Search the Dictionary

n., 3); to leave far behind; to surpass greatly. He distanced the most skillful of his contemporaries. Milner.

f you, shall be upon every beast of the earth. Gen. ix. 2. His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. Shak.

A contrivance for temporarily lowering a gas jet.

ily (Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech. -- Dumb crambo. See under crambo. -- Dumb show. (a) Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown in pantomime. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise." Shak. (b) Signs and gestures without wo…

perate on the theory that a few seconds before the occurrence of an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power.

Any construction, whether a temporary breastwork or permanent fortification, for attack or defense, the material of which is chiefly earth.

sed. -- Ecclesiastical States, the territory formerly subject to the Pope of Rome as its temporal ruler; -- called also States of the Church.

The loss, usually temporary or partial, of light, brilliancy, luster, honor, consciousness, etc.; obscuration; gloom; darkness. All the posterity of our fist parents suffered a perpetual eclipse of spiritual life. Sir W. Raleigh. As in the soft and sweet eclipse, When soul meets soul on lovers' lips. Shelley. Annular e…

y of soft iron, but sometimes of some other magnetic metal, as nickel or cobalt, rendered temporarily magnetic by being placed within a coil of wire through which a current of electricity is passing. The metal is generally in the form of a bar, either straight, or bent into the shape of a horseshoe.…

To form and occupy a camp; to prepare and settle in temporary habitations, as tents or huts; to halt on a march, pitch tents, or form huts, and remain for the night or for a longer time, as an army or a company traveling. The host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 1 Chron. xi. 15.…

The act of pitching tents or forming huts, as by an army or traveling company, for temporary lodging or rest.

The upper and outer element of periotic bone, -- in man forming a part of the temporal bone.

Contemporaneous in origin; as, the equivalent strata of different countries.

as, the estates of the realm (England), which are (1) the lords spiritual, (2) the lords temporal, (3) the commons.

Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.

Any temporary fortification thrown up by an army in the field; -- commonly in the plural. All works which do not come under the head of permanent fortification are called fieldworks. Wilhelm.

st excellence; preëminent in quality, size, or estimation. Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German. M. Arnold. Hermocrates . . . a man of first-rate ability. Jowett (Thucyd).

. -- Fissure of Sylvius (Anat.), a deep cerebral fissure separating the frontal from the temporal lobe. See Illust. under Brain. -- Fissure vein (Mining), a crack in the earth's surface filled with mineral matter. Raymond.

A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit melancholy, of passion, or of laughter. All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain. Swift. The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of jealously. Macaulay.…

A board placed temporarily upon a milldam, to raise the water in the pond above its usual level; a flushboard. [U.S.]