Search the Dictionary

of ear trumpet with a flexible tube; -- named from the Sicilian tyrant, who constructed a device to overhear the prisoners in his dungeons. -- Ear sand (Anat.), otoliths. See Otolith. -- Ear snail (Zoöl.), any snail of the genus Auricula and allied genera. -- Ear stones (Anat.), otoliths. See Otolith. -- Ear trumpe…

Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent. Shak. You see the ways the fisherman doth take To catch the fish; what engines doth he make Bunyan. Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust. Shak.

Any device or contrivance; machinery; structure or arrangement. Shenstone.

iculties or distresses; to catch or involve in contradictions; as, to be entrapped by the devices of evil men. A golden mesh, to entrap the hearts of men. Shak.

by military and naval officers, differences of rank being marked by some peculiar form or device, as a star, eagle, etc.; a shoulder knot.

Pertaining to the epicycloid, or having its properties. Epicycloidal wheel, a device for producing straight-line motion from circular motion, on the principle that a pin fastened in the periphery of a gear wheel will describe a straight line when the wheel rolls around inside a fixed internal gear of twice its diameter…

A device for measuring, or an instrument for indicating, energy expended or work done; a dynamometer. -- Er`go*met"ric (#), a.

elightfully excellent; giving rare satisfaction; as, exquisite workmanship. Plate of rare device, and jewels Of reach and exquisite form. Shak. I have no exquisite reason for 't, but I have reason good enough. Shak.

One who, or that which, extinguishes; esp., a hollow cone or other device for extinguishing a flame, as of a torch or candle.

A part which acts by falling, as a stamp in a fulling mill, or the device in a spinning machine to arrest motion when a thread breaks.

fish on a fishing vessel. Bill of fare. See under Bill. -- Fare indicator or register, a device for recording the number of passengers on a street car, etc. -- Fare wicket. (a) A gate or turnstile at the entrance of toll bridges, exhibition grounds, etc., for registering the number of persons passing it. (b) An openi…

th the fate Of Cato and of Rome. Addison. Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown. Shak. The whizzing arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings. Pope.

Feed pump, a force pump for supplying water to a steam boiler, etc. -- Feed regulator, a device for graduating the operation of a feeder. Knight. -- Feed screw, in lathes, a long screw employed to impart a regular motion to a tool rest or tool, or to the work. -- Feed water, water supplied to a steam boiler, etc. -…

A device for supplying steam boilers with water as needed.

An amusement device consisting of a giant power-driven steel wheel, revolvable on its stationary axle, and carrying a number of balanced passenger cars around its rim; -- so called after G. W. G. Ferris, American engineer, who erected the first of its kind for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.…

may passed to cleanse it from the solid or impure matter held in suspension; a chamber or device containing such substance; a strainer; also, a similar device for purifying air. Filter bed, a pond, the bottom of which is a filter composed of sand gravel. -- Filter gallery, an underground gallery or tunnel, alongside o…

ut of a fire. (b) An apparatus for giving such an alarm. -- Fire annihilator, a machine, device, or preparation to be kept at hand for extinguishing fire by smothering it with some incombustible vapor or gas, as carbonic acid. -- Fire balloon. (a) A balloon raised in the air by the buoyancy of air heated by a fire pl…

A device for producing a striking display of light, or a figure or figures in plain or colored fire, by the combustion of materials that burn in some peculiar manner, as gunpowder, sulphur, metallic filings, and various salts. The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube filled with the combustibl…

A cloth usually bearing a device or devices and used to indicate nationality, party, etc., or to give or ask information; -- commonly attached to a staff to be waved by the wind; a standard; a banner; an ensign; the colors; as, the national flag; a military or a naval flag.

A gas burner with a device for lighting by an electric spark.