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A space over, or in front of , a boiler furnace where the gases from the fire become more thoroughly mixed and burnt. (b) The clearance space in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine where the charge is compressed and ignited.

to corroborate. [Obs.] Wyclif. God's own testimony . . . doth not a little comfort and confirm the same. Hooker.

To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of. Many a wooer doth commence his suit. Shak.

The first existence of anything; act or fact of commencing; rise; origin; beginnig; start. The time of Henry VII . . . nearly coincides with the commencement of what is termed "modern history."

To send out with a charge or commission. A chosen band He first commissions to the Latian land. Dryden.

An officer having charge of some department or bureau of the public service. Herbert was first commissioner of the Admiralty. Macaulay. The commissioner of patents, the commissioner of the land office, the commissioner of Indian affairs, are subotdinates of the secretary of the interior. Bartlett. Commissioner of deeds…

Usually; generally; ordinarily; frequently; for the most part; as, confirmed habits commonly continue trough life.

risonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those two elements, it was certainly more natural to call beings participating of the first "watery", and the last "fiery", than to commute the terms, and call them by the reverse. J. Harris The utmost…

Composed or made; -- with of. [Poetic] A wandering fire, Compact of unctuous vapor. Milton.

Compact; pressed close; concentrated; firmly united.

n of persons for the purpose of carrying on some enterprise or business; a corporation; a firm; as, the East India Company; an insurance company; a joint-stock company.

ourse. They fetched a compass of seven day's journey. 2 Kings iii. 9. This day I breathed first; time is come round, And where I did begin, there shall I end; My life is run his compass. Shak.

complacence we find in acting reasonably and virtuously. Atterbury. Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like in themselves. Addison.

Shak. Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun. Goldsmith. When the word "bishopric" was first made, it was made as a compound. Earle.

rojectile constructed so as to take the grooves of a rifle by means of a soft copper band firmly attached near its base or, formerly, by means of an envelope of soft metal. In small arms the modern projectile, having a soft core and harder jacket, is subjected to compression throughout the entire cylindrical part.…

The act or practice of justifying or confirming a man's veracity by the oath of others; -- called also wager of law. See Purgation; also Wager of law, under Wager.

Against the affirmative side; in opposition; on the negative side; -- The antithesis of pro, and usually in connection with it. See Pro.

e cognitive faculties, the feelings, . . . and the exertive or conative powers, . . . was first promulgated by Kant. Sir W. Hamilton.

hings depending on each other, as if linked together; a chain, a succession. The stoics affirmed a fatal, unchangeable concatenation of causes, reaching even to the illicit acts of man's will. South. A concatenation of explosions. W. Irving.

nate; as, to conceive a purpose, plan, hope. It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life. Gibbon. Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Is. lix. 13.