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de by calcining an artificial mixture of carbonate of lime and clay, or sometimes certain natural limestones or chalky clays. It contains a large proportion of clay, and hardens under water.

Of or pertaining to a natural order of plants (Portulacaceæ), of which Portulaca is the type, and which includes also the spring beauty (Claytonia) and other genera.

nt or institution; settled by arbitrary appointment; said of laws. In laws, that which is natural bindeth universally; that which is positive, not so. Hooker.

te Comte, which deals only with positives. It excludes from philosophy everything but the natural phenomena or properties of knowable things, together with their invariable relations of coexistence and succession, as occurring in time and space. Such relations are denominated laws, which are to be discovered by observa…

whose work and theories have in common a tendency to reaction against the scientific and naturalistic character of impressionism and neo- impressionism. In a strict sense the term post-impressionism is used to denote the effort at self-expression, rather than representation, shown in the work of Cézanne, Matisse, etc.…

the grinding action of stones or gravel whirled round by the water in what was at first a natural depression of the rock.

A meadow or tract of grass; especially, a so called natural meadow. Prairie chicken (Zoöl.), any American grouse of the genus Tympanuchus, especially T. Americanus (formerly T. cupido), which inhabits the prairies of the central United States. Applied also to the sharp-tailed grouse. -- Prairie clover (Bot.), any plan…

r to the phenakistoscope, for presenting to view, or projecting upon a screen, images the natural motions of real objects.

Ripe or mature before the proper or natural time; early or prematurely ripe or developed; as, precocious trees. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

The act of choosing, or the state of being chosen; preference. [R.] Natural preferment of the one . . . before the other. Sir T. Browne.

signifying past, by, beyond, more than; as, preter- mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond or more than is natural. [Written also præter.]

Beyond of different from what is natural, or according to the regular course of things, but not clearly supernatural or miraculous; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; uncommon; irregular; abnormal; as, a preternatural appearance; a preternatural stillness; a preternatural presentation (in childbirth) or labor. This…

utive government; applied particularly to that of England. -- Prime mover. (Mech.) (a) A natural agency applied by man to the production of power. Especially: Muscular force; the weight and motion of fluids, as water and air; heat obtained by chemical combination, and applied to produce changes in the volume and press…

A term indicating the absence of any quality which might be naturally or rationally expected; -- called also privative term.

To bring forth, as young, or as a natural product or growth; to give birth to; to bear; to generate; to propagate; to yield; to furnish; as, the earth produces grass; trees produce fruit; the clouds produce rain. This soil produces all sorts of palm trees. Sandys. [They] produce prodigious births of body or mind. Milto…

That which is produced, yielded, or made, whether naturally, or by the application of intelligence and labor; as, the productions of the earth; the productions of handicraft; the productions of intellect or genius.

The falling down of a part through the orifice with which it is naturally connected, especially of the uterus or the rectum. Dunglison.

Capable of being propagated, or of being continued or multiplied by natural generation or production.

A heavy gaseous hydrocarbon, C3H8, of the paraffin series, occurring naturally dissolved in crude petroleum, and also made artificially; -- called also propyl hydride.

The quality or state of being propense; natural inclination; disposition to do good or evil; bias; bent; tendency. "A propensity to utter blasphemy." Macaulay.