Search the Dictionary

Alone by a senior officer present during evolutions or drills, when it commands "Silence."

A member of a French political club of the time of the first Revolution, of which Danton and Marat were members, and which met in an old Cordelier convent in Paris.

ttached to an engine, printing press, or other machine, for the purpose of counting the revolutions or the pulsations. Knight.

An evolution by which a body of troops change front or reverse the direction of march while retaining the same men in the front rank; also, a movement by which the rear rank becomes the front one, either with or without changing the right to the left.

One of the marauders who, in the Revolutionary War infested the neutral ground between the American and British lines, and committed depredations on the Americans.

A vessel; vessels of any kind; -- generally used in a collective sense. The evolutions of the numerous tiny craft moving over the lake. Prof. Wilson. Small crafts, small vessels, as sloops, schooners, ets.

t on the Metonic cycle. -- Cycle of eclipses, a priod of about 6,586 days, the time of revolution of the moon's node; -- called Saros by the Chaldeans. -- Cycle of indiction, a period of 15 years, employed in Roman and ecclesiastical chronology, not founded on any astronomical period, but having reference to certain…

A contrivance for recording the revolutions of a wheel, as of a bicycle.

The title of the eldest son of the king of France, and heir to the crown. Since the revolution of 1830, the title has been discontinued.

The period of the earth's revolution on its axis. -- ordinarily divided into twenty-four hours. It is measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and takes a specific name from that of the body. Thus, if this is the sun, the day (the interval between two success…

Strong excitement; wild enthusiasm; madness. The popular delirium [of the French Revolution] at first caught his enthusiastic mind. W. Irving. The delirium of the preceding session (of Parliament). Motley. Delirium tremens (. Etym: [L., trembling delirium] (Med.), a violent delirium induced by the excessive and prolong…

To go through a process of natural evolution or growth, by successive changes from a less perfect to a more perfect or more highly organized state; to advance from a simpler form of existence to one more complex either in structure or function; as, a blossom develops from a bud; the seed develops into a plant; the embr…

The elaboration of a theme or subject; the unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole piece or movement from a leading theme or motive. Development theory (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, a…

The act or process of devolving;; devolution.

The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as the…

lex substances, within the organism, into simpler ones suitable only for excretion, with evolution of energy, -- a normal nutritional process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism. The breaking down of already existing chemical compounds into simpler ones, sometimes called disassimilation. Martin.…

o deter, from an undertaking, or from the prosecution of anything; a determent; as, the revolution was commenced under every possible discouragement. "Discouragements from vice." Swift.

, a diurnal fever; a diurnal task; diurnal aberration, or diurnal parallax; the diurnal revolution of the earth. Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring. Shak.

Belonging to that space of time in which the moon performs one revolution, from ascending node to ascending node. See Dragon's head, under Dragon. [Obs.] "Dracontic month." Crabb.

o hold back. A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her. Russell.