Search the Dictionary

heat; burning; parching. "Torrid heat." Milton. Torrid zone (Geog.), that space or board belt of the earth, included between the tropics, over which the sun is vertical at some period of every year, and the heat is always great.

A smooth-rimmed friction wheel for giving motion to an endless link belt or the like.

eans of prison discipline. Also, a mill worked by horses, dogs, etc., treading an endless belt.

the sea where a steady wind is not expected, especially the parts between the trade-wind belts. Independent variable (Math.), that one of two or more variables, connected with each other in any way whatever, to which changes are supposed to be given at will. Thus, in the equation x2 - y2 = R2, if arbitrary changes are…

A girdle or belt for the waist. [Obs.] Shak. Waist anchor. See Sheet anchor, 1, in the Vocabulary.

Beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as money, and also wrought into belts, etc., as an ornament. Round his waist his belt of wampum. Longfellow. Girded with his wampum braid. Whittier.

for dusting, cleaning glass or plate, etc.; also, alumed, or buff, leather for soldiers' belts.

n at the waist, while the front and sides of the gown are shaped to the person and have a belt or its equivalent.

a series of strips of wood or glass graduated in length to the musical scale, resting on belts of straw, and struck with two small hammers. Called in Germany strohfiedel, or straw fiddle.

t. of Ship. Golden Yard, or Yard and Ell (Astron.), a popular name the three stars in the belt of Orion. -- Under yard [i. e., under the rod], under contract. [Obs.] Chaucer.

An imaginary belt in the heavens, 16º or 18º broad, in the middle of which is the ecliptic, or sun's path. It comprises the twelve constellations, which one constituted, and from which were named, the twelve signs of the zodiac.

A belt or girdle which the Christians and Jews of the Levant were obliged to wear to distinguish them from Mohammedans. [Written also zonnar.]