Search the Dictionary

One who is regularly inducted into a benefice. See Provision, 5. P. Plowman.

An irregular or deceptive form.

Any protoplasmic filament or irregular process projecting from any unicellular organism, or from any animal or plant call.

isgust or contemptuous disapprobation, as by the exclamation " Pshaw!" The goodman used regularly to frown and pshaw wherever this topic was touched upon. Sir W. Scott.

Any measured or regular beat; any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement. The measured pulse of racing oars. Tennyson. When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air,…

Appearing or done at, or adhering exactly to, a regular or an appointed time; precise; prompt; as, a punctual man; a punctual payment. "The race of the undeviating and punctual sun." Cowper. These sharp strokes [of a pendulum], with their inexorably steady intersections, so agree with our successive thoughts that they…

ed by the development of multiple abscesses throughout the body, and is attended with irregularly recurring chills, fever, profuse sweating, and exhaustion.

Having the posterior side of the tarsus covered with small irregular scales; -- said of certain birds.

A solid body standing on a triangular, square, or polygonal base, and terminating in a point at the top; especially, a structure or edifice of this shape.

rm of a a pyramid; pyramidical; as, pyramidal cleavage. The mystic obelisks stand up Triangular, pyramidal. Mrs. Browning.

A square or quadrangular space or inclosure, such a space or court surrounded by buildings, esp. such a court in a college or public school in England.

Having four sides, and consequently four angles; quadrangular.

Curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique; archaic; singular; unusual; as, quaint architecture; a quaint expression. Some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry. Macaulay. An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in quaint livery. W. Irving.

Any small square or quadrangular member; as:

ce with what is usual or normal; differing in some odd way from what is ordinary; odd; singular; strange; whimsical; as, a queer story or act. " A queer look." W. Irving.

Rather queer; somewhat singular.

middle; especially, such an arrangement of trees repeated indefinitely, so as to form a regular group with rows running in various directions.

Having five angles; quinquangular.

An irregular air; as, light quirks of music. Pope.

The movable limb of a sextant or other angular instrument. Knight. Radius bar (Math.), a bar pivoted at one end, about which it swings, and having its other end attached to a piece which it causes to move in a circular arc. -- Radius of curvature. See under Curvature.