Search the Dictionary

To move in a certain direction; -- usually with to or towards. Two gentlemen tending towards that sight. Sir H. Wotton. Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse. Milton. The clouds above me to the white Alps tend. Byron.

Direction or course toward any place, object, effect, or result; drift; causal or efficient influence to bring about an effect or result. Writings of this kind, if conducted with candor, have a more particular tendency to the good of their country. Addison. In every experimental science, there is a tendency toward perf…

ing to which a wire, cord, piece of timber, or the like, is strained by drawing it in the direction of its length; strain. Gwilt.

The ratio of one vector to another in length, no regard being had to the direction of the two vectors; -- so called because considered as a stretching factor in changing one vector into another. See Versor.

he object of each side being to wrap the string around the pole by striking the ball in a direction opposite to the other.

Government of a state by the immediate direction or administration of God; hence, the exercise of political authority by priests as representing the Deity.

Of or pertaining to a theocracy; administred by the immediate direction of God; as, the theocratical state of the Israelites.

Determination of the direction of locomotion by heat.

temperature, and giving to it, while in that state, a mechanical strain or tension in the direction in which the strength is afterward to be exerted.

To ward that place; in that direction. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward. Jer. l. 5.

To mow, as beans, in a direction against their bending. [Prov. Eng.]

more filaments of, as silk, so as to form one thread; to twist together, as singles, in a direction contrary to the twist of the singles themselves; -- sometimes applied to the whole class of operations by which silk is prepared for the weaver. Tomlinson. To throw away. (a) To lose by neglect or folly; to spend in vain…

wn silk, silk thread consisting of two or more singles twisted together like a rope, in a direction contrary to that in which the singles of which it is composed are twisted. M'Culloch. -- Thrown singles, silk thread or cord made by three processes of twisting, first into singles, two or more of which are twisted toge…

A violent push or driving, as with a pointed weapon moved in the direction of its length, or with the hand or foot, or with any instrument; a stab; -- a word much used as a term of fencing. [Polites] Pyrrhus with his lance pursues, And often reaches, and his thrusts renews. Dryden.

Tendency or direction of causes, influences, or events; course; current. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Shak.

a curving piece of wood, branching outward from the keel and bending upward in a vertical direction. One timber is composed of several pieces united. Timber and room. (Shipbuilding) Same as Room and space. See under Room. -- Timber beetle (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of beetles the larvæ of which bore in timbe…

A plane surface divided in one direction with lines representing hours and minutes, and in the other with lines representing miles, and having diagonals (usually movable strings) representing the speed and position of various trains.

The preposition to primarily indicates approach and arrival, motion made in the direction of a place or thing and attaining it, access; and also, motion or tendency without arrival; movement toward; -- opposed to Ant: from. "To Canterbury they wend." Chaucer. Stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. Shak. So to the sylvan l…

The designation of position and direction. B. G. Wilder.

A double ear trumpet for estimating the direction from which sounds proceed, esp. for the use of navigators.