Search the Dictionary

vertex or top of an arch; -- applied generally to about one third of the curve, but in a pointed arch to the apex only.

ctive magistracy or a parliament, but governed by a chief magistrate (called Governor) appointed by the Crown, with executive councilors nominated by him and not elected by the people.

ak into small pieces; to cause to fall in pieces. He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, And crumble all thy sinews. Milton.

A point where one branch of a curve crosses another branch. See Double point, under Double, a.

ystallizes with water of crystallization only at low temperatures, or below the freezing point of water. F. Guthrie.

res, esp. such an instrument containing alcohol or some other liquid of a lower freezing point than mercury.

The stalk or stem of grain and grasses (including the bamboo), jointed and usually hollow.

Having jointed stems or culms.

Being vertical, or at the highest point of altitude; hence, predominant. [R.]

To reach its highest point of altitude; to come to the meridian; to be vertical or directly overhead. As when his beams at noon Culminate from the equator. Milton.

The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavently body; passage across the meridian; transit.

Empty oyster shells and other substances laid down on oyster grounds to furnish points for the attachment of the spawn of the oyster. [Also written cutch.]

Sharp-edged and pointed; shaped like a pruning knife, as the beak of certain birds.

United or fastened by a dovetailed joint.

Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence.

Wedge-shaped; (Bot.), wedge-shaped, with the point at the base; as, a cuneate leaf.

One appointed to act as guardian of the estate of a person not legally competent to manage it, or of an absentee; a trustee; a guardian.

ing on the back part of the hind leg of a horse, just behind the lowest part of the hock joint, generally causing lameness. James Law. Curb bit, a stiff bit having branches by which a leverage is obtained upon the jaws of horse. Knight. -- Curb pins (Horology), the pins on the regulator which restrain the hairspring.…

The pointless sword carried before English monarchs at their coronation, and emblematically considered as the sword of mercy; -- also called the sword of Edward the Confessor.

as measured in the plane of the ecliptic, or the distance from the sun or earth to that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet upon the plane of the ecliptic, meets the ecliptic. Curtate cycloid. (Math.) See Cycloid.