Search the Dictionary

Miscellaneous curiosities and works of decorative art, considered collectively. A piece of bric-a-brac, any curious or antique article of virtu, as a piece of antiquated furniture or metal work, or an odd knickknack.

as meat over the fire; to be greatly heated, or to be made uncomfortable with heat. The planets and comets had been broiling in the sun. Cheyne.

To bend out of a true vertical plane, as a wall.

senic from the pyrites. Weale. -- Burning mirror, a concave mirror, or a combination of plane mirrors, used for the same purpose as a burning glass.

The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; -- called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is P. racemosa.

st; ascertained or conjectured as a result of calculation; as, the calculated place of a planet; the calculated velocity of a cannon ball.

legs, for measuring the diameter or thickness of bodies, as of work shaped in a lathe or planer, timber, masts, shot, etc.; or the bore of firearms, tubes, etc.; -- called also caliper compasses, or caliber compasses. Caliper square, a draughtsman's or mechanic's square, having a graduated bar and adjustable jaw or jaw…

uses an apparent image of an external object or objects to appear as if projected upon a plane surface, as of paper or canvas, so that the outlines may conveniently traced. It is generally used with the microscope.

de walls are inclined inward at the top, following the slope of the rafters, to meet the plane surface of the upper ceiling. -- Camp chair, a light chair that can be folded up compactly for easy transportation; the seat and back are often made of strips or pieces of carpet. -- Camp fever, typhus fever. -- Camp follo…

strong cloth made of hemp, flax, or cotton; -- used for tents, sails, etc. By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led. Tennyson.

A narrow passage or lane through chaparral or a forest.

A california woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), noted for its habit of inserting acorns in holes which it drills in trees. The acorns become infested by insect larvæ, which, when grown, are extracted for food by the bird.

matter. Sir W. Hamilton. Cartesian coördinates (Geom), distance of a point from lines or planes; -- used in a system of representing geometric quantities, invented by Descartes. -- Cartesian devil, a small hollow glass figure, used in connection with a jar of water having an elastic top, to illustrate the effect of th…

ve, are tangents, the reflecting or refracting curve and the luminous point being in one plane. -- Caustic lime. See under Lime. -- Caustic potash, Caustic soda (Chem.), the solid hydroxides potash, KOH, and soda, NaOH, or solutions of the same. -- Caustic silver, nitrate of silver, lunar caustic. -- Caustic surfac…

A description of apparent spots on the disk of the sun, or on planets.

Centripetal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is towards a center, as in case of a planet revolving round the sun, the center of the system, See Centrifugal force, under Centrifugal. -- Centripetal impression (Physiol.), an impression (sensory) transmitted by an afferent nerve from the exterior of the body inwar…

The red-bellied wood pecker (Melanerpes Carolinus).

To indicate the character of; to describe. Under the name of Tamerlane he intended to characterize King William. Johnson.

hart, a chart constructed on the principle of Mercator's projection. See Projection. -- Plane chart, a representation of some part of the superficies of the globe, in which its spherical form is disregarded, the meridians being drawn parallel to each other, and the parallels of latitude at equal distances. -- Selenog…

us jubatus) tamed and used for hunting in India. The woolly cheetah of South Africa is C. laneus. [Written also chetah.]