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A straight line considered as drawn from a center to an indefinite distance in one direction, the complete ray being the whole line drawn to an indefinite distance in both directions.

A platform of a staircase where the stair turns back in exactly the reverse direction of the lower flight. See Quarterpace.

ll sooty was her bower and eke her hall. Chaucer. Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into the hall:

Side; part; direction, either right or left. On this hand and that hand, were hangings. Ex. xxxviii. 15. The Protestants were then on the winning hand. Milton.

unting. -- To hark back, to go back for a fresh start, as when one has wandered from his direct course, or made a digression. He must have overshot the mark, and must hark back. Haggard. He harked back to the subject. W. E. Norris.

on to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest; as, to hate one's enemies; to hate hypocrisy. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. 1 John iii. 15.

To change the direction of a ship by hauling the wind. See under Haul, v. t. I . . . hauled up for it, and found it to be an island. Cook.

To be at the head of; to put one's self at the head of; to lead; to direct; to act as leader to; as, to head an army, an expedition, or a riot. Dryden.

Directed by ungovernable will, or proceeding from obstinacy. Dryden.

In the direction of health; as, a healthward tendency.

anifested in fire, the sun's rays, mechanical action, chemical combination, etc., becomes directly known to us through the sense of feeling. In its nature heat is a mode if motion, being in general a form of molecular disturbance or vibration. It was formerly supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was g…

nes. It is able to roll itself into a ball so as to present the spines outwardly in every direction. It is nocturnal in its habits, feeding chiefly upon insects.

e moving in such a manner that every point of the line shall have a uniform motion in the direction of another fixed straight line, and at the same time a uniform angular motion about it.

der Parallax. -- Heliocentric place, latitude, longitude, etc. (of a heavenly body), the direction, latitude, longitude, etc., of the body as viewed from the sun.

diameter of the sun; now employed for delicate measurements of the distance and relative direction of two stars too far apart to be easily measured in the field of view of an ordinary telescope.

r moved by clockwork, by which a sunbeam is made apparently stationary, by being steadily directed to one spot during the whole of its diurnal period; also, a geodetic heliotrope.

The place or office of direction or administration. "The helm of the Commonwealth." Melmoth.

Guidance; direction. [R.]

f before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object. "To help him of his blindness." in is used for that function; -- "to help him in his misery" Shak. The true calamus helps coughs. Gerarde.

f the middle toe toothed. The common European heron (Ardea cinerea) is remarkable for its directly ascending flight, and was formerly hunted with the larger falcons.