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The degree of elevation of an object, or the angle it makes with a horizontal line; inclination; rising grade; as, a road has an ascent of five degrees.

or violence, to do hurt to another; an attempt or offer to beat another, accompanied by a degree of violence, but without touching his person, as by lifting the fist, or a cane, in a threatening manner, or by striking at him, and missing him. If the blow aimed takes effect, it is a battery. Blackstone. Wharton. Practic…

when something unaccountable, wonderful, or dreadful is presented to the mind; an intense degree of surprise; amazement. Lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment. Milton.

The relation of a point or position in a series, or of degree, rate, or value; as, with the thermometer at 80º; goods sold at a cheap price; a country estimated at 10,000 square miles; life is short at the longest.

Degree of atomic attraction; equivalence; valence; also (a later use) the number of atoms in an elementary molecule. See Valence.

To reach in excellence or degree; to equal.

The quality or degree of attractive power.

At all; in any degree. Chaucer.

To enlarge or increase in size, amount, or degree; to swell; to make bigger; as, to augment an army by reëforcements; rain augments a stream; impatience augments an evil. But their spite still serves His glory to augment. Milton.

The ceremony observed in conferring the degree of doctor of divinity in some European universities. It begins by a harangue of the chancellor addressed to the young doctor, who then receives the cap, and presides at the disputation (also called the aulic).

usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionally the aurora appears as an arch of light…

The degree of bachelor of arts. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges.

A person who has taken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university; as, a bachelor of arts.

A title or degree of nobility; originally, the possessor of a fief, who had feudal tenants under him; in modern times, in France and Germany, a nobleman next in rank below a count; in England, a nobleman of the lowest grade in the House of Lords, being next below a viscount.

A dignity or degree of honor next below a baron and above a knight, having precedency of all orders of knights except those of the Garter. It is the lowest degree of honor that is hereditary. The baronets are commoners.

Of humble birth; or low degree; lowly; mean. [Archaic] "A pleasant and base swain." Bacon.

en these fundamental points, is continued along the stem as far as desired. Since all the degrees on a Baumé scale are thus equal in length, while those on a specific- gravity scale grow smaller as the density increases, there is no simple relation between degrees Bé. and Sp. gr. However, readings on Baumés scale may b…

Among distillers, a certain degree of strength in alcoholic liquor, as formerly ascertained by the floating or sinking of glass globules of different specific gravities thrown into it; now ascertained by more accurate meters.

and declaring that a deceased person is one of "the blessed," or has attained the second degree of sanctity, -- usually a stage in the process of canonization. "The beatification of his spirit." Jer. Taylor.

the 30º-point to sp. gr. 0.85. From these points the scale is extended both ways, all the degrees being of equal length.