Search the Dictionary

A Linnæan class of plants embracing those having but a single stamen.

A subdivision or the American Upper Silurian system, embracing the Medina, Clinton, and Niagara epoch. The rocks of the Niagara epoch, mostly limestones, are extensively distributed, and at Niagara Falls consist of about eighty feet of shale supporting a greater thickness of limestone, which is gradually undermined by…

Comprehending or including all bodies; embracing all substance. [R.] Cudworth.

Adhering closely; embracing; -- applied to certain creeping animals, as caterpillars.

A frame of wood, bent into the shape of the letter U, and embracing an ox's neck as a kind of collar, the upper ends passing through the bar of the yoke; also, anything so shaped, as a bend in a river.

A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened. English pale (Hist.), the limits or territory within which alone the English conquerors of Ireland held dominion for a long period after their invasion of the country in 1172. Spencer.

A system of theology embracing all religions; a complete system of theology.

that division of endogenous plants in which the perianth is wholly or partly petaline, embracing the Liliaceæ, Orchidaceæ, Amaryllideæ, etc.

A genus of fungi embracing a great number of species, some of which are remarkable for their regular cuplike form and deep colors.

A genus of plants embracing a large number of species, including bistort, knotweed, smartweed, etc.

heels. -- Pony truss (Bridge Building), a truss which has so little height that overhead bracing can not be used.

A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.] Portal bracing (Bridge Building), a combination of struts and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.

A class of flowerless plants, embracing ferns, horsetails, club mosses, quillworts, and other like plants. See the Note under Cryptogamia. -- Pter"i*do*phyte`, n.

Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen. The air is quick there, And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. Shak.

See Hematite. -- Rhombohedral system (Crystallog.), a division of the hexagonal system embracing the rhombohedron, scalenohedron, etc.

ls, etc. See Illustr. of Ship and Sails. Running rigging (Naut.), all those ropes used in bracing the yards, making and shortening sail, etc., such as braces, sheets, halyards, clew lines, and the like. -- Standing rigging (Naut.), the shrouds and stays.

A genus of exogenous polypetalous plants, embracing about one hundred and eighty species. See Saxifrage.

Partially amplexicaul; embracing the stem half round, as a leaf.

An interval embracing seven diatonic degrees of the scale.

To climb a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like; -- used with up; as, to shin up a mast. [Slang]