Search the Dictionary

f telemeter for measuring the distance of an object of known dimensions, by observing the angle it subtends; especially (Surveying), a graduated rod used to measure the distance of the place where it stands from an instrument having a telescope, by observing the number of the graduations of the rod that are seen betwee…

a socket joint at the top, used, instead of a tripod, for supporting a compass. -- Staff angle (Arch.), a square rod of wood standing flush with the wall on each of its sides, at the external angles of plastering, to prevent their being damaged. -- The staff of life, bread. "Bread is the staff of life." Swift. -- St…

To set or adorn with stars, or bright, radiating bodies; to bespangle; as, a robe starred with gems. "A sable curtain starred with gold." Young.

o forty or more. The rays are often long, but are sometimes so short as to appear only as angles to the disklike body. Called also sea star, five-finger, and stellerid.

Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind. Shak. Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead. Fuller. Stark naked, wholly naked; quite bare. Strip your sword stark naked. Shak.

Adorned or studded with stars; bespangled.

ter (Surv.), an instrument for locating on a chart the position of a place from which the angles subtended by three distant objects, whose positions are known, have been observed. -- Station staff (Surv.), an instrument for taking angles in surveying. Craig.

Making a large angle with the plane of the horizon; ascending or descending rapidly with respect to a horizontal line or a level; precipitous; as, a steep hill or mountain; a steep roof; a steep ascent; a steep declivity; a steep barometric gradient.

To project upward, or make an angle with the horizon or with the line of a vessel's keel; -- said of the bowsprit, etc.

allow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne.

The act of strangling, or the state of being strangled.

To hold or bind with, or as with, a strap; to entangle. [Obs.] Chapman.

n beds; to strew sand on or over a floor; to strew flowers over a grave. And strewed his mangled limbs about the field. Dryden. On a principal table a desk was open and many papers [were] strewn about. Beaconsfield.

To cut off, as a mortar joint, even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle.

Placed under the axil, or angle formed by the branch of a plant with the stem, or a leaf with the branch.

but so inclined to the axis that the section is a circle; applied also to two similar triangles when so placed as to have a common angle at the vertex, the opposite sides not being parallel. Brande & C.

To extend under, or be opposed to; as, the line of a triangle which subtends the right angle; the chord subtends an arc.

A tangled mass of floating vegetal matter obstructing navigation. [Central Africa]

o become choked, stifled, or smothered. "A swelling discontent is apt to suffocate and strangle without passage." collier.

rees which, if added to a specified arc, make it 180°; the quantity by which an arc or an angle falls short of 180 degrees, or an arc falls short of a semicircle.