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ustable opening. -- Variable quantity (Math.), a variable. -- Variable stars (Astron.), fixed stars which vary in their brightness, usually in more or less uniform periods.

. Cowper. Persons who . . . would have vegetated stupidly in the places where fortune had fixed them. Jeffrey.

The 22d of September, 1792, which had been fixed upon as the day of the foundation of the republic, was also the date of the new calendar. In this calendar, the year, which began at midnight of the day of the autumnal equinox, was divided into twelve months of thirty days, with five additional days for festivals, and e…

ce in Italy. Venetian blind, a blind for windows, doors, etc., made of thin slats, either fixed at a certain angle in the shutter, or movable, and in the latter case so disposed as to overlap each other when close, and to show a series of open spaces for the admission of air and light when in other positions. -- Venet…

Capable of turning; freely movable; as, a versatile anther, which is fixed at one point to the filament, and hence is very easily turned around; a versatile toe of a bird. -- Ver"sa*tile*ly, adv. -- -- Ver"sa*tile*ness, n.

with possession; as, to vest a person with an estate; also, to give a person an immediate fixed right of present or future enjoyment of; as, an estate is vested in possession. Bouvier.

Not in a state of contingency or suspension; fixed; as, vested rights; vested interests. Vested legacy (Law), a legacy the right to which commences in præsenti, and does not depend on a contingency; as, a legacy to one to be paid when he attains to twenty-one years of age is a vested legacy, and if the legatee dies bef…

e long, slender stem of any plant that trails on the ground, or climbs by winding round a fixed object, or by seizing anything with its tendrils, or claspers; a creeper; as, the hop vine; the bean vine; the vines of melons, squashes, pumpkins, and other cucurbitaceous plants. There shall be no grapes on the vine. Jer.…

To tow or move, as a vessel, with a line, or warp, attached to a buoy, anchor, or other fixed object.

Capable of being washed off; not permanent or durable; -- said of colors not fixed by steaming or otherwise.

A broad, thin plank, fixed along the gunwale of boat to keep the sea from breaking inboard; also, a plank on the sill of a lower deck port, for the same purpose; -- called also wasteboard. Mar. Di

x, and diluted. After being applied, the wax was melted with hot irons and the color thus fixed. -- Wax palm. (Bot.) (a) A species of palm (Ceroxylon Andicola) native of the Andes, the stem of which is covered with a secretion, consisting of two thirds resin and one third wax, which, when melted with a third of fat, m…

ersed in a solution of silver nitrate, and immediately after exposure it is developed and fixed.

iver, and used for a wharf, in places where the height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. [U. S.] Bartlett. -- Wharf rat. (Zoöl.) (a) The common brown rat. (b) A neglected boy who lives around the wharfs. [Slang]

Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an adverbial sense, as nearly equivalent to how; as, what happy boys! What partial judges are our and hate! Dryden.

nes at right angles are in some exact ratio to one another. When one end of such a rod is fixed, the free end describes in vibrating the corresponding Lissajous figure. So called because devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

axle (Mech.), one of the elementary machines or mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel fixed to an axle, and used for raising great weights, by applying the power to the circumference of the wheel, and attaching the weight, by a rope or chain, to that of the axle. Called also axis in peritrochio, and perpetual lever…

willingness, consent, promise; and when "will" is emphasized, it denotes determination or fixed purpose; as, I will go if you wish; I will go at all hazards. In the second and third persons, the idea of distinct volition, wish, or purpose is evanescent, and simple certainty is appropriately expressed; as, "You will go,…

To turn completely, or with repeated turns; especially, to turn about something fixed; to cause to form convolutions about anything; to coil; to twine; to twist; to wreathe; as, to wind thread on a spool or into a ball. Whether to wind The woodbine round this arbor. Milton.

which a corpse is wound or wrapped. -- Winding tackle (Naut.), a tackle consisting of a fixed triple block, and a double or triple movable block, used for hoisting heavy articles in or out of a vessel. Totten.