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(Hydraulics) The contracted portion of a liquid jet at and near the orifice from which it issues. -- Vena portæ; pl. VenÆ portæ. Etym: [L., literally, vein of the entrance.] (Anat.) The portal vein of the liver. See under Portal.

ontaining an insufficient amount of oxygen so as no longer to be fit for oxygenating the tissues; -- said of the blood, and opposed to arterial.

bleed at many vents. Shak. Long't was doubtful, both so closely pent, Which first should issue from the narrow vent. Pope.

ed. Shak. At a venture, at hazard; without seeing the end or mark; without foreseeing the issue; at random. A certain man drew a bow at a venture. 1 Kings xxii. 34. A bargain at a venture made. Hudibras.

nt from which rays, having been rendered divergent by reflection of refraction, appear to issue; the point at which converging rays would meet if not reflected or refracted before they reach it. -- Virtual image. (Optics) See under Image. -- Virtual moment (of a force) (Mech.), the product of the intensity of the for…

assimilation, in which proteid matter which has been transformed, and made a part of the tissue or tissue cells, is endowed with life, and thus enabled to manifest the phenomena of irritability, contractility, etc. McKendrick.

Of, pertaining to, or issued by, a vizier. [Written also vizirial.]

To hazard on the issue of a contest, or on some question that is to be decided, or on some casualty; to lay; to stake; to bet. And wagered with him Pieces of gold 'gainst this which he wore. Shak.

maximum and minimum temperatures, and total rain for each weather station since the last issue, usually 12 hours.

Fig.: Tissue; texture; complicated fabrication. The somber spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a . . . thread of rose-color or gold. Hawthorne. Such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures. W. Irving.…

A publication issued once in seven days, or appearing once a week.

g in humiliation or penitence. -- Weeping rock, a porous rock from which water gradually issues. -- Weeping sinew, a ganglion. See Ganglion, n., 2. [Colloq.] -- Weeping spring, a spring that discharges water slowly. -- Weeping willow (Bot.), a species of willow (Salix Babylonica) whose branches grow very long and sl…

An issue of water from the earth; a spring; a fountain. Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well. Milton.

To what or which place; hence, to what goal, result, or issue; whither; -- used interrogatively and relatively; as, where are you going But where does this tend Goldsmith. Lodged in sunny cleft, Where the gold breezes come not. Bryant.

The "wisdom" (Hokhmah) of these writings consists in detached sage utterances on concrete issues of life, without the effort at philosophical system that appeared in the later Hellenistic reflective writing beginning with Philo Judæus.

ed in connection with the action of replevin (sometimes called a writ of reprisal), which issues to a defendant in replevin when he has obtained judgment for a return of the chattels replevied, and fails to obtain them on the writ of return. Blackstone.

ood fern. (Bot.) See Shield fern, under Shield. -- Wood fiber. (a) (Bot.) Fibrovascular tissue. (b) Wood comminuted, and reduced to a powdery or dusty mass. -- Wood fretter (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of beetles whose larvæ bore in the wood, or beneath the bark, of trees. -- Wood frog (Zoöl.), a common Nort…

sylvan. [R.] "Woody nymphs, fair Hamadryades." Spenser. Woody fiber. (Bot.) (a) Fiber or tissue consisting of slender, membranous tubes tapering at each end. (b) A single wood cell. See under Wood. Goodale. -- Woody nightshade. (Bot.). See Bittersweet, 3 (a). -- Woody pear (Bot.), the inedible, woody, pear-shaped fru…

An instrument in writing, under seal, in an epistolary form, issued from the proper authority, commanding the performance or nonperformance of some act by the person to whom it is directed; as, a writ of entry, of error, of execution, of injunction, of mandamus, of return, of summons, and the like.

A white microcrystalline nitrogenous compound, C5H4O2N4, present in muscle tissue, in the liver, spleen, pancreas, and other organs, and also in urine (in small quantities) and some urinary calculi, and in the juices of certain plants; -- so called because it leaves a yellow residue when evaporated to dryness with nitr…