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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



235 words match “ALTERN”

COUNTER-PALY a.
hen divided fesswise, so that each vertical piece is cut into two, having the colors used alternately or counterchanged. Thus the escutcheon in the illustration may also be blazoned paly of six per fess counterchanged argent and azure.
CRAWL STROKE n.
A racing stroke, in which the swimmer, lying flat on the water with face submerged, takes alternate overhand arm strokes while moving his legs up and down alternately from the knee.
DANCER n.
ractices dancing. The merry dancers, beams of the northern lights when they rise and fall alternately without any considerable change of length. See Aurora borealis, under Aurora.
DECUSSATE; DECUSSATED a.
Consisting of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other; as, a decussated period.
DEPHASE v.
To put out of phase, as two parts of a single alternating current.
DEUTEROZOOID n.
sexual, zooids produced by budding or fission from the primary zooids, in animals having alternate generations. In the tapeworms, the joints are deuterozooids.
DIGENEA n.
A division of Trematoda in which alternate generations occur, the immediate young not resembling their parents.
DILEMMA n. 2 definitions
An argument which presents an antagonist with two or more alternatives, but is equally conclusive against him, whichever alternative he chooses.
DIRECT CURRENT n.
A current flowing in one direction only; -- distinguished from alternating current. When steady and not pulsating a direct current is often called a continuous current.
DIVERSIFICATION n.
State of diversity or variation; variegation; modification; change; alternation. Infinite diversifications of tints may be produced. Adventurer.
DOLIOLUM n.
A genus of freeswimming oceanic tunicates, allied to Salpa, and having alternate generations.
EBB n.
r ebb of life." Roscommon. Painting was then at its lowest ebb. Dryden. Ebb and flow, the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. This alternation between unhealthy activity and depression, this ebb and flow of the industrial. A. T. Hadley.
EITHER conj.
precedes two, or more, coördinate words or phrases, and is introductory to an alternative. It is correlative to or. Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth. 1 Kings xviii. 27. Few writers hesitate to use either in what is called a triple alternative; such as, We must…
ELECTION n.
The choice, made by a party, of two alternatives, by taking one of which, the chooser is excluded from the other.
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC a.
magnetic theory of light (Physics), a theory of light which makes it consist in the rapid alternation of transient electric currents moving transversely to the direction of the ray.
ENDOGEN n.
ple of three, parts, and their embryos have but a single cotyledon, with the first leaves alternate. The endogens constitute one of the great primary classes of plants, and included all palms, true lilies, grasses, rushes, orchids, the banana, pineapple, etc. See Exogen.
ENGAGING a.
aging and disengaging gear or machinery, that in which, or by means of which, one part is alternately brought into gear or out of gear with another part, as occasion may require.
FAKE v.
To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form,, to prevent twisting when running out. Faking box, a box in which a long rope is faked; used in the life-saving service for a line attached to a shot.
FERRANTI PHENOMENON n.
An increase in the ratio of transformation of an alternating current converter, accompanied by other changes in electrical conditions, occurring when the secondary of the converter is connected with a condenser of moderate capacity; -- so called because first observed in connection with the Ferranti cables in London.…
FLASH n.
oduced by the revolution of reflectors, so as to show a flash of light every few seconds, alternating with periods of dimness. Knight. -- Flash in the pan, the flashing of the priming in the pan of a flintlock musket without discharging the piece; hence, sudden, spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing.…
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