and expels its seeds and juice with considerable force through the opening thus made. See Elaterium. -- Star cucumber,a climbing weed (Sicyos angulatus) with prickly fr…

Lit., for whose benefit; incorrectly understood, it came to be used in the sense, of what good or use; and hence, (what) purpose; object; specif., the ultimate object of life.

ecorative art, boiled leather, fitted by the process to receive impressed patterns, like those produced by chasing metal, and to retain the impression permanently.

One who is an advocate of culture. The culturists, by which term I mean not those who esteem culture (as what intelligent man does notJ. C. Shairp

ts seeds, which have a bitterish, warm taste, with an aromatic flavor, and are used like those of anise and caraway. [Written also cummin.] Rank-smelling rue, and cumin good for eyes. Spenser. Black cumin (Bot.), a plant (Nigella sativa) with pungent seeds, used by the Afghans, etc.

gaining, or giving force, by successive additions; as, a cumulative argument, i. e., one whose force increases as the statement proceeds. The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative. Trench.

ng; skillfull; dexterous. "A cunning workman." Ex. xxxviii. 23. "Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on. Shak. Esau was a cunning hunter. Gen xxv. 27.

One whose office it is to fill and hand the cups at an enterainment.

eed of gain; avarice; covetousness. With the feelings of political distrust were mingled those of cupidity and envy, as the Spaniard saw the fairest provinces of the south still in the hands of the accursed race of Ishmael. Prescott.

Of, pertaining to, or derived from, copper; containing copper; -- said of those compounds of copper in which this element is present in its lowest proportion.

Of, pertaining to, or derived from, copper; containing copper; -- said of those compounds of copper in which this element is present in its highest proportion.