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A large mass or avalanche of snow which slips down the side of a mountain, etc.

Naturally growing in groups or masses; -- said of many individual plants of the same species.

g by that a history of every systematic attempt to provide a new social existence for the mass of the workers. F. Harrison.

A mineral of a white to blue or gray color, occuring commonly in dodecahedrons, also massive. It is a silicate of alumina and soda with some chlorine.

ity or affection of matter by which its particles exclude or resist all others; hardness; massiveness. That which hinders the approach of two bodies when they are moving one toward another, I call solidity. Locke.

A directive influence exercised by a mass of matter upon growing organs. Encyc. Brit.

some leagues to sea." Shak. On its outer point, some miles away. The lighthouse lifts its massive masonry. Longfellow.

ds." Spenser. "A sort of steers." Spenser. "A sort of doves." Dryden. "A sort of rogues." Massinger. A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. Chapman.

A mass of solidified metal in a furnace hearth; a salamander.

A mass, or heap, confusedly mingled. [Prov. Eng.]

A primitive seminal cell, occuring in masses in the seminal tubules. It divides into a mass (spermosphere) of small cells (spermoblast), which in turn give rise to spermatozoids.

A mass or ball of cells formed by the repeated division of a male germinal cell (spermospore), each constituent cell (spermoblast) of which is converted into a spermatozoid; a spermatogemma.

n being thrown on a surface of highly heated metal, it rolls about in spheroidal drops or masses, at a temperature several degrees below ebullition, and without actual contact with the heated surface, -- a phenomenon due to the repulsive force of heat, the intervention of a cushion of nonconducting vapor, and the cooli…

Siderite occuring in spheroidal masses.

fore it is kneaded and formed into loaves, and after it is converted into a light, spongy mass by the agency of the yeast or leaven.

A closed body or conceptacle containing one or more masses of spores or sporangia.

A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.

To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.

A small arch thrown across the corner of a square room to support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or drum rests upon a square tower; -- called also sconce, and sconcheon.

orating the sorrows of the mother of our Lord at the foot of the cross. It is read in the Mass of the Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, and is sung by Catholics when making "the way of the cross" (Via Crucis). See Station, 7 (c).