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The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; -- called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is P. racemosa.

; aside; -- used in composition, giving the meaning of something aside, secondary, or incidental, or collateral matter, a thing private or avoiding notice; as, by-line, by-place, by-play, by-street. It was formerly more freely used in composition than it is now; as, by-business, by-concernment, by- design, by-interest,…

A side or incidental blow; an accidental blow. With their by-blows they did split the very stones in pieces. Bunyan.

An incidental or casual speech, not directly relating to the point. "To quote by-speeches." Hooker.

An accidental or a slyly given stroke.

A tree (Anacardium occidentale) of the same family which the sumac. It is native in tropical America, but is now naturalized in all tropical countries. Its fruit, a kidney-shaped nut, grows at the extremity of an edible, pear-shaped hypocarp, about three inches long. Casbew nut, the large, kidney-shaped fruit of the ca…

A West Indian tree (Turpinia occidentalis) of the family Staphyleaceæ.

Happening or coming to pass without design, and without being foreseen or expected; accidental; fortuitous; coming by chance. Casual breaks, in the general system. W. Irving.

Without design; accidentally; fortuitously; by chance; occasionally.

lower part of a truss, usually horizontal, resisting compression or tension. Waddell. Accidental, Common, and Vocal chords. See under Accidental, Common, and Vocal. -- Chord of an arch. See Illust. of Arch. -- Chord of curvature, a chord drawn from any point of a curve, in the circle of curvature for that point. --…

Incidental; relating to, but not essential. We must therefore distinguish between the essentials in religious worship . . . and what is merely circumstantial. Sharp.

In respect to circumstances; not essentially; accidentally. Of the fancy and intellect, the powers are only circumstantially different. Glanvill.

cking sound is produced. The sounds are four in number, and are called cerebral, palatal, dental, and lateral clicks or clucks, the latter being the noise ordinarily used in urging a horse forward.

congelation, condensation, coagulation, induration, etc.; a clot; a lump; a calculus. Accidental ossifications or deposits of phosphates of lime in certain organs . . . are called osseous concretions. Dunglison.

Possible, or liable, but not certain, to occur; incidental; casual. Weighing so much actual crime against so much contingent advantage. Burke.

In a contingent manner; without design or foresight; accidentally.

uch or sac without opening, usually membranous and containing morbid matter, which is accidentally developed in one of the natural cavaties or in the substance of an organ.

An accidental blowing off of, or other serious damage to, the breechblock of a gun; also, a removal of the breechblock for the purpose of disabling the gun.

A dentilingual sound or letter. The letters of this fourth, dentilingual or linguidental, class, viz., d, t, s, z, l, r. Am. Cyc.

is to clean, extract, or repair natural teeth, and to make and insert artificial ones; a dental surgeon.