Search the Dictionary

To separate into integrant parts; to reduce to fragments or to powder; to break up, or cause to fall to pieces, as a rock, by blows of a hammer, frost, rain, and other mechanical or atmospheric influences. Marlites are not disintegrated by exposure to the atmosphere, at least in six years. Kirwan.

sives, the sawdust, infusorial earth, mica, etc., mixed with nitroglycerin to make a damp powder (dynamite, etc.) less dangerous to transport, and ordinarily explosive only by suitable fulminating caps.

To load with a double charge, as of gunpowder.

as 2d Dredger. (b) (Gun.) A copper box with a perforated lid; -- used for sprinkling meal powder over shell fuses. Farrow.

s. Bouvier. -- Dry rot, a decay of timber, reducing its fibers to the condition of a dry powdery dust, often accompanied by the presence of a peculiar fungus (Merulius lacrymans), which is sometimes considered the cause of the decay; but it is more probable that the real cause is the decomposition of the wood itself.…

ey may be raised and wafted by the wind; that which is crumbled too minute portions; fine powder; as, clouds of dust; bone dust. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 19. Stop! -- for thy tread is on an empire's dust. Byron.

To change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, esp. from the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, Glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce.

The formation of the whitish powder or crust on the surface of efflorescing bodies, as salts, etc.

A medicine composed of powders, or other ingredients, incorporated with some convserve, honey, or sirup; a confection. See the note under Confection.

as, to elutriate the blood as it passes through the lungs; to strain off or decant, as a powder which is separated from heavier particles by being drawn off with water; to cleanse, as by washing.

Corundum in the form of grains or powder, used in the arts for grinding and polishing hard substances. Native emery is mixed with more or less magnetic iron. See the Note under Corundum. Emery board, cardboard pulp mixed with emery and molded into convenient. -- Emery cloth or paper, cloth or paper on which the powder…

A perfumed powder sprinkled upon the body to mask the odor of sweat.

An apparatus for testing or proving the strength of gunpowder.

iops per se (Old Chem.), mercury in finely divided state, having the appearance of a dark powder, obtained by shaking it up or by exposure to the air.

ddenly expanded into a great volume of gas or vapor; to burst violently into flame; as gunpowder explodes.

ch causes the sudden formation of a great volume of expanded gas; as, the explosion of gunpowder, of fire damp,etc.

or bursting out with violence and noise; causing explosion; as, the explosive force of gunpowder.

A sporting rifle for use at short ranges, employing a large charge of powder and a light (short) bullet, giving a high initial velocity and consequently a flat trajectory. It is usually of moderately large caliber.

A powdered substance, as charcoal, bituminous coal, ect., applied to the face of a mold, or mixed with the sand that forms it, to give a fine smooth surface to the casting.

Civered with a sort of white, mealy powder, as the leaves of some poplars, and the body of certain insects; mealy.