Search the Dictionary

Common character; likeness. [R.] The essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth. H. Spencer.

Essential quality; property; attribute. It seemed to us a condition and property of divine powers and beings to be hidden and unseen to others. Bacon.

That which constitutes or composes, as a part, or an essential part; a component; an element. We know how to bring these constituents together, and to cause them to form water. Tyndall.

Tending or assisting to constitute or compose; elemental; essential. An ingredient and constitutive part of every virtue. Barrow.

Of the same kind or nature; having the same substance or essence; coessential. Christ Jesus . . . coeternal and consubstantial with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. Foxe.

rime] (Law), the substantial and fundamental fact of the comission of a crime; the proofs essential to establish a crime. -- Corpus luteum (l; pl. Corpora lutea (-. Etym: [NL., luteous body] (Anat.), the reddish yellow mass which fills a ruptured Grafian follicle in the mammalian ovary. -- Corpus striatum (str; pl. C…

A substance obtained from the residues of the distillation of petroleum, essentially the same as vaseline, but of somewhat stiffer consistency, and consisting of a mixture of the higher paraffines; a kind of petroleum jelly.

nce of the tonka bean, the fruit of Dipterix (formerly Coumarouna) odorata and consisting essentially of coumarin proper, which is a white crystalline substance, C9H6O2, of vanilla- like odor, regarded as an anhydride of coumaric acid, and used in flavoring. Coumarin in also made artificially.

ral occuring in silky fibers of a lavender blue color. It is related to hornblende and is essentially a silicate of iron and soda; -- called also blue asbestus. A silicified form, in which the fibers penetrating quartz are changed to oxide of iron, is the yellow brown tiger-eye of the jewelers.

uring as a fine transparent membrane covering the aerial organs of plants, and forming an essential ingredient of cork; by oxidation it passes to suberic acid.

A fast sailing vessel with one mast, rigged in most essentials like a sloop. A cutter is narrower end deeper than a sloop of the same length, and depends for stability on a deep keel, often heavily weighted with lead.

dark green bitter resin extracted from the mezereon (Daphne mezereum) and regarded as the essential principle of the plant. [R.]

eterminate inflorescence, under Determinate. -- Law of definite proportions (Chem.), the essential law of chemical combination that every definite compound always contains the same elements in the same proportions by weight; and, if two or more elements form more than one compound with each other, the relative proport…

of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species. Milton has descriptions of morning. D. Webster.

The act of defining a concept or notion by giving its essential constituents.

A basic, dark-colored, holocrystalline, igneous rock, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar and pyroxene with magnetic iron; -- often limited to rocks pretertiary in age. It includes part of what was early called greenstone.

everal plants (whence its name), but now made of an oxide of lead and oil, and consisting essentially of glycerin mixed with lead salts of the fat acids.

An igneous, crystalline in structure, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar and hornblende. It includes part of what was called greenstone.

A system of essential rules and duties; as, the Romish or Anglican discipline.

To obtain by distillation; to extract by distillation, as spirits, essential oil, etc.; to rectify; as, to distill brandy from wine; to distill alcoholic spirits from grain; to distill essential oils from flowers, etc.; to distill fresh water from sea water. "Distilling odors on me." Tennyson.