Search the Dictionary

use, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances. To refer one's self, to have recourse; to betake one's self; to make application; to appeal. [Obs.] I'll refer me to all things sense. Shak.

Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government. Civil service reform. See under Civil. -- Reform acts (Eng. Politics), acts of Parliament passed in 1832, 1867, 1884, 1885, extending and equalizing popular representation in Parliament. -- Refor…

The art of selecting and combining the stops or registers of an organ.

Constituted, selected, or conducted in conformity with established usages, rules, or discipline; duly authorized; permanently organized; as, a regular meeting; a regular physican; a regular nomination; regular troops.

The Diet, or House of Representatives, of the German empire, which is composed of members elected for a term of three years by the direct vote of the people. See Bundesrath.

Standing in relation or connection; as, the electric and magnetic forcec are closely related.

A person who votes more than once at an election. [U.S.]

ereign power resides in the whole body of the people, and is exercised by representatives elected by them; a commonwealth. Cf. Democracy, 2.

s from other parties for the purpose of opposing the extension of slavery, and in 1860 it elected Abraham Lincoln president.

cede from each other, or to resist each other's nearer approach; as, molecular repulsion; electrical repulsion.

In Spanish countries, a court or trial held, sometimes as long as six months, by a newly elected official, as the governor of a province, to examine into the conduct of a predecessor.

owish brown solid inflammable substances, of vegetable origin, which are nonconductors of electricity, have a vitreous fracture, and are soluble in ether, alcohol, and essential oils, but not in water; specif., pine resin (see Rosin).

pertaining to resin; of the nature of resin; resembling or obtained from resin. Resinous electricity (Elec.), electricity which is exited by rubbing bodies of the resinous kind. See Negative electricity, under Negative.

A certain hindrance or opposition to the passage of an electrical current or discharge offered by conducting bodies. It bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm. Resista…

as neurasthenia, by rest and isolation with systematic feeding and the use of massage and electricity.

atement; as, to return a list of stores, of killed or wounded; to return the result of an election.

allic wire used for regulating the resistance of a circuit, or varying the strength of an electric current, by inserting a greater or less length of it in the circuit.

An instrument for measuring currents, especially the force or intensity of electrical currents; a galvanometer.

Any apparatus by which an electrical current is originated. [R.]

A connecting wire of an electric or voltaic apparatus, traversed by a current.