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g that has length and breadth; one of the limits that bound a solid, esp. the upper face; superficies; the outside; as, the surface of the earth; the surface of a diamond; the surface of the body. The bright surface of this ethereous mold. Milton.

film of all liquids and tends to bring the contained volume into a form having the least superficial area. The thickness of this film, amounting to less than a thousandth of a millimeter, is considered to equal the radius of the sphere of molecular action, that is, the greatest distance at which there is cohesion betw…

Superintendent. [R.]

Capable of being surmounted or overcome; superable. -- Sur*mount"a*ble*ness, n.

Oversight; watch; inspection; supervision. That sort of surveillance of which . . . the young have accused the old. Sir W. Scott.

One who watches over another; an overseer; a spy; a supervisor.

To supervene upon; to come as an addition to. [Obs.] A suppuration that survenes lethargies. Harvey.

One placed to superintend others; an overseer; an inspector. Were 't not madness then, To make the fox surveyor of the fold Shak.

To look over; to supervise. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support; as, a foundation sustains the superstructure; a beast sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight. Every pillar the temple to sustain. Chaucer.

A superior lord, to whom fealty is due; a feudal lord; a lord paramount.

room for sweating persons. (b) (Dairying) A room for sweating cheese and carrying off the superfluous juices. -- Sweating sickness (Med.), a febrile epidemic disease which prevailed in some countries of Europe, but particularly in England, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, characterized by profuse sweating. De…

an unnatural prominence or protuberance; as, a scrofulous swelling. The superficies of such plates are not even, but have many cavities and swellings. Sir I. Newton.

Composed of superposed branches in such a way as to imitate a simple axis; as, a sympodial stem.

All languages tend to clear themselves of synonyms as intellectual culture advances, the superfluous words being taken up and appropriated by new shades and combinations of thought evolved in the progress of society. De Quincey. His name has thus become, throughout all civilized countries, a synonym for probity and ph…

e back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything, -- as opposed to the Ant: head, or the superior part. The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail. Deut. xxviii. 13.

r oxen" 1 Cor. ix. 9. -- To take care of, to have the charge or care of; to care for; to superintend or oversee. -- To take down. (a) To reduce; to bring down, as from a high, or higher, place; as, to take down a book; hence, to bring lower; to depress; to abase or humble; as, to take down pride, or the proud. "I nev…

A magical figure cut or engraved under certain superstitious observances of the configuration of the heavens, to which wonderful effects are ascribed; the seal, figure, character, or image, of a heavenly sign, constellation, or planet, engraved on a sympathetic stone, or on a metal corresponding to the star, in order t…

gners, intendant of circuit. Foreign consuls and commissioners associated with taotais as superintendants of trade at the treaty ports are ranked with the taotai.

The manner of holding lands and tenements of a superior.