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The inner envelope of a flower; the part which surrounds the organs of fructification, consisting of one or more leaves, called petals. It is usually distinguished from the calyx by the fineness of its texture and the gayness of its colors. See the Note under Blossom.

A peculiar luminous apearance, or aureola, which surrounds the sun, and which is seen only when the sun is totally eclipsed by the moon.

To surround and inclose; to coop up; to put into an inclosed space; -- primarily used with reference to securing horses and cattle in an inclosure of wagons while traversing the plains, but in the Southwestern United States now colloquially applied to the capturing, securing, or penning of anything. Bartlett.…

One of the Gorgoniacea; -- so called because the fleshy part surrounds a solid axis, like a bark.

s of a building, or by different building; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley. The courts the house of our God. Ps. cxxxv. 2. And round the cool green courts there ran a row Cf cloisters. Tennyson. Goldsmith took a garret in a miserable court. Macualay.…

That part of a bird, or the feathers, surrounding the cloacal opening; the under tail coverts.

A yard, courtyard, or piece of ground, included within the fence surrounding a dwelling house. Burrill.

A pictorial view which is extended circularly, so that the spectator is surrounded by the objects represented as by things in nature. The realistic effect is increased by putting, in the space between the spectator and the picture, things adapted to the scene represented, and in some places only parts of these objects,…

An imaginary circle surrounding the earth, in whose periphery either the heavenly body or the center of the heavenly body's epicycle was supposed to be carried round.

The passage of the corpuscular elements of the blood from the blood vessels into the surrounding tissues, without rupture of the walls of the blood vessels.

To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure with a bank.

To surround with a ditch. Shak.

The surrounding frame into which a door shuts.

A coat with skirts behind only, as distinct from the frock coat, of which the skirts surround the body. It is worn on occasions of ceremony. The dress coat of officers of the United States army is a full-skirted frock coat.

The tough, fibrous membrane, which lines the cavity of the skull and spinal column, and surrounds the brain and spinal cord; -- frequently abbreviated to dura.

ocess of bone formation in which ossification takes place in the perichondrium and either surrounds or gradually replaces the cartilage.

laid by domestic poultry and other birds, tortoises, etc. It consists of a yolk, usually surrounded by the "white" or albumen, and inclosed in a shell or strong membrane.

The act of surrounding or defending with a bank.

To lay as in a bed; to lay in surrounding matter; to bed; as, to embed a thing in clay, mortar, or sand.

To inclose or surround; to shelter closely; to place in the midst of something. His house embosomed in the grove. Pope. Some tender flower . . . . Embosomed in the greenest glade. Keble.