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To enter into contest with; to encounter; to bring to conflict. A favorable opportunity of engaging the enemy. Ludlow.

In the United States army, the Corps of Engineers, a corps of officers and enlisted men consisting of one band and three battalions of engineers commanded by a brigadier general, whose title is Chief of Engineers. It has charge of the construction of fortifications for land and seacoast defense, the improvement of rive…

To join or unite. [Obs.] Hooker.

To unite in; to join; to be admitted to; to become a member of; as, to enter an association, a college, an army.

Oneness; unity; -- applied to a condition of intimacy or close association. [Obs.] True Christian love may be separated from acquaintance, and acquaintance from entireness. Bp. Hall.

Common to, or affecting at the same time, a large number in a community; -- applied to a disease which, spreading widely, attacks many persons at the same time; as, an epidemic disease; an epidemic catarrh, fever, etc. See Endemic.

A genus of cactaceous plants having flattened, jointed stems, and petals united in a tube. The flowers are very showy, and several species are in cultivation.

the episcopal form of church government and discipline; a churchman; specifically, in the United States, a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

enoted by the symbol =; thus, a = x signifies that a contains the same number and kind of units of measure that x does. Confessional equality. See under Confessional.

s necessary to efficient action in any way; to provide with arms or an armament, stores, munitions, rigging, etc.; -- said esp. of ships and of troops. Dryden. Gave orders for equipping a considerable fleet. Ludlow.

The quantity of the combining power of an atom, expressed in hydrogen units; the number of hydrogen atoms can combine with, or be exchanged for; valency. See Valence.

A combining unit, whether an atom, a radical, or a molecule; as, in acid salt two or more equivalents of acid unite with one or more equivalents of base. Mechanical equivalent of heat (Physics), the number of units of work which the unit of heat can perform; the mechanical energy which must be expended to raise the tem…

The unit of work or energy in the C. G. S. system, being the amount of work done by a dyne working through a distance of one centimeter; the amount of energy expended in moving a body one centimeter against a force of one dyne. One foot pound is equal to 13,560,000 ergs.

Shaped into one; tending to, or formative into, unity. [R.] Coleridge.

The uniting or allying one's self with anything; maintenance; adoption; as, the espousal of a quarrel. The open espousal of his cause. Lord Orford.

The great classes or orders of a community or state (as the clergy, the nobility, and the commonalty of England) or their representatives who administer the government; as, the estates of the realm (England), which are (1) the lords spiritual, (2) the lords temporal, (3) the commons.

An ethereal salt, or compound ether, consisting of an organic radical united with the residue of any oxygen acid, organic or inorganic; thus the natural fats are esters of glycerin and the fatty acids, oleic, etc.

The character, sentiment, or disposition of a community or people, considered as a natural endowment; the spirit which actuates manners and customs; also, the characteristic tone or genius of an institution or social organization.

artial; as, an ex parte statement. Ex parte application, one made without notice or opportunity to oppose. -- Ex parte council, one that assembles at the request of only one of the parties in dispute. -- Ex parte hearing or evidence (Law), that which is had or taken by one side or party in the absence of the other. H…

standard of another, as the value of the pound sterling in the currency of France or the United States. The par of exchange rarely varies, and serves as a measure for the rise and fall of exchange that is affected by the demand and supply. Exchange is at par when, for example, a bill in New York, for the payment of on…