Search the Dictionary

ort of cotton so short and fine thet it can not be spun, used in the East Indies to line palanquins, to make mattresses, etc.

Any species of Phalangium; -- also called harvestman.

To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide; as, a casting voice. How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious! South.

governor had the casting voice." B. Trumbull. -- Casting weight, a weight that turns a balance when exactly poised.

f which the larger coins and bank bills are made available in small dealings; hence, the balance returned when payment is tendered by a coin or note exceeding the sum due.

n slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough. Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain. Blackmore. Nor winter's blast chap her fair face. Lyly.

; -- formerly much esteemed for the purposes that sarsaparilla is now used for. Also the galanga root (from Alpinia Gallanga and Alpinia officinarum). -- China rose. (Bot.) (a) A popular name for several free-blooming varieties of rose derived from the Rosa Indica, and perhaps other species. (b) A flowering hothouse p…

A portable timekeeper, with a heavy compensation balance, and usually beating half seconds; -- intended to keep time with great accuracy for use an astronomical observations, in determining longitude, etc.

sition or condition; situated. The proposition is, that two bodies so circumstanced will balance each other. Whewell.

To make exchanges of checks and bills, and settle balances, as is done in a clearing house.

The gross amount of the balances adjusted in the clearing house. Clearing house, the establishment where the business of clearing is carried on. See above, 3.

Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced; as, a close vote. "A close contest." Prescott.

The indicator of a balance. Johnson.

rounded or pointed top of a grinding mill spindle, forming a pivot on which the stone is balanced.

the horse and allied animals, inclosed within the hoof, and corresponding to the third phalanx of the middle finger, or toe, of most mammals. -- Coffin joint, the joint next above the coffin bone.

e loss of present advantage to flesh and blood is repaid in a nobler coin. Hammond. Coin balance. See Illust. of Balance. -- To pay one in his own coin, to return to one the same kind of injury or ill treatment as has been received from him. [Colloq.]

A small metal ring; a small collar fastened on an arbor; as, the collet on the balance arbor of a watch; a small socket on a stem, for holding a drill.

To be equivalent in value or effect to; to counterbalance; to make up for; to make amends for. The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day. Bacon. The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries. Prior.

scription, etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation. Compensation balance, or Compensated balance, a kind of balance wheel for a timepiece. The rim is usually made of two different expansibility under changes of temperature, so arranged as to counteract each other and preserve uniformity of movem…

A prefix meaning contrary, opposite, in opposition; as, counteract, counterbalance, countercheck. See Counter, adv. & a.