Search the Dictionary

Near correctness; nearly exact; not perfectly accurate; as, approximate results or values. Approximate quantities (Math.), those which are nearly, but not, equal.

A value that is nearly but not exactly correct.

of exchange (see Arbitration of Exchange); also, a traffic in stocks which bear differing values at the same time in different markets.

nishment. It was wholly arbitrary in them to do so. Jer. Taylor. Rank pretends to fix the value of every one, and is the most arbitrary of all things. Landor.

The independent variable upon whose value that of a function depends. Brande & C.

A Turkish money of account (formerly a coin), of little value; the 120th part of a piaster.

Tested purity or value. [Obs.] With gold and pearl of rich assay. Spenser.

A small foxlike animal (Vulpes cama) of South Africa, valued for its fur.

To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation.

To assess; to value; to rate. [Obs.] Gower.

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.

To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less complex; to weaken. To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point. I. Taylor. We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness. Sir F. Palgrave.…

deal, there being heavy penalties for a player's failure to make good his bid. The score value of each trick more than six taken by the successful bidder is as follows: when the trump is spades, 2; clubs, 6; diamonds, 7; hearts, 8; royal spades (lilies), 9; and when the deal is played with no trump, 10.…

Profit; advantage toward success; benefit; value; as, labor, without economy, is of little avail. The avail of a deathbed repentance. Jer. Taylor.

See Torsion Balance. -- Balance of trade (Pol. Econ.), an equilibrium between the money values of the exports and imports of a country; or more commonly, the amount required on one side or the other to make such an equilibrium. -- Balance valve, a valve whose surfaces are so arranged that the fluid pressure tending…

Destitute of dignity or value; paltry; mean. [Obs.]

The process of temporarily raising the value of a stock, as by fictitious sales. [U.S.]

llowish or greenish color, a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste, and a fragrant smell. It is valued as an unguent and cosmetic by the Turks. The fragrant herb Dracocephalum Canariense is familiarly called balm of Gilead, and so are the American trees, Populus balsamifera, variety candicans (balsam poplar), and Abies balsa…

Of little comparative value, as metal inferior to gold and silver, the precious metals.

A trifling piece of finery; a gewgaw; that which is gay and showy without real value; a cheap, showy plaything. The ineffective bauble of an Indian pagod. Sheridan.