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Any substance supposed to be capable of absorbing, retaining, and transporting contagious or infectious germs; as, woolen clothes are said to be active fomites.

fluential. How forcible are right words! Job. vi. 2 Sweet smells are most forcible in dry substances, when broken. Bacon. But I have reasons strong and forcible. Shak. That punishment which hath been sometimes forcible to bridle sin. Hooker. He is at once elegant and sublime, forcible and ornamented. Lowth (Transl. )…

s are foreign to each other. See Exchange, n., 4. Kent. Story. -- Foreign body (Med.), a substance occurring in any part of the body where it does not belong, and usually introduced from without. -- Foreign office, that department of the government of Great Britain which has charge British interests in foreign countr…

Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form. Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice. Shak.

Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc.

Form without substance. Such [books] as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them, you look though them. Fuller.

A substance formed or deposited.

d in rocks. whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells. Fossil copal, a resinous substance, first found in the blue clay at Highgate, near London, and apparently a vegetable resin, partly changed by remaining in the earth. -- Fossil cork, flax, paper, or wood, varieties of amianthus. -- Fossil farina, a soft…

ecies (Rhamnus Frangula) of the buckthorn. Frangulinic acid (Chem.), a yellow crystalline substance, resembling alizarin, and obtained by the decomposition of frangulin.

A colorless crystalline substance, regarded as a glucoside, and found in the bark of the ash (Fraxinus) and along with esculin in the bark of the horse-chestnut. It shows a delicate fluorescence in alkaline solutions; -- called also paviin.

, fried in boiling lard or in a frying pan. Fritters are of various kinds, named from the substance inclosed in the batter; as, apple fritters, clam fritters, oyster fritters.

Chem.), a widely occurring organic acid, exttracted from fumitory as a white crystallline substance, C2H2(CO2H)2, and produced artificially in many ways, as by the distillation of malic acid; boletic acid. It is found also in the lichen, Iceland moss, and hence was also called lichenic acid.

An alkaloid extracted from fumitory, as a white crystalline substance.

A passage or avenue for a fluid or flowing substance; specifically, a smoke flue or pipe; the iron chimney of a steamship or the like. Funnel box (Mining), an apparatus for collecting finely crushed ore from water. Knight. -- Funnel stay (Naut.), one of the ropes or rods steadying a steamer's funnel.…

A colorless, oily substance, C4H4O, obtained by distilling certain organic substances, as pine wood, salts of pyromucic acid, etc.; -- called also tetraphenol.

A yellow, crystalline substance, (C4H3O)2.C2O2, obtained by the oxidation of furoin. [Written also furil.]

A colorless, crystalline substance, C10H8O4, from furfurol.

A dark-colored substance obtained from empyreumatic animal oil. [R.]

To be blended, as if melted together. Fusing point, the degree of temperature at which a substance melts; the point of fusion.

mbustible matter, for exploding a shell, etc. See Fuse, n. Chemical fuze, a fuze in which substances separated until required for action are then brought into contact, and uniting chemically, produce explosion. -- Concussion fuze, a fuze ignited by the striking of the projectile. -- Electric fuze, a fuze which is ign…