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r illustration of a rule or precept, especially a problem to be solved, or a case to be determined, as an exercise in the application of the rules of any study or branch of science; as, in trigonometry and grammar, the principles and rules are illustrated by examples.

nguished from moral rectitude. Divine wisdom discovers no expediency in vice. Cogan. To determine concerning the expedience of action. Sharp. Much declamation may be heard in the present day against expediency, as if it were not the proper object of a deliberative assembly, and as if it were only pursued by the unprinc…

observation, made to confirm or disprove something doubtful; esp., one under conditions determined by the experimenter; an act or operation undertaken in order to discover some unknown principle or effect, or to test, establish, or illustrate some suggest or known truth; practical test; poof. A political experiment can…

In a manner proceeding from, or determined by, fate. Bentley.

mmutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned. Necessity and chance Approach not me; and what I will is fate. Milton. Beyond and above the Olympian gods lay the silent, brooding, everlasting fate of which victim and tyrant were alike the instruments.…

To arrive at, as a conclusion; to determine as true; to establish; as, to find a verdict; to find a true bill (of indictment) against an accused person. To find his title with some shows of truth. Shak. To find out, to detect (a thief); to discover (a secret) -- to solve or unriddle (a parable or enigma); to understand…

y. Fit rod (Shipbuilding), a gauge rod used to try the depth of a bolt hole in order to determine the length of the bolt required. Knight.

s a metallic substance. Bacon. To fix on, to settle the opinion or resolution about; to determine regarding; as, the contracting parties have fixed on certain leading points.

Firm-footed; determined. [Slang, U.S.]

Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt. Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. Macaulay. Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail. -- Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of shi…

in one direction and now in another; to be wavering or unsteady; to be irresolute or undetermined; to vacillate.

. Browning. Foregone conclusion, one which has preceded argument or examination; one predetermined.

To ordain or appoint beforehand; to preordain; to predestinate; to predetermine. Hooker.

That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.

To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations. I . . . do forswear her. Shak.

with yttrium and other rare metals. Its individuality and properties have not yet been determined.

To measure or determine with a gauge.

Pertaining to, concerned with, or determined by, the genesis of anything, or its natural mode of production or development. This historical, genetical method of viewing prior systems of philosophy. Hare.

That branch of applied mathematics which determines, by means of observations and measurements, the figures and areas of large portions of the earth's surface, or the general figure and dimenshions of the earth; or that branch of surveying in which the curvature of the earth is taken into account, as in the surveys of…

Of or pertaining to gebdesy; obtained or determined by the operations of geodesy; engaged in geodesy; geodesic; as, geodetic surveying; geodetic observers. Geodetic line or curve, the shortest line that can be drawn between two points on the elipsoidal surface of the earth; a curve drawn on any given surface so that th…