Search the Dictionary

part which has escaped from its natural cavity, and projects through some natural or accidental opening in the walls of the latter; as, hernia of the brain, of the lung, or of the bowels. Hernia of the abdominal viscera in most common. Called also rupture. Strangulated hernia, a hernia so tightly compressed in some pa…

Western; being in the west; occidental. [Poetic] Milton.

destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent. Life . . . is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.

Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous. As the ordinary course of common affairs is disposed of by general laws, so likewise men's rarer incident necessities and utilities should be with special equity…

Incidentally. [Obs.]

Done by intention or design; intended; designed; as, the act was intentional, not accidental.

Falling or coming between; happening accidentally. [Obs.] Boyle.

To mention among other things, or casually or incidentally. [Obs.]

rd; internal; hence, true; genuine; real; essential; inherent; not merely apparent or accidental; -- opposed to extrinsic; as, the intrinsic value of gold or silver; the intrinsic merit of an action; the intrinsic worth or goodness of a person. He was better qualified than they to estimate justly the intrinsic value of…

The shell of a large Dentalium (D. pretiosum), formerly used as shell money, and for ornaments, by the Indians of the west coast of North America.

o have hanged himself on a tree of this genus (C. Siliquastrum). C. Canadensis and C. occidentalis are the American species, and are called also redbud.

A workman's name for the graphite which forms incidentally in iron smelting.

nd redder flowers. -- Spurge laurel, Daphne Laureola. -- West Indian laurel, Prunus occidentalis.

Damaged by accidental exposure to light; light-fogged; -- said of plates or films.

Local color. (a) (Paint.) The color which belongs to an object, and is not caused by accidental influences, as of reflection, shadow, etc. (b) (Literature) Peculiarities of the place and its inhabitants where the scene of an action or story is laid. -- Local option, the right or obligation of determining by popular v…

tion; subject to change; changeable in form, qualities, or nature. Things of the most accidental and mutable nature. South.

Not including superfluous, incidental, or foreign matter, as boxes, coverings, wraps, etc.; free from charges, deductions, etc; as, net profit; net income; net weight, etc. [Less properly written nett.] Net tonnage (Naut.), the tonnage of a vessel after a deduction from the gross tonnage has been made, to allow space f…

screwed up tightly against another nut on the same bolt or screw, in order to prevent accidental unscrewing of the first nut. -- Nut buoy. See under Buoy. -- Nut coal, screened coal of a size smaller than stove coal and larger than pea coal; -- called also chestnut coal. -- Nut crab (Zoöl.), any leucosoid crab of th…

A species of demoniac enthusiasm or possession coming upon one who had accidentally looked upon a nymph; ecstasy. [R.] De Quincey. The nympholepsy of some fond despair. Byron.

In passing; incidentally; by the way. Obiter dictum (Law), an incidental and collateral opinion uttered by a judge. See Dictum, n., 2(a).