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One of the chief magistrates in ancient Athens, especially, by preëminence, the first of the nine chief magistrates. -- Ar*chon"tic, a.

A fixed star of the first magnitude in the constellation Boötes.

Arius, who held Christ to be inferior to God the Father in nature and dignity, though the first and noblest of all created beings. -- n.

An alkaloid, first found in white cinchona bark.

The Ram; the first of the twelve signs in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the vernal equinox, about the 21st of March.

ensive plates of metal, as a ship of war; steel-clad. This day will be launched . . . the first armor-plated steam frigate in the possession of Great Britain. Times (Dec. 29, 1860).

sification distinguishing armored and protected cruisers from each other, except that the first have more or heavier armor than the second.

ird, etc., line of defense (the regular army and its reserves ordinarily constituting the first line of defense), territorial forces, or the like. In countries where conscription prevails a soldier is supposed to serve a given number of years. He is usually enrolled first in the regular army, then passes to its reserv…

l, iron, antimony, or sulphur. Orpiment and realgar are two of its sulphur compounds, the first of which is the true arsenticum of the ancients. The element and its compounds are active poisons. Specific gravity from 5.7 to 5.9. Atomic weight. Symbol As.

he segments of an articulated appendage. Articles of Confederation, the compact which was first made by the original thirteen States of the United States. They were adopted March 1, 1781, and remained the supreme law until March, 1789. -- Articles of impeachment, an instrument which, in cases of impeachment, performs…

imitive church, who celebrated the Lord's Supper with bread and cheese, alleging that the first oblations of men not only of the fruit of the earth, but of their flocks. [Gen. iv. 3, 4.]

A Roman copper coin, originally of a pound weight (12 oz.); but reduced, after the first Punic war, to two ounces; in the second Punic war, to one ounce; and afterwards to half an ounce.

er more acute, etc.; as, our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity; to ascend to our first progenitor.

ther celestial body, in a right sphere; or the arc of the equator intercepted between the first point of Aries and that point of the equator that comes to the meridian with the star; -- expressed either in degrees or in time. -- Oblique ascension (Astron.), an arc of the equator, intercepted between the first point of…

A choriambic verse, first used by the Greek poet Asclepias, consisting of four feet, viz., a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus.

The first day of Lent; -- so called from a custom in the Roman Catholic church of putting ashes, on that day, upon the foreheads of penitents.

A white, nitrogenous, crystallizable substance, C4H8N2O3+H2O, found in many plants, and first obtained from asparagus. It is believed to aid in the disposition of nitrogenous matter throughout the plant; -- called also altheine.

llow; a dolt. Shak. Asses' Bridge. Etym: [L. pons asinorum.] The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." [Sportive] "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge." F. Harrison. -- To make an ass of one's self, to do or say something ve…

. Asynartete verse (Pros.), a verse of two members, having different rhythms; as when the first consists of iambuses and the second of trochees.

The relations of time, age, or order; as, at ten o'clock; at twenty-one; at once; at first.