Search the Dictionary

To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as, the fountain plays. The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play. Cheyne.

epeated twinning, like that of the triclinic feldspar, producing fine parallel bands in alternately reversed positions.

rface composed of patches which are supposed to represent crutch heads; they are always alternately argent and azure, unless otherwise specially mentioned. Counter potent (Her.), a fur differing from potent in the arrangement of the patches.

a log) into quarters; specif., to saw into quarters and then into boards, as by cutting alternately from each face of a quarter, to secure lumber that will warp relatively little or show the grain advantageously.

A stanza of four lines rhyming alternately. Dryden.

Recurring in vicissitude; alternate.

The quality or condition of being reciprocal; mutual return; alternateness.

To move forward and backward alternately; to recur in vicissitude; to act interchangeably; to alternate. One brawny smith the puffing bellows plies, And draws and blows reciprocating air. Dryden. Reciprocating engine, a steam, air, or gas engine, etc., in which the piston moves back and forth; -- in distinction from a…

Alternate recurrence or action; as, the reciprocation of the sea in the flow and ebb of tides. Sir T. Browne.

Having recurring flow and ebb; moving alternately. [Obs.] Drayton.

The answer of the people to the priest in alternate speaking, in church service.

Armature winding in which the wire is wound round the outer and inner surfaces alternately of an annular or cylindrical core.

superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. Macaulay.

To move, as waves or billows, with alternate swell and depression. What different sorrows did within thee roll. Prior.

e upon the skin, occurring in circumscribed patches of little or no elevation and often alternately fading and reviving; also, an acute specific disease which is characterized by an eruption of this character; -- called also rose rash. -- Ro*se"o*lous, a.

Having alternate ridges and depressions; wrinkled. Dana.

ich; also, figuratively, to insert between portions of something dissimilar; to form of alternate parts or things, or alternating layers of a different nature; to interlard.

A variety of onyx consisting of sard and white chalcedony in alternate layers.

oked with crumbs. Scalloped oysters (Cookery), opened oysters baked in a deep dish with alternate layers of bread or cracker crumbs, seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, and butter. This was at first done in scallop shells.

A dish of crust or pastry and meat or fish, etc., cooked together in alternate layers, -- a common food of sailors; as, a three-decker sea pie.