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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



82 words match “COMPARISON”

RESPECT n.
ove them." Hooker. To the publik good Private respects must yield. Milton. In respect, in comparison. [Obs.] Shak. -- In respect of. (a) In comparison with. [Obs.] Shak. (b) As to; in regard to. [Archaic] "Monsters in respect of their bodies." Bp. Wilkins. "In respect of these matters." Jowett. (Thucyd. ) -- In, or Wi…
SEMINAL a.
inal principles of generation; seminal virtue. The idea of God is, beyond all question or comparison, the one great seminal principle. Hare. Seminal leaf (Bot.), a seed leaf, or cotyleden. -- Seminal receptacle. (Zoöl.) Same as Spermatheca.
SET v.
page. To set abroach. See Abroach. [Obs.] Shak. -- To set against, to oppose; to set in comparison with, or to oppose to, as an equivalent in exchange; as, to set one thing against another. -- To set agoing, to cause to move. -- To set apart, to separate to a particular use; to separate from the rest; to reserve.…
SIGNAL a.
lect from the whole country simultaneous raports of local meteorological conditions, upon comparison of which at the central office, predictions concerning the weather are telegraphed to various sections, where they are made known by signals publicly displayed. -- Signal station, the place where a signal is displayed;…
SIMILE n.
in one or more of its aspects, to something else; a similitude; a poetical or imaginative comparison. A good swift simile, but something currish. Shak.
SIMILITUDE n.
The act of likening, or that which likens, one thing to another; fanciful or imaginative comparison; a simile. Tasso, in his similitudes, never departed from the woods; that is, all his comparisons were taken from the country. Dryden.
SO adv.
thus; for like reason; whith equal reason; -- used correlatively, following as, to denote comparison or resemblance; sometimes, also, following inasmuch as. As a war should be undertaken upon a just motive, so a prince ought to consider the condition he is in. Swift.
SPECTRUM n.
dark lines called Fraunhofer lines. -- Spectrum analysis, chemical analysis effected by comparison of the different relative positions and qualities of the fixed lines of spectra produced by flames in which different substances are burned or evaporated, each substance having its own characteristic system of lines. -…
STAIN v.
To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. She stains the ripest virgins of her age. Beau. & Fl. That did all other beasts in beauty stain. Spenser. Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, -- often used for making ornament windows.
STANDARD a.
Being, affording, or according with, a standard for comparison and judgment; as, standard time; standard weights and measures; a standard authority as to nautical terms; standard gold or silver.
SUCH a.
r as introducing the word or proposition which defines the similarity, or the standard of comparison; as, the books are not such that I can recommend them, or, not such as I can recommend; these apples are not such as those we saw yesterday; give your children such precepts as tend to make them better. And in his time…
TEST n.
paper is turned brown by alkalies, etc. (b) (Law) An instrument admitted as a standard or comparison of handwriting in those jurisdictions in which comparison of hands is permitted as a mode of proving handwriting. -- Test tube. (Chem.) (a) A simple tube of thin glass, closed at one end, for heating solutions and for…
THAN conj.
A particle expressing comparison, used after certain adjectives and adverbs which express comparison or diversity, as more, better, other, otherwise, and the like. It is usually followed by the object compared in the nominative case. Sometimes, however, the object compared is placed in the objective case, and than is t…
THERMAL a.
. See under Conductivity, and Spectrum. -- Thermal unit (Physics), a unit chosen for the comparison or calculation of quantities of heat. The unit most commonly employed is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram or one pound of water from zero to one degree Centigrade. See Calorie, and under…
TINTOMETER n.
An apparatus for the determination of colors by comparison with arbitrary standards; a colorimeter.
TO prep.
Comparison; as, three is to nine as nine is to twenty-seven; it is ten to one that you will offend him. All that they did was piety to this. B. Jonson.
TOUCH-NEEDLE n.
some known proportion with copper, for trying the purity of articles of gold or silver by comparison of the streaks made by the article and the bar on a touchstone.
UNDERSTANDING n.
noetic or discursive faculty in its widest signification, for the faculty of relations or comparisons; and thus in the meaning in which "verstand" is now employed by the Germans. Sir W. Hamilton.
UNDERVALUE v.
o esteem lightly; to treat as of little worth; to hold in mean estimation; to despise. In comparison of it I undervalued all ensigns of authority. Atterbury. I write not this with the least intention to undervalue the other parts of poetry. Dryden.
UNIT n.
neral, a determinate quantity or magnitude of the kind designated, taken as a standard of comparison for others of the same kind, in assigning to them numerical values, as 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile, 1 square foot, 1 square yard, 1 cubic foot, 1 peck, 1 bushel, 1 gallon, 1 cent, 1 ounce, 1 pound, 1 hour, and the like; more…
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