Search the Dictionary

The attribute of being so much, and not more or less; the property of being measurable, or capable of increase and decrease, multiplication and division; greatness; and more concretely, that which answers the question "How much"; measure in regard to bulk or amount; determinate or comparative dimensions; measure; amoun…

Cut less than halfway into portions, usually somewhat rounded; five-lobed; as, a quinquelobate leaf or corolla.

The number resulting from the division of one number by another, and showing how often a less number is contained in a greater; thus, the quotient of twelve divided by four is three.

d by at or against, formerly by on. Shak. And rail at arts he did not understand. Dryden. Lesbia forever on me rails. Swift.

ce; as, the temperature ranged through seventy degrees Fahrenheit; the gun ranges three miles; the shot ranged four miles.

nclude automatic or semiautomatic rapid-fire guns; the former being automatic guns of not less than one inch caliber, firing a shell of not less than one pound weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and firing the next shot, the latter being guns that requ…

To make rare, thin, porous, or less dense; to expand or enlarge without adding any new portion of matter to; -- opposed to condense.

hat of the civet, which is highly prized by the Javanese. Called also Malacca weasel, and lesser civet.

motives; to forsake one's associates for one's own advantage; in the trades, to work for less wages, or on other conditions, than those established by a trades union. Coleridge . . . incurred the reproach of having ratted, solely by his inability to follow the friends of his early days. De Quincey.

of the first by the second; thus, the ratio of 3 to 6 is expressed by a to b by a/b; or (less commonly) the second is made the dividend; as, a:b = b/a.

ty and confusion. [Obs.] Till, by their own perplexities involved, They ravel more, still less resolved. Milton.

To cut down to a less number of decks, and thus to an inferior rate or glass, as a ship; hence, to prune or abridge by cutting off or retrenching parts; as, to razee a book, or an article.

to read a book. Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille. Chaucer. Well could he rede a lesson or a story. Chaucer.

used while reading the service in a church. -- Reading glass, a large lens with more or less magnifying power, attached to a handle, and used in reading, etc. -- Reading man, one who reads much; hence, in the English universities, a close, industrious student. -- Reading room, a room appropriated to reading; a room…

an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument. I'll give him reasons for it. Shak. The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next…

pump, from which the air has been withdrawn; a vessel the interior of which is a more or less complete vacuum.

The rehearsal of a lesson by pupils before their instructor.

To rehearse, as a lesson to an instructor.

part of a distilling apparatus in which the more volatile portions are separated from the less volatile by the process of evaporation and condensation; a rectifier.

The doubling of a stem or syllable (more or less modified), with the effect of changing the time expressed, intensifying the meaning, or making the word more imitative; also, the syllable thus added; as, L. tetuli; poposci.