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the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle.

constituing the mass of an army, including corporals and privates. Wilhelm. (b) Those who constitute the bulk or working members of a party, society, etc., in distinction from the leaders.

Anything of an accessory character annexed to houses and lands, so as to constitute a part of them. This term is, however, quite frequently used in the peculiar sense of personal chattels annexed to lands and tenements, but removable by the person annexing them, or his personal representatives. In this latter sense, th…

; to answer for; to make the shape of; -- said of that out of which anything is formed or constituted, in whole or in part. The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority. Burke.

[the sounds represented by] letters, the material part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted by the motion and figure of the organs of speech. Holder.

The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.

To constitute or form a frontier; to have a frontier; -- with on. [Obs.] Sir W. Temple.

through a two-layered structural stage, or gastrula form, must have descended. This idea constitutes the Gastræa theory of Haeckel. See Gastrula.

Magistrates in Sparta, who with the ephori and kings, constituted the supreme civil authority.

the genus Micrococcus, occurring in the secretion in gonorrhea. It is believed by some to constitute the cause of this disease.

d equal to the average of grains taken from the middle of the ears of wheat. 7,000 grains constitute the pound avoirdupois, and 5,760 grains the pound troy. A grain is equal to .0648 gram. See Gram.

Popularly: Herbage; the plants which constitute the food of cattle and other beasts; pasture.

f parts, or a single part, bears to the fundamental or general type on which the group is constituted. Owen. -- Serial homology (Biol.), representative or repetitive relation in the segments of the same organism, -- as in the lobster, where the parts follow each other in a straight line or series. Owen. See Homotypy.…

Any animal of the genus Hyrax, of which about four species are known. They constitute the order Hyracoidea. The best known species are the daman (H. Syriacus) of Palestine, and the klipdas (H. capensis) of South Africa. Other species are H. arboreus and H. Sylvestris, the former from Southern, and the latter from Weste…

To form into a legal body, or body politic; to constitute into a corporation recognized by law, with special functions, rights, duties and liabilities; as, to incorporate a bank, a railroad company, a city or town, etc.

state of being indifferent, or not making a difference; want of sufficient importance to constitute a difference; absence of weight; insignificance.

s we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain. Trench.

os.), an act or method of reasoning from all the parts separately to the whole which they constitute, or into which they may be united collectively; the operation of discovering and proving general propositions; the scientific method. -- Philosophical induction, the inference, or the act of inferring, that what has be…

rtness; quietude. [R.] These vicissitudes of exertion and inertion of the arterial system constitute the paroxysms of remittent fever. E. Darwin.

Making part of a whole; necessary to constitute an entire thing; integral. Boyle. All these are integrant parts of the republic. Burke. Integrant parts, or particles, of bodies, those smaller particles into which a body may be reduced without loss of its original constitution, as by mechanical division.…