Search the Dictionary

To come into contact with (an ovum or egg) so as to cause impregnation; to fertilize; to fecundate.

Not contiguous; not adjoining or in contact; separate. Boyle. -- In`con*tig"u*ous*ly, adv.

rface, and used to determine the accidents of curvature of the surface at the point of contact. The curve is similar to the intersection of the surface with a parallel to the tangent plane and indefinitely near it. It is an ellipse when the curvature is synclastic, and an hyperbola when the curvature is anticlastic.…

To produce, or cause, by proximity without contact or transmission, as a particular electric or magnetic condition in a body, by the approach of another body in an opposite electric or magnetic state.

g electrical or magnetic polarity, causes or induces it in another body without direct contact; an impress of electrical or magnetic force or condition from one body on another without actual contact. Electro-dynamic induction, the action by which a variable or interrupted current of electricity excites another current…

aving or manifesting active properties; not affecting other substances when brought in contact with them; powerless for an expected or desired effect.

h a disease communicated by germs carried in the air or water, and thus spread without contact with the patient, as measles.

To unite by apposition or contact, as two tubular vessels at their extremities; to anastomose.

A movement in tactics by which the order of companies in line is inverted, the right being on the left, the left on the right, and so on.

rasitic mite (the Sarcoptes scabei), and attended with itching. It is transmissible by contact.

ame in the Old Testament; the typical patient man. Job's comforter. (a) A false friend; a tactless or malicious person who, under pretense of sympathy, insinuates rebukes. (b) A boil. [Colloq.] -- Job's news, bad news. Carlyle. -- Job's tears (Bot.), a kind of grass (Coix Lacryma), with hard, shining, pearly grains.…

To bring together, literally or figuratively; to place in contact; to connect; to couple; to unite; to combine; to associate; to add; to append. Woe unto them that join house to house. Is. v. 8. Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches joined. Shak. Thy tuneful voice with numbers join. Dryden…

To meet; to come in contact; to touch fondly. Like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume. Shak. Rose, rose and clematis, Trail and twine and clasp and kiss. Tennyson. Kissing comfit, a perfumed sugarplum to sweeten the breath. [Obs or Prov. End.] Shak.

A switch consisting of one or more knifelike pieces hinged at one end and making contact near the other with flat gripping springs.

To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection; as, a father leads a child; a jockey leads a horse with a halter; a dog leads a blind man. If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch. Wyclif (Matt. xv. 14.) They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow o…

. (b) A picture produced by printing from such an engraving. -- Line of battle. (a) (Mil Tactics) The position of troops drawn up in their usual order without any determined maneuver. (b) (Naval) The line or arrangement formed by vessels of war in an engagement. -- Line of battle ship. See Ship of the line, below. -…

produced in animal tissues, and passes from one body to another with or without actual contact. The existence of such a force, and its potentiality for the cure of disease, were asserted by Mesmer in

Bad address; an awkward, tactless, or offensive way of accosting one or talking with one. W. D. Howells.

A morbid condition produced by exhalations from decaying vegetable matter in contact with moisture, giving rise to fever and ague and many other symptoms characterized by their tendency to recur at definite and usually uniform intervals.

To perform a movement or movements in military or naval tactics; to make changes in position with reference to getting advantage in attack or defense.