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Any small entertainment between two greater ones. [R.]

Am entrance. [Obs.] So great an entryng and so large. Chaucer.

f; to announce; to proclaim; to declare, as a truth. The terms in which he enunciates the great doctrines of the gospel. Coleridge.

achievements of some hero, are narrated in an elevated style. The epic poem treats of one great, complex action, in a grand style and with fullness of detail. T. Arnold.

A circle, whose center moves round in the circumference of a greater circle; or a small circle, whose center, being fixed in the deferent of a planet, is carried along with the deferent, and yet, by its own peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round its proper center. The schoolmen were like a…

Spreading widely, or generally prevailing; affecting great numbers, as an epidemic does; as, epidemic rage; an epidemic evil. It was the epidemical sin of the nation. Bp. Burnet.

to a small Wormian bone sometimes present in the human skull between the parietal and the great wing of the sphenoid. -- n.

A separate incident, story, or action, introduced for the purpose of giving a greater variety to the events related; an incidental narrative, or digression, separable from the main subject, but naturally arising from it.

y the occurrence of some grand or remarkable event; a point of time marked by an event of great subsequent influence; as, the epoch of the creation; the birth of Christ was the epoch which gave rise to the Christian era. In divers ages, . . . divers epochs of time were used. Usher. Great epochs and crises in the kingdo…

y, and intensity, and to any subject which admits of them; neither inferior nor superior, greater nor less, better nor worse; corresponding; alike; as, equal quantities of land, water, etc. ; houses of equal size; persons of equal stature or talents; commodities of equal value.

fferent values of the quantities sought, and the number of equations that may be found is greater than the number of unknown quantities. -- Equation of a curve (Math.), an equation which expresses the relation between the coördinates of every point in the curve. -- Equation of equinoxes (Astron.), the difference betw…

The imaginary great circle on the earth's surface, everywhere equally distant from the two poles, and dividing the earth's surface into two hemispheres.

xpression capable of different meanings; an ambiguous term; an equivoque. In languages of great ductility, equivocals like that just referred to are rarely found. Fitzed. Hall.

of being erected of dilated. Erectile tissue (Anat.), a tissue which is capable of being greatly dilated and made rigid by the distension of the numerous blood vessels which it contains.

That which falls to one; a reversion or return To make me great by others' loss is bad escheat. Spenser.

separated from its grosser parts. The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under. Landor. Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity]. Addison. The essence of Addison's humor is irony. Courthope.

A person of high rank. [Obs.] She's a duchess, a great estate. Latimer. Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. Mark vi. 21.

High estimation or value; great regard; favorable opinion, founded on supposed worth. Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem. Shak.

Valuable; worth a great price. [R.] A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, Is not so estimable, profitable neither, As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. Shak.

Exceedingly great or bad; -- used as a strong intensive. "Some eternal villain." The Eternal City, an appellation of Rome.