Search the Dictionary

hey shall display a wider front and less depth; -- the reverse of ploy; as, to deploy a column of troops into line of battle.

The act, process, or result of any accurate measurement, as of length, volume, weight, intensify, etc.; as, the determination of the ohm or of the wave length of light; the determination of the salt in sea water, or the oxygen in the air.

from Detonate. Detonating gas, a mixture of two volumes of hydrogen with one volume of oxygen, which explodes with a loud report upon ignition. -- Detonating powder, any powder or solid substance, as fulminate of mercury, which when struck, explodes with violence and a loud report. -- Detonating primer, a primer expl…

To take credit or reputation from; to defame. That calumnious critic . . . Detracting what laboriously we do. Drayton.

ning in the estimation of others; the act of depreciating another, from envy or malice; calumny.

Defamatory by denial of desert; derogatory; calumnious. Sir T. Browne.

Deviation of the line of the vertical, the difference between the actual direction of a plumb line and the direction it would have if the earth were a perfect ellipsoid and homogeneous, -- caused by the attraction of a mountain, or irregularities in the earth's density.

ng, or causing to turn, toward the right hand; esp., turning the plane of polarization of luminous rays toward the right hand; as, dextrorotatory crystals, sugars, etc. Cf. Levorotatory.

A complete course or vibration; time of vibration, as of a pendulum. [Obs.] Locke.

The distance through the lower part of the shaft of a column, used as a standard measure for all parts of the order. See Module. Conjugate diameters. See under Conjugate.

Same as Columbium. [Obs.]

A hydrate of alumina, often occurring in white lamellar masses with brilliant pearly luster; -- so named on account of its decrepitating when heated before the blowpipe.

See under Intercolumniation.

A columnar cactaceous plant of the West Indies (Cereus Swartzii).

Not bright or distinct; wanting luminousness or clearness; obscure in luster or sound; dusky; darkish; obscure; indistinct; overcast; tarnished. The dim magnificence of poetry. Whewell. How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, T…

The degree of manifoldness of a quantity; as, time is quantity having one dimension; volume has three dimensions, relative to extension.

ake away; to subtract. Neither shall ye diminish aught from it. Deut. iv. 2. Diminished column, one whose upper diameter is less than the lower. -- Diminished, or Diminishing, scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the volute. Gwilt. -- Diminishing rule (Arch.…

ing the tail fin divided into two equal parts by the notochord, or end of the vertebral column; protocercal. See Protocercal.

Having a double row of columns on each on the flanks, as well as in front and rear; -- said of a temple.

= Columbus Day, above.