Search the Dictionary

A sound like the cry of a cat, such as is made in playhouses to express dissatisfaction with a play; also, a small shrill instrument for making such a noise. Upon the rising of the curtain. I was very much surprised with the great consort of catcalls which was exhibited. Addison.

A dich or drain along the side of a hill to catch the surface water; also, a ditch at the side of a canal to catch the surplus water.

A surface of ground on which water may be caught and collected into a reservoir.

ent of small differences of height; esp. of the differences in the height of the upper surfaces of two columns of mercury or other fluid, or of the same column at different times. It consists of a telescopic leveling apparatus (d), which slides up or down a perpendicular metallic standard very finely graduated (bb). Th…

attery by which the electric current leaves substances through which it passes, or the surface at which the electric current passes out of the electrolyte; the negative pole; -- opposed to anode. Faraday. Cathode ray (Phys.), a kind of ray generated at the cathode in a vacuum tube, by the electrical discharge.…

which was perforned by letting down a mirror into water, for a sick person to look at his face in it. If his countenance appeared distorted and ghastly, it was an ill omen; if fresh and healthy, it was favorable.

e head of a child at its birth. It is deemed lucky to be with a caul or membrane over the face. This caul is esteemed an infallible preservative against drowning . . . According to Chysostom, the midwives frequently sold it for magic uses. Grose. I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers,…

The faculty of tracing effects to their causes. G. Combe.

A caustic curve or caustic surface.

lutions of the same. -- Caustic silver, nitrate of silver, lunar caustic. -- Caustic surface (Optics), a surface to which rays reflected or refracted by another surface are tangents. Caustic curves and surfaces are called catacaustic when formed by reflection, and diacaustic when formed by refraction.…

A hollow way, adapted to cover troops, and facilitate their aproach to a place. Farrow.

lief within a sinking made for the purpose, so no part of it projects beyond the plain surface around.

To line or finish a surface, as of a wall, with plaster, stucco, thin boards, or the like.

The inside lining of a room overhead; the under side of the floor above; the upper surface opposite to the floor.

A room or rooms under a building, and usually below the surface of the ground, where provisions and other stores are kept.

ly colored to imitate coral, tortoise shell, amber, malachite, etc. It is used in the manufacture of jewelry and many small articles, as combs, brushes, collars, and cuffs; -- originaly called xylonite.

Colorado; -- a nickname alluding to the fact that it was admitted to the Union in the centennial year, 1876.

the purpose of measuring the area or the volume generated by the rotation of a line or surface about a fixed axis, depending upon the principle that every figure formed by the revolution of a line or surface about such an axis has for measure the product of the line or surface by the length of the path of its center of…

An instrument for cutting into the fetal head, to facilitate delivery.

The anterior, and in man the larger, division of the brain; the seat of the reasoning faculties and the will. See Brain.