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Not far distant in time, place, or degree; not remote; close at hand; adjacent; neighboring; nigh. "As one near death." Shak. He served great Hector, and was ever near, Not with his trumpet only, but his spear. Dryden.

atter situated beyond the solar system among the stars. True nebulæ are gaseous; but very distant star clusters often appear like them in the telescope.

Not distant or remote in place or time; near. The loud tumult shows the battle nigh. Prior.

vable in the sky. The star a (alpha) of the Little Bear, is our present north star, being distant from the pole about 1º 25', and from year to year approaching slowly nearer to it. It is called also Cynosura, polestar, and by astronomers, Polaris.

The point in the horizon between the north and west, and equally distant from each; the northwest part or region.

he moon or a planet, when half way between conjunction, or opposition, and quadrature, or distant from another body 45 degrees.

On the farther side; most distant; on the side of an animal or a team farthest from the driver when he is on foot; in the United States, the right side; as, the off horse or ox in a team, in distinction from the Ant: nigh or Ant: near horse or ox; the off leg.

Shy or distant in manner. [Colloq. U.S.]

e of the greater ordinaries, being a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon, equally distant from the two edges, and occupying one third of it.

plied to eyeglasses or spectacles divided into two segments, the upper being designed for distant vision, the lower for vision of near objects.

e with a plane parallel to one of its sides. It is a curve, any point of which is equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed straight line, called the directrix. See Focus.

a mirror having a paraboloidal surface which gives for parallel rays (as those from very distant objects) images free from aberration. It is used in reflecting telescopes. -- Parabolic spindle, the solid generated by revolving the portion of a parabola cut off by a line drawn at right angles to the axis of the curve,…

Extended in the same direction, and in all parts equally distant; as, parallel lines; parallel planes. Revolutions . . . parallel to the equinoctial. Hakluyt.

aracter, or identity of, by means of the senses; to see, hear, or feel; as, to perceive a distant ship; to perceive a discord. Reid.

ce. Hence, aërial perspective, the assumed greater vagueness or uncertainty of outline in distant objects. Aërial perspective is the expression of space by any means whatsoever, sharpness of edge, vividness of color, etc. Ruskin.

pipe with pumping machinery and apparatus for conveying liquids, esp. petroleum, between distant points.

plane. See Perspective. -- Plane at infinity (Geom.), a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated. -- Plane iron, the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane. -- Plane of polarization. (Opt.) See Polarization. -- Plane of projection. (a) The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding t…

A point upon the surface of a sphere equally distant from every part of the circumference of a great circle; or the point in which a diameter of the sphere perpendicular to the plane of such circle meets the surface. Such a point is called the pole of that circle; as, the pole of the horizon; the pole of the ecliptic;…

olors, under Color. -- Prismatic compass (Surv.), a compass having a prism for viewing a distant object and the compass card at the same time. -- Prismatic spectrum (Opt.), the spectrum produced by the passage of light through a prism.

To put off to a distant time; to postpone. Shak.