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old, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin. To prevent such abuses, ... it has been found necessary ... to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities…

Neither good nor bad; of medium quality; middling; not decided or pronounced. Some things good, and some things ill, do seem, And neutral some, in her fantastic eye. Sir J. Davies.

An instrument or medium by which some important action is performed, or an important end accomplished; as, legislatures, courts, armies, taxgatherers, etc., are organs of government.

thin leaf of metal, as for use in gilding or enameling, or to show through a translucent medium.

he faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from conception. Sir W. Hamilton. Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not conscious…

A kind of tobacco with medium-sized leaf, small stem, tough and gummy fiber, raised in Louisiana, and cured in its own juices, so as to be very dark colored, usually black. It is marketed in tightly wrapped rolls called carottes.

n extraordinary and grotesque dialect, employed in the commercial cities of China, as the medium of communication between foreign merchants and the Chinese. Its base is English, with a mixture of Portuguese and Hindoostanee. Johnson's Cyc. -- Pigeon grass (Bot.), a kind of foxtail grass (Setaria glauca), of some value…

an oxidizer. -- Platinum lamp (Elec.), a kind of incandescent lamp of which the luminous medium is platinum. See under Incandescent. -- Platinum metals (Chem.), the group of metallic elements which in their chemical and physical properties resemble platinum. These consist of the light platinum group, viz., rhodium, r…

To separate from a solution, or other medium, in the form of a precipitate; as, water precipitates camphor when in solution with alcohol. The light vapor of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold. W. Irving.

A stroke or impulse by which some medium is affected, as in the propagation of sounds.

Any measured or regular beat; any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement. The measured pulse of racing oars. Tennyson. When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air,…

break the natural course of, as rays of light orr heat, when passing from one transparent medium to another of different density; to cause to deviate from a direct course by an action distinct from reflection; as, a dense medium refrcts the rays of light as they pass into it from a rare medium.

Serving or tending to refract; as, a refracting medium. Refracting angle of a prism (Opt.), the angle of a triangular prism included between the two sides through which the refracted beam passes in the decomposition of light. -- Refracting telescope. (Opt.) See under Telescope.

he change in the direction of ray of light, heat, or the like, when it enters obliquely a medium of a different density from that through which it has previously moved. Refraction out of the rarer medium into the denser, is made towards the perpendicular. Sir I. Newton.

Capable of being refracted, or turned out of a direct course, in passing from one medium to another, as rays of light. -- Re*fran"gi*ble*ness, n.

Making resistance; opposing; as, a resisting medium. -- Re*sist"ing ly, adv.

e nobles of the nation, and having supreme legislative authority. The senate was thus the medium through which all affairs of the whole government had to pass. Dr. W. Smith.

, or the consciousness of an impression, made upon the central nervous organ, through the medium of a sensory or afferent nerve or one of the organs of sense; a feeling, or state of consciousness, whether agreeable or disagreeable, produced either by an external object (stimulus), or by some change in the internal stat…

A disposition of property for the benefit of some person or persons, usually through the medium of trustees, and for the benefit of a wife, children, or other relatives; jointure granted to a wife, or the act of granting it.

Anything by which a transaction is facilitated; a medium; -- by way of contempt. Spectator.