Search the Dictionary

To bring to a required form and size; to shape aright; to adapt to a model; to adjust; -- said especially of the work of a carpenter, machinist, tailor, etc. The carpenter . . . marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes. Is. xliv. 13.

One who fits or makes to fit; esp.: (a) One who tries on, and adjusts, articles of dress. (b) One who fits or adjusts the different parts of machinery to each other.

To put in prder; to arrange; to dispose of; to adjust; to set to rights; to set or place in the manner desired or most suitable; hence, to repair; as, to fix the clothes; to fix the furniture of a room. [Colloq. U.S.]

ar shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion into a certain state or condition; to arrange; to adjust; also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold by influence, etc.; to train. 'T is education forms the common mind. Pope. Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind. Dryden.

To fit to something else, or for some specific end; to adjust; to regulate; to shape; to conform. And frame my face to all occasions. Shak. We may in some measure frame our minds for the reception of happiness. Landor. The human mind is framed to be influenced. I. Taylor.

parts in place or bind them together, or to afford a bearing surface; -- usually held or adjusted by means of a wedge, key, or screw. Gib and key, or Gib and cotter (Steam Engine), the fixed wedge or gib, and the driving wedge,key, or cotter, used for tightening the strap which holds the brasses at the end of a connec…

calendar, the calendar as reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, including the method of adjusting the leap years so as to harmonize the civil year with the solar, and also the regulation of the time of Easter and the movable feasts by means of epochs. See Gregorian year (below). -- Gregorian chant (Mus.), plain song…

, one the rim of which serves as the handle by which a valve, car brake, or other part is adjusted.

To adjust in fit proportions; to cause to agree; to show the agreement of; to reconcile the apparent contradiction of.

- To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment. Tillotson.

izon, a level mirror, as the surface of mercury in a shallow vessel, or a plane reflector adjusted to the true level artificially; -- used chiefly with the sextant for observing the double altitude of a celestial body. -- Celestial horizon. (Astron.) See def. 2, above. -- Dip of the horizon (Astron.), the vertical an…

which are situated all the points which are seen single while the point of sight, or the adjustment of the eyes, remains unchanged. The sum of all the points which are seen single, while the point of sight remains unchanged, is called the horopter. J. Le Conte.

To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind. It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention. Dryden.

A form of hygrometer having wet and dry bulb thermometers, with an adjustable index showing directly the percentage of moisture in the air, etc.

To have time before pleading; to have delay for mutual adjustment. Blackstone.

erse with his opponent, originally with the object of effecting, if possible, an amicable adjustment of the suit. The actual object, however, has long been merely to obtain further time to plead, answer to the allegations of the opposite party.

t complete; not filled up; not finished; not having all its parts, or not having them all adjusted; imperfect; defective. A most imperfect and incomplete divine. Milton.

Want of coördination; lack of harmonious adjustment or action. Incoördination of muscular movement (Physiol.), irregularity in movements resulting from inharmonious action of the muscles in consequence of loss of voluntary control over them.

ing of a mathematical instrument arising from the zero of the index not being in complete adjustment with that of the limb, or with its theoretically perfect position in the instrument; a correction to be applied to the instrument readings equal to the error of the zero adjustment. -- Index expurgatorius. Etym: [L.] S…

Entangled; involved; perplexed; complicated; difficult to understand, follow, arrange, or adjust; as, intricate machinery, labyrinths, accounts, plots, etc. His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness. Addison. The nature of man is intricate. Burke.…