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The external surface of a sphere, or of any orbicular body.

The condition of a place in relation to various phenomena of the atmosphere, as temperature, moisture, etc., especially as they affect animal or vegetable life.

A collection of visible vapor, or watery particles, susponded in the upper atmosphere. I do set my bow in the cloud. Gen. ix. 13.

from the mutual chemical action and reaction of the combustible and the oxygen of the atmosphere, whereby a new compound is formed. Ure. Supporter of combustion (Chem.), a gas as oxygen, the combination of which with a combustible, as coal, constitutes combustion.

To have within a sphere of control, influence, access, or vision; to dominate by position; to guard; to overlook. Bridges commanded by a fortified house. Motley. Up to the eastern tower, Whose height commands as subject all the vale. Shak. One side commands a view of the finest garden. Addison.

Extent; reach; sweep; capacity; sphere; as, the compass of his eye; the compass of imagination. The compass of his argument. Wodsworth.

pendulum. See Pendulum. -- Conical projection, a method of delineating the surface of a sphere upon a plane surface as if projected upon the surface of a cone; -- much used by makers of maps in Europe. -- Conical surface (Geom.), a surface described by a right line moving along any curve and always passing through a…

want a consort of his bed. Dryden. The consort of the queen has passed from this troubled sphere. Thakeray. The snow-white gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort. Darwin.

, or quality; to transform; to transmute; as, to convert water into ice. If the whole atmosphere were converted into water. T. Burnet. That still lessens The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy. Milton.

A circle, usually colored, seen in peculiar states of the atmosphere around and close to a luminous body, as the sun or moon.

A constellation of the southen hemisphere; -- called also the Cup.

to insure its turning fluke down. Russell. Crossbar shot, a projectile which folds into a sphere for loading, but on leaving the gun expands to a cross with a quarter ball at the end of each arm; -- used in naval actions for cutting the enemy's rigging.

transparent; pellucid. "The crystalline sky." Milton. Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round…

An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres. Milton.

A constellation of the northern hemisphere east of, or following, Lyra; the Swan.

onsisting of a thin glass globe, which is weighed in the gas or gases, and then in an atmosphere of known density.

ssolving; liquefying by contact with the air; capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere and becoming liquid; as, deliquescent salts.

A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature. Macaulay.

the number of degreees that the dew-point is lower than the actual temperature of the atmosphere. -- Depression of the pole, its apparent sinking, as the spectator goes toward the equator. -- Depression of the visible horizon. (Astron.) Same as Dip of the horizon, under Dip.

c of the equator which descends, with a celestial object, below the horizon of an oblique sphere. -- Right descension, the degree or arc of the equator which descends below the horizon of a right sphere at the same time with the object. [Obs.]