Search the Dictionary

The act of comprising or comprehending; a compendium or epitome. A comprisal . . . and sum of all wickedness. Barrow.

A short narrative or tale, esp. one dealing with surprising or marvelous events.

Rising or swelling into a spherical or rounded form; regularly protuberant or bulging; -- said of a spherical surface or curved line when viewed from without, in opposition to concave. Drops of water naturally form themselves into figures with a convex surface. Whewell. Double convex, convex on both sides; convexo-conv…

Rising to a point or head; conical; pointed; crested. Wiseman.

Something rising in a conical shape; specifically, a hill rising to a point. A low cape, and upon it a copple not very high. Hakluyt.

Rising to a point; conical; copped. [Obs.] Woodward.

A flat-topped or convex cluster of flowers, each on its own footstalk, and arising from different points of a common axis, the outermost blossoms expanding first, as in the hawthorn.

Rising or setting with the sun; -- the opposite of acronycal.

With the sun at rising or setting; as, a star is said to rise or set cosmically when it rises or sets with the sun.

hat of dormant, or sleeping; -- said of a lion or other beast. Couchant and levant (Law), rising up and lying down; -- said of beasts, and indicating that they have been long enough on land, not belonging to their owner, to lie down and rise up to feed, -- such time being held to include a day and night at the least. B…

of undefinable horror. Blackwood's Mag. Out of the stillness, with gathering creep, Like rising wind in leaves. Lowell.

serpent; the lengthened feathers of the crown or nape of bird, etc. Darwin. [Attack] his rising crest, and drive the serpent back. C. Pitt.

A genus of iridaceous plants, with pretty blossoms rising separately from the bulb or corm. C. vernus is one of the earliest of spring-blooming flowers; C. sativus produces the saffron, and blossoms in the autumn.

A disease in which the body is colored blue in its surface, arising usually from a malformation of the heart, which causes an imperfect arterialization of the blood; blue jaundice.

bservations. -- Dead rise, the transverse upward curvature of a vessel's floor. -- Dead rising, an elliptical line drawn on the sheer plan to determine the sweep of the floorheads throughout the ship's length. -- Dead-Sea apple. See under Apple. -- Dead set. See under Set. -- Dead shot. (a) An unerring marksman. (…

Propriety of manner or conduct; grace arising from suitableness of speech and behavior to one's own character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable. Negligent of the duties and decorums of his station. Hallam. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you mu…

Consisting of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other; as, a decussated period.

An arch rising from the rim of a crown (rarely also of a coronet), and uniting with others over its center. Diadem lemur. (Zoöl.) See Indri. -- Diadem spider (Zoöl.), the garden spider.

or revealing; bringing to light; exposure. He feels it [his secret] beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. D. Webster.

The separation of light into its different colored rays, arising from their different refrangibilities. Dispersion of the optic axes (Crystallog.), the separation of the optic axes in biaxial crystals, due to the fact that the axial angle has different values for the different colors of the spectrum.…