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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



493 words match “CURVE”

CHAETOGNATHA n.
f free-swimming marine worms, of which the genus Sagitta is the type. They have groups of curved spines on each side of the head.
CHORD n. 2 definitions
A right line uniting the extremities of the arc of a circle or curve.
CHOUGH n.
Crow family (Fregilus graculus) of Europe. It is of a black color, with a long, slender, curved bill and red legs; -- also called chauk, chauk-daw, chocard, Cornish chough, red-legged crow. The name is also applied to several allied birds, as the Alpine chough. Cornish chough (Her.), a bird represented black, with red…
CIRCLE n.
A plane figure, bounded by a single curve line called its circumference, every part of which is equally distant from a point within it, called the center.
CIRCULAR a.
Circular are, any portion of the circumference of a circle. -- Circular cubics (Math.), curves of the third order which are imagined to pass through the two circular points at infinity. -- Circular functions. (Math.) See under Function. -- Circular instruments, mathematical instruments employed for measuring angles…
CIRCUMFLEX a.
Curved circularly; -- applied to several arteries of the hip and thigh, to arteries, veins, and a nerve of the shoulder, and to other parts.
CIRCUMFLEXION n.
The act of bending, or causing to assume a curved form.
CIRRIPEDIA n.
omposed of several pieces. From the opening of the shell the animal throws out a group of curved legs, looking like a delicate curl, whence the name of the group. See Anatifa.
CISSOID n.
A curve invented by Diocles, for the purpose of solving two celebrated problems of the higher geometry; viz., to trisect a plane angle, and to construct two geometrical means between two given straight lines.
CLASS n.
congregation is divided, and which is under the supervision of a class leader. Class of a curve (Math.), the kind of a curve as expressed by the number of tangents that can be drawn from any point to the curve. A circle is of the second class. -- Class meeting (Methodist Church), a meeting of a class under the charge…
CLAW n.
Anything resembling the claw of an animal, as the curved and forked end of a hammer for drawing nails.
COCKATOO n.
A bird of the Parrot family, of the subfamily Cacatuinæ, having a short, strong, and much curved beak, and the head ornamented with a crest, which can be raised or depressed at will. There are several genera and many species; as the broad-crested (Plictolophus, or Cacatua, cristatus), the sulphur-crested (P. galeritus)…
COELOSPERMOUS a.
Hollow-seeded; having the ventral face of the seedlike carpels incurved at the ends, as in coriander seed.
COMPASS n. 2 definitions
nvex in the direction of its length on the under side, for smoothing the concave faces of curved woodwork. -- Compass plant, Compass flower (Bot.), a plant of the American prairies (Silphium laciniatum), not unlike a small sunflower; rosinweed. Its lower and root leaves are vertical, and on the prairies are disposed t…
COMPASSING a.
Curved; bent; as, compassing timbers.
COMPLEX n.
hich satisfy a single relation constitute a complex; as, all the lines which meet a given curve make up a complex. The lines which satisfy two relations constitute a congruency of lines; as, the entire system of lines, each one of which meets two given surfaces, is a congruency.
COMPONY; COMPONE a.
te tinctures in a single row; -- said of any bearing; or, in the case of a bearing having curved lines, divided into patches of alternate colors following the curve. If there are two rows it is called counter-compony.
CONCAVE a. 2 definitions
Hollow and curved or rounded; vaulted; -- said of the interior of a curved surface or line, as of the curve of the of the inner surface of an eggshell, in opposition to convex; as, a concave mirror; the concave arch of the sky.
CONCHO-SPIRAL n.
A kind of spiral curve found in certain univalve shells. Agassiz.
CONCHOID n.
A curve, of the fourth degree, first made use of by the Greek geometer, Nicomedes, who invented it for the purpose of trisecting an angle and duplicating the cube.
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