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The crossbeam forming the bearing piece of the body of a railway car; the central and principal cross beam of a car truck.

e act or art of managing the bow in playing on stringed instruments. Bowing constitutes a principal part of the art of the violinist, the violist, etc. J. W. Moore.

he P. aquilina, common in almost all countries. It has solitary stems dividing into three principal branches. Less properly: Any fern.

A shoot or secondary stem growing from the main stem, or from a principal limb or bough of a tree or other plant.

rrer. Wirt. To breast up a hedge, to cut the face of it on one side so as to lay bare the principal upright stems of the plants.

supporting, the upper part of a front or external wall; a long lintel; a girder; -- used principally above shop windows. [Written also brestsummer and bressummer.]

The principal ward of a key. Knight.

efract the light, by which it is rendered nore brilliant. It has at the middle, or top, a principal face, called the table, which is surrounded by a number of sloping facets forming a bizet; below, it has a small face or collet, parallel to the table, connected with the gridle by a pavilion of elongated facets. It is t…

The main mass or body; the largest or principal portion; the majority; as, the bulk of a debt. The bulk of the people must labor, Burke told them, "to obtain what by labor can be obtained." J. Morley.

One of a race of South African nomads, living principally in the deserts, and not classified as allied in race or language to any other people.

which busies one, or that which engages the time, attention, or labor of any one, as his principal concern or interest, whether for a longer or shorter time; constant employment; regular occupation; as, the business of life; business before pleasure. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Luke ii. 49.…

An officer in a king's or a nobleman's household, whose principal business it is to take charge of the liquors, plate, etc.; the head servant in a large house. The butler and the baker of the king of Egypt. Gen. xl. 5. Your wine locked up, your butler strolled abroad. Pope.

tional product; something produced, as in the course of a manufacture, in addition to the principal product.

To become changed into a stony or calcareous condition, in lime is a principal ingredient, as in the formation of teeth.

words or actions of another, with a view to injure his good name. The calumniation of her principal counselors. Bacon.

The principal grounds of a college or school, between the buildings or within the main inclosure; as, the college campus.

A corner; angle; niche. [Obs.] The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant. B. Jonson.

First in importance; chief; principal. A capital article in religion Atterbury. Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity. I. Taylor.

Of fundamental importance; preëminet; superior; chief; principal. The cardinal intersections of the zodiac. Sir T. Browne. Impudence is now a cardinal virtue. Drayton. But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye. Shak. Cardinal numbers, the numbers one, two, three, etc., in distinction from first, second, third, et…

The space between two principals or girders.