UNDER prep. 8 definitions
weight, age, or the like; in a relation of the less to the greater, of inferiority, or of falling short. Three sons he dying left under age. Spenser. Medicines take effect sometimes under, and sometimes above, the natural proportion of their virtue. Hooker. There are several hundred parishes in England under twenty pou…
UNDERMINE v. 2 definitions
To excavate the earth beneath, or the part of, especially for the purpose of causing to fall or be overthrown; to form a mine under; to sap; as, to undermine a wall. A vast rock undermined from one end to the other, and a highway running through it. Addison.
UNDULATORY a.
waves; resembling the motion of waves, which successively rise or swell rise or swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating motion, similar to that of waves. Undulatory theory, or Wave theory (of light) (Opt.), that theory which regards its various phenomena as due to undulations in an ethereal medium, propa…
VALVE n. 7 definitions
ug, or cover, applied to an aperture so that by its movement, as by swinging, lifting and falling, sliding, turning, or the like, it will open or close the aperture to permit or prevent passage, as of a fluid.
VENEREAL a. 6 definitions
to venery, or sexual love; relating to sexual intercourse. Into the snare I fell Of fair, fallacious looks, venereal trains, Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life. Milton.
VIVIPAROUS a.
y bulbs instead of seeds, or by the seeds themselves germinating on the plant, instead of falling, as they usually do; -- opposed to oviparous. Viviparous fish. (Zoöl.) See Embiotocoid. -- Viviparous shell (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of operculated fresh-water gastropods belonging to Viviparus, Melantho, and…