SKIN n.
anking or iron plates, outside the framing, forming the sides and bottom of a vessel; the shell; also, a lining inside the framing. Skin friction, Skin resistance (Naut.), the friction, or resistance, caused by the tendency of water to adhere to the immersed surface (skin) of a vessel. -- Skin graft (Surg.), a small p…
SNAIL n.
ant (Medicago scuttellata, also, M. Helix); -- so named from its pods, which resemble the shells of snails; -- called also snail trefoil, snail medic, and beehive. -- Snail flower (Bot.), a leguminous plant (Phaseolus Caracalla) having the keel of the carolla spirally coiled like a snail shell. -- Snail shell (Zoöl.)…
SOFT a.
om anthracite, or hard, coal. -- Soft crab (Zoöl.), any crab which has recently shed its shell. -- Soft dorsal (Zoöl.), the posterior part of the dorsal fin of fishes when supported by soft rays. -- Soft grass. (Bot.) See Velvet grass. -- Soft money, paper money, as distinguished from coin, or hard money. [Colloq.…
SOUNDING n.
The sand, shells, or the like, that are brought up by the sounding lead when it has touched bottom. Sounding lead, the plummet at the end of a sounding line. -- Sounding line, a line having a plummet at the end, used in making soundings. -- Sounding post (Mus.), a small post in a violin, violoncello, or similar instr…
SPHERE n.
In ancient astronomy, one of the concentric and eccentric revolving spherical transparent shells in which the stars, sun, planets, and moon were supposed to be set, and by which they were carried, in such a manner as to produce their apparent motions.