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Resistance; opposition; a stand against. Making counterstand to Robert Guiscard. Longfellow.

The resistance of a horse, that interrupts his cadence and the measure of his manege, occasioned by a bad horseman, or the bad temper of the horse.

hed to the pier of a birdge, with an angle or edge directed up stream, in order better to resist the action of water, ice, etc.; the sharpened upper end of the pier itself.

vice for detecting the presence of electric waves. The influence of electric waves on the resistance of a particular kind of electric circuit, on the magnetization of steel, on the polarization of an electrolytic cell, or on the electric condition of a vacuum has been applied in the various cymoscopes.…

To resist with success; as, to defeat an assault. Sharp reasons to defeat the law. Shak.

ny the right of the plaintiff in regard to (the suit, or the wrong charged); to oppose or resist, as a claim at law; to contest, as a suit. Burrill.

Destitute of defense; unprepared to resist attack; unable to oppose; unprotected. -- De*fense"less*ly, adv. -- De*fense"less*ness, n.

Carried on by resisting attack or aggression; -- opposed to offensive; as, defensive war.

A state of opposition; willingness to flight; disposition to resist; contempt of opposition. He breathed defiance to my ears. Shak.

ation; distinction. The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable. Burke.

The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual. But who can turn the stream of destiny Spenser. Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. Longfellow. The Dest…

An instrument for examining the thermal resistance or heat- conducting power of liquids.

ound arrangements, require a considerable train of parts. It is used for overcoming great resistance or producing very slow or very rapid motion. -- Differential pulley. (Mach.) (a) A portable hoisting apparatus, the same in principle as the differential windlass. (b) A hoisting pulley to which power is applied throug…

to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.(b) To entrench oneself so as to give stronger resistance; -- used of warfare. Also figuratively, esp. in the phrase to dig in one's heels.

To struggle against; to resist. [Obs.] Dispute it [grief] like a man. Shak.

e system (Mech.), an assumed system of matter and motions in which forces of friction and resistances of other kinds are introduced without regard to the heat or other molecular actions which they generate; -- opposed to conservative system.

socket, into which it fits tightly, making an interlocking joint between two pieces which resists pulling a part in all directions except one. Dovetail molding (Arch.), a molding of any convex section arranged in a sort of zigzag, like a series of dovetails. -- Dovetail saw (Carp.), a saw used in dovetailing.…

to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing. Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust. Denham. The grossness of h…

ng durable; the power of uninterrupted or long continuance in any condition; the power of resisting agents or influences which tend to cause changes, decay, or dissolution; lastingness. A Gothic cathedral raises ideas of grandeur in our minds by the size, its height, . . . its antiquity, and its durability. Blair.…

Power of lasting, enduring, or resisting; durability. The durableness of the metal that supports it. Addison.