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A salt of columbic acid; a niobate. See Columbium.

a concave surface above. This structure is characteristic of certain igneous rocks, as basalt, and is due to contraction in cooling.

ans wondrously to discontent; His comfortable temper has forsook him: He is much out of health. Shak.

Exalted; overlooking; having superior strategic advantages; as, a commanding position.

emoved by death, a commeasurable grief took as full possession of him as joy had one. I. Walton.

standing commemoration of the death and passion of our Lord. Abp. Tillotson. The commonwealth which . . . chooses the most flagrant act of murderous regicide treason for a feast of eternal commemoration. Burke.

me department or bureau of the public service. Herbert was first commissioner of the Admiralty. Macaulay. The commissioner of patents, the commissioner of the land office, the commissioner of Indian affairs, are subotdinates of the secretary of the interior. Bartlett. Commissioner of deeds, an officer having authority…

To do; to perperate, as a crime, sin, or fault. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. xx. 14.

The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled chasses or nobility; the commonalty; the common people. [Eng.] 'T is like the commons, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign. Shak. The word commons in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank…

Commonwealth. Such a prince, So kind a father of the commonweal. Shak.

The commonalty; the common people. [Obs.] Chaucer. In this struggle -- to use the technical words of the time -- of the "commune", the general mass of the inhabitants, against the "prudhommes" or "wiser" few. J. R. Green.

tes the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.

Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general. Burdens upon the poorer classes of the community. Hallam.

A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation. [R.] So great is the commutation that the soul then hated only that which now only it loves. South.

of an electrical current; an attachment to certain electrical machines, by means of which alternating currents are made to be continuous or to have the same direction.

To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of, as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence; to lessen; to diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. The sounds wa…

An assemblage or association of persons, either permanent or transient. Thou shalt meet a company of prophets. 1 Sam. x. 5.

y without excess. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words -- health, peace, and competence. Pope. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Shak.

Divided into squares of alternate tinctures in a single row; -- said of any bearing; or, in the case of a bearing having curved lines, divided into patches of alternate colors following the curve. If there are two rows it is called counter-compony.

or portrait, one made by a combination, or blending, of several distinct photographs. F. Galton. -- Composite sailing (Naut.), a combination of parallel and great circle sailing. -- Composite ship, one with a wooden casing and iron frame.