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A white, crystalline substance, C12H13NO3, obtained as a product of the decomposition of narcotine. It has weak basic properties, and is usually regarded as an alkaloid.

s." Macualay. Crude, undigested masses of suggestion, furnishing rather raw materials for composition. De Quincey. The originals of Nature in their crude Conception. Milton.

A species of glass, more perfect in its composition and manufacture than common glass, and often cut into ornamental forms. See Flint glass.

eath the cumbrous weight. Swift. That cumbrousand unwieldy style which disfigures English composition so extensively. De Quincey.

A vessel which has a deck or decks; -- used esp. in composition; as, a single-decker; a three-decker.

The shade itself; neither the darkest nor the lightest in a composition. Also called half tint.

An explosion or sudden report made by the instantaneous decomposition or combustion of unstable substances' as, the detonation of gun cotton.

operly indicated the second in a regular series of compound in the series, and not to its composition, but which is now generally employed in the same sense as bi- or di-, although little used.

A devotional composition, or part of a composition; devotion. [Obs.] Milton.

btained from starch by the action of heat, acids, or diastase. It is of somewhat variable composition, containing several carbohydrates which change easily to their respective varieties of sugar. It is so named from its rotating the plane of polarization to the right; -- called also British gum, Alsace gum, gommelin, l…

A written composition in which two or more persons are represented as conversing or reasoning on some topic; as, the Dialogues of Plato.

A composition of five ingredients.

The deflection and decomposition of light in passing by the edges of opaque bodies or through narrow slits, causing the appearance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars. Remarked by Grimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he calle…

Crystallizing under two forms fundamentally different, while having the same chemical composition.

The decomposition of complex substances, within the organism, into simpler ones suitable only for excretion, with evolution of energy, -- a normal nutritional process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism. The breaking down of already existing chemical compounds into simpler ones, sometimes called disassimil…

Change of form by chemical agency; decomposition; resolution. The dissolution of the compound. South.

e of being distilled; especially, capable of being distilled without chemical change or decomposition; as, alcohol is distillable; olive oil is not distillable.

Set, sung, or composed as a ditty; -- usually in composition. Who, with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song. Milton.

) A light and pleasing composition.

The form of any writing as first drawn up; the first rough sketch of written composition, to be filled in, or completed. See Draught.