Search the Dictionary

A small water bird (Podilymbus podiceps), allied to the grebes, remarkable for its quickness in diving; -- called also dapchick, dobchick, dipchick, didapper, dobber, devil-diver, hell-diver, and pied-billed grebe.

ut is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.

In a desultory manner; without method; loosely; immethodically.

ther, without order or rational connection; without logical sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless; as, desultory minds. Atterbury. He [Goldsmith] knew nothing accurately; his reading had been desultory. Macaulay.

To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application; as, to digest the laws, etc. Joining them together and digesting them into order. Blair. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. Shak.

In a digested or well-arranged manner; methodically.

A morbid an uncontrollable craving (often periodic) for drink, esp. for alcoholic liquors; also improperly used to denote acute and chronic alcoholism.

Not in order; marked by disorder; disarranged; immethodical; as, the books and papers are in a disorderly state.

ird of certain genera, as Urinator (formerly Colymbus), or the allied genus Colymbus, or Podiceps, remarkable for their agility in diving.

ducks and drakes. Internal earthquakes, that, not content with one throe, run along spasmodically, like boys playing at what is called drakestone. De Quincey.

To treat methodically with remedies, bandages, or curative appliances, as a sore, an ulcer, a wound, or a wounded or diseased part.

The name given by Mendelejeff in accordance with the periodic law, and by prediction, to a hypothetical element then unknown, but since discovered and named scandium; -- so called because it was a missing analogue of the boron group. See Scandium.

A drawing of the body forward, in consequence of the spasmodic action of some of the muscles. Gross.

A collective name for reviews, magazines, and all kinds of periodical literature. Brande & C.

Same as Episodic.

Pertaining to an episode; by way of episode; episodic.

A composition treating of any particular subject; -- usually shorter and less methodical than a formal, finished treatise; as, an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils, or on commerce.

Periodical; annual; -- applied to winds which annually blow from the north over the Mediterranean, esp. the eastern part, for an irregular period during July and August.

A periodical increase of violence in a disease, as in remittent or continious fever; an increased energy of diseased and painful action.

Habitually careful to agree with a standard, a rule, or a promise; accurate; methodical; punctual; as, a man exact in observing an appointment; in my doings I was exact. "I see thou art exact of taste." Milton.