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A band of connective tissue, or a membranous fold, which supports or retains an organ in place; as, the gastrophrenic ligament, connecting the diaphragm and stomach.

Mineral coal retaining the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and burning with an empyreumatic odor. It is of more recent origin than the anthracite and bituminous coal of the proper coal series. Called also brown coal, wood coal.

tance whose parts change their relative position on the slightest pressure, and therefore retain no definite form; any substance in the state of liquidity; a fluid that is not aëriform.

The uniform clothing issued by feudal superiors to their retainers and serving as a badge when in military service.

Having the power of retaining the breath for a long time; long- winded.

Anything used for catching and retaining or communicating fire, made of some substance which takes fire readily, or remains burning some time; esp., a small strip or splint of wood dipped at one end in a substance which can be easily ignited by friction, as a preparation of phosphorus or chlorate of potassium. Match bo…

The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events. Memory is the purveyor of reason. Rambler.

A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank; one employed in low or servile offices.

ry wind and weather." Spenser. Merry dancers. See under Dancer. -- Merry men, followers; retainers. [Obs.] His merie men commanded he To make him bothe game and glee. Chaucer. -- To make merry, to be jovial; to indulge in hilarity; to feast with mirth. Judg. ix. 27.

A church of a monastery. The name is often retained and applied to the church after the monastery has ceased to exist (as Beverly Minster, Southwell Minster, etc.), and is also improperly used for any large church. Minster house, the official house in which the canons of a cathedral live in common or in rotation. Shipl…

Having but a single form; retaining the same form throughout the various stages of development; of the same or of an essentially similar type of structure; -- opposed to dimorphic, trimorphic, and polymorphic.

That has one form, or retains its primary form, as, a monoplastic element.

To take in and retain; to absorb; -- said especially with respect to gases; as iron, platinum, and palladium occlude large volumes of hydrogen.

Retaining the accent; not enclitic; -- said of certain indefinite pronouns and adverbs when used interrogatively, which, when not so used, are ordinarilly enclitic.

Egg-bearing; -- applied particularly to certain receptacles, as in Crustacea, that retain the eggs after they have been excluded from the formative organs, until they are hatched.

Of or pretaining to a mantle, especially to the mantle of mollusks; produced by the mantle; as, the pallial line, or impression, which marks the attachment of the mantle on the inner surface of a bivalve shell. See Illust. of Bivalve. Pallial chamber (Zoöl.), the cavity inclosed by the mantle. -- Pallial sinus (Zoöl.)…

or individual election and reprobation. -- Particular lien (Law), a lien, or a right to retain a thing, for some charge or claim growing out of, or connected with, that particular thing. -- Particular redemption, the doctrine that the purpose, act, and provisions of redemption are restricted to a limited number of t…

A master who had freed his slave, but still retained some paternal rights over him.

A perennial plant; a plant which lives or continues more than two years, whether it retains its leaves in winter or not.

Those Batrachia which retain their gills through life, as the menobranchus.