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Morbid temper of the mind; undue predominance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. [Obs.] Little faults proceeding on distemper. Shak. Some frenzy distemper had got into his head. Bunyan.

Superior prominence; predominance; ascendency. Objects placed foremost ought . . . have dominion over things confused and transient. Dryden.

To soften; to render effeminate. Emolliated by four centuries of Roman domination, the Belgic colonies had forgotten their pristine valor. Pinkerton.

To reduce to slavery; to make a slave of; to subject to a dominant influence. The conquer'd, also, and enslaved by war, Shall, with their freedom lost, all virtue lose. Milton. Pleasure admitted in undue degree Enslaves the will. Cowper.

The predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or, more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; as, the essence of mint, and the like. The . . . word essence . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the…

A tumor containing a large portion of the abdominal viscera, occasioned by relaxation of the walls of the abdomen.

pregnancy in which the fetus is not in the uterus, but in the Fallopian tube or in the abdominal cavity.

interval of three tones and a semitone, embracing five diatonic degrees of the scale; the dominant of any key.

nterval of two tones and a semitone, embracing four diatonic degrees of the scale; the subdominant of any key. The Fourth, specifically, un the United States, the fourth day of July, the anniversary of the declaration of American independence; as, to celebrate the Fourth.

European species (L. noctiluca, and L. splendidula), which emit light from some of the abdominal segments. Like a glowworm in the night, The which hath fire in darkness, none in light. Shak.

vessel, divided lengthwise, showing the lines. -- Half cadence (Mus.), a cadence on the dominant. -- Half cap, a slight salute with the cap. [Obs.] Shak. -- A half cock, the position of the cock of a gun when retained by the first notch. -- Half hitch, a sailor's knot in a rope; half of a clove hitch. -- Half hos…

y; harmonious; esp., relating to the accessory sounds or overtones which accompany the predominant and apparent single tone of any string or sonorous body.

Leading; controlling; ruling; predominant. "Princelike and hegemonical." Fotherby.

ls of the latter; as, hernia of the brain, of the lung, or of the bowels. Hernia of the abdominal viscera in most common. Called also rupture. Strangulated hernia, a hernia so tightly compressed in some part of the channel through which it has been protruded as to arrest its circulation, and produce swelling of the pro…

The principles or authority of a hierarchy. The more dominant hierarchism of the West. Milman.

people within the country itself, in contradistinction to a government established by the dominant country; as, home rule in Ireland. Also used adjectively; as, home- rule members of Parliament. -- Home ruler, one who favors or advocates home rule. -- Home run (Baseball), a complete circuit of the bases made before t…

A predominant shade in a composition of primary colors; a primary color modified by combination with others.

Applied to those actions, or muscular movements, which are automatic expressions of dominant ideas, rather than the result of distinct volitional efforts, as the act of expressing the thoughts in speech, or in writing, while the mind is occupied in the composition of the sentence. Carpenter.

e; a skew arch. -- Imperfect cadence (Mus.), one not ending with the tonic, but with the dominant or some other chord; one not giving complete rest; a half close. -- Imperfect consonances (Mus.), chords like the third and sixth, whose ratios are less simple than those of the fifth and forth. -- Imperfect flower (Bot…

inguen or groin; as, an inguinal canal or ligament; inguinal hernia. Inguinal ring. See Abdominal ring, under Abdominal.