Search the Dictionary

e number of screw revolutions necessary to bring the points to be measured into optical coincidence. When the two images are formed by a bisected objects glass, it is called a divided-object-glass micrometer, and when the instrument is large and equatorially mounted, it is known as a heliometer. -- Double refraction m…

or recite, as a story; to relate the particulars of; to go through with in detail, as an incident or transaction; to give an account of.

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…

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

To express as what has been noticed; to utter as a remark; to say in a casual or incidental way; to remark.

The science of midwifery; the art of assisting women in parturition, or in the trouble incident to childbirth.

The act of happening incidentally; that which happens casually; an incidental advantage; an occasional offering. [Obs.] "Tithes and other obventions." Spenser. Legacies bequeathed by the deaths of princes and great persons, and other casualities and obventions. Fuller.

ng out, happening, or coming to pass; hence, that which falls out or happens; occurrence; incident. The unlooked-for incidents of family history, and its hidden excitements, and its arduous occasions. I. Taylor.

ant, regular, or systematic; made or happening as opportunity requires or admits; casual; incidental; as, occasional remarks, or efforts. The... occasional writing of the present times. Bagehot.

Any incident or event; esp., one which happens without being designed or expected; as, an unusual occurrence, or the ordinary occurrences of life. All the occurrence of my fortune. Shak.

Occurring or happening; hence, incidental; accidental.

Resemblance; correspondence; similarity. A close parallelism of thought and incident. T. Warton.

Something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

A separate part of a course, process, or series; an occurrence; an incident; an act or deed. "In thy passages of life." Shak. The . . . almost incredible passage of their unbelief. South.

pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry. The combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe. T. Warton.

The science which treats of the phenomena of living organisms; the study of the processes incidental to, and characteristic of, life.

An ancient court of record in England, formerly incident to every fair and market, of which the steward of him who owned or had the toll was the judge. Blackstone.

n in space. -- Plane of refraction or reflection (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

In fiction, the story of a play, novel, romance, or poem, comprising a complication of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means. If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went bef…

the heavens, or Celestial poles, the two opposite points in the celestial sphere which coincide with the earth's axis produced, and about which the heavens appear to revolve.