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The special contagion, inappreciable to the senses and acting in exceedingly minute quantities, by which a disease is introduced into the organism and maintained there.

a pair of bones, beneath the ethmoid region of the skull, forming a part a part of the partition between the nostrils in man and other mammals.

A degraded form of superstition and sorcery, said to include human sacrifices and cannibalism in some of its rites. It is prevalent among the negroes of Hayti, and to some extent in the United States, and is regarded as a relic of African barbarism.

f certain diphthongs, as in few, how. It takes its written form and its name from the repetition of a V, this being the original form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. Etymologically it is most related to v and u. See V, and U. Some of the uneducated classes in England, especially in London, confuse w and v,…

A tree from which honeydew or other liquid secretions of insects drip in considerable quantities, esp. one infested by the larvæ of any species of the genus Ptylus, allied to the cuckoo spits, which in tropical countries secrete large quantities of a watery fluid.

artly; somewhat; -- with a following preposition, especially, with, and commonly with repetition. What for lust [pleasure] and what for lore. Chaucer. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. Shak. The year before he had so used the matter that what…

vagrant; to whip one with thirty nine lashes; to whip a perverse boy. Who, for false quantities, was whipped at school. Dryden.

or large quantity, as distinguished from retail. By wholesale, in the mass; in large quantities; without distinction or discrimination. Some, from vanity or envy, despise a valuable book, and throw contempt upon it by wholesale. I. Watts.

To gain by superiority in competition or contest; to obtain by victory over competitors or rivals; as, to win the prize in a gate; to win money; to win a battle, or to win a country. "This city for to win." Chaucer. "Who thus shall Canaan win." Milton. Thy well-breathed horse Impels the flying car, and wins the course.…

One who wins, or gains by success in competition, contest, or gaming.

The act of obtaining something, as in a contest or by competition.

Expression of desire; request; petition; hence, invocation or imprecation. Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish. Shak.

A small South American monkey; a marmoset. [Written also wistiti, and ouistiti.]

A partition between flues in a chimney.

A leguminous plant (Genista tinctoria) of Europe and Russian Asia, and adventitious in America; -- called also greenwood, greenweed, dyer's greenweed, and whin, wood-wash, wood-wax, and wood- waxen.

a complex acid liquid obtained in the dry distillation of wood, and containing large quantities of acetic acid; hence, specifically, acetic acid. Formerly called pyroligneous acid. -- Wood anemone (Bot.), a delicate flower (Anemone nemorosa) of early spring; -- also called windflower. See Illust. of Anemone. -- Wood…

To gain advantage over, in contest or competition; to get the better of; to defeat; to overthrow; to discomfit. The . . . Philistines were worsted by the captivated ark. South.

A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the buckets is determined. Wrest pin (Piano Manuf.), one of the pins around which the ends of the wires are wound in a piano. Knight. -- Wrest plank (Piano Manuf.), the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.

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 nitric acid. Xanthine is closely related to uric acid.

by inquiry. Zetetic method (Math.), the method used for finding the value of unknown quantities by direct search, in investigation, or in the solution of problems. [R.] Hutton.