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Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; touching, or affecting intimately; intimate; dear; as, a near friend.

te by the electrolytic disposition of copper, lead peroxide, etc. They may be produced by touching with a pointed zinc rod a silver plate on which is a solution of copper sulphate.

e real cause, becomes the occasion of the action of the efficient cause; thus, the act of touching gunpowder with fire is the occasional, but not the efficient, cause of an explosion.

Act of touching or feeling.

esenting the sphere, the spherical surface being projected upon the surface of a cylinder touching the sphere, the point of sight being at the center of the sphere. -- Globular, Gnomonic, Orthographic, projection,etc. See under Globular, Gnomonic, etc. -- Mercator's projection, a mode of representing the sphere in wh…

Any touching of another's body willfully or in anger. This constitutes battery. By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited. Blackstone.

The act of stretching or extending; extension; power of reaching or touching with the person, or a limb, or something held or thrown; as, the fruit is beyond my reach; to be within reach of cannon shot.

ion or thought; conviction; assurance. [Obs.] Little resolution and certainty there is as touching the islands of Mauritania. Holland.

d American tern (Sterna maxima). -- Royal tiger. (Zoöl.) See Tiger. -- Royal touch, the touching of a diseased person by the hand of a king, with the view of restoring to health; -- formerly extensively practiced, particularly for the scrofula, or king's evil.

fety switch. See Switch. -- Safety touchdown (Football), the act or result of a player's touching to the ground behind his own goal line a ball which received its last impulse from a man on his own side; -- distinguished from touchback. See Touchdown. -- Safety tube (Chem.), a tube to prevent explosion, or to control…

A low stool to keep the goods from touching the floor. Knight.

dancers. Sir W. Scott. (b) A dance performed over swords laid on the ground, but without touching them. -- Sword fight, fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords; swordplay. -- Sword grass. (Bot.) See Gladen. -- Sword knot, a ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword. -- Sword law, government by the sword, or by fo…

The act of touching; touch; contact; tangency. "External taction." Chesterfield.

The quality or state of being tangent; a contact or touching.

of the arc subtending or measuring the angle. -- Tangent of an arc, a right line, as ta, touching the arc of a circle at one extremity a, and terminated by a line ct, passing from the center through the other extremity o.

The act of touching, or the state of being touched; contact. Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting. Shak.

The act of touching the football down by a player behind his own goal line when it received its last impulse from an opponent; -- distinguished from safety touchdown.

The act of touching the football down behind the opponents' goal . Safety touchdown. See under Safety.

nd chest to chest, grasping each other around the body. The one first losing his hold, or touching the ground with any part of his body except his feet, loses the bout. If both fall to the ground at the same time, it is a dogfall, and must be wrestled over. In the Cornwall and Devon wrestling, the wrestlers complete in…