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A primitive word; a radix, root, or simple, underived, uncompounded word; an etymon.

ht, 226.4. Radium was discovered by M. and Mme. Curie, of Paris, who in 1902 separated compounds of it by a tedious process from pitchblende. Its compounds color flames carmine and give a characteristic spectrum. It resembles barium chemically. Radium preparations are remarkable for maintaining themselves at a higher t…

The sweepings of society; the rabble; the mob; -- chiefly used in the compound or duplicate, riffraff.

To fill or compact by pounding or driving. A ditch . . . was filled with some sound materials, and rammed to make the foundation solid. Arbuthnot.

ing 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 require one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the gun…

r, quantity, or degree; rate; proportion; as, the ratio of representation in Congress. Compound ratio, Duplicate ratio, Inverse ratio, etc. See under Compound, Duplicate, etc. -- Ratio of a geometrical progression, the constant quantity by which each term is multiplied to produce the succeeding one.…

Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; -- said of formulæ. See under Formula. Rational horizon. (Astron.) See Horizon, 2 (b). -- Rational quantity (Alg. ), one that can be expressed without the use of a radical sign, or in extract parts of unity; -- opposed to irrational or ra…

ake fern (Bot.), a common American fern (Botrychium Virginianum) having a triangular decompound frond and a long-stalked panicle of spore cases rising from the middle of the frond. -- Rattlesnake grass (Bot.), a handsome American grass (Glyceria Canadensis) with an ample panicle of rather large ovate spikelets, each o…

A radiating part of the flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius. See Radius.

ulting in a chemical change in one or more of these agents, with the production of new compounds or the manifestation of distinctive characters. See Blowpipe reaction, Flame reaction, under Blowpipe, and Flame.

steam from the high-pressure cylinder before it enters the low-pressure cylinder, in a compound engine.

in over and above; to be redundant; to overflow. For every dram of honey therein found, A pound of gall doth over it redound. Spenser.

To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp. It were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust. Milton.

an officer, steward, bailiff, or governor; -- used chiefly in compounds; as, shirereeve, now written sheriff; portreeve, etc. Chaucer. Piers Plowman.

The act, operation, or process of resolving. Specifically: (a) The act of separating a compound into its elements or component parts.

s, or reduction to first principles; admitting solution or explanation; as, resolvable compounds; resolvable ideas or difficulties.

To separate the component parts of; to reduce to the constituent elements; -- said of compound substances; hence, sometimes, to melt, or dissolve. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Shak. Ye immortal souls, who once were men, And now resolved to elements again. Dryden.…

To sell in small quantities, as by the single yard, pound, gallon, etc.; to sell directly to the consumer; as, to retail cloth or groceries.

ute rodlike structures formed of two or more cells situated behind the retinulæ in the compound eyes of insects, etc. See Illust. under Ommatidium.

The continued stem or midrib of a pinnately compound leaf, as in a rose leaf or a fern.