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Containing detraction; detractory. [R.] Johnson.

n it would have if the earth were a perfect ellipsoid and homogeneous, -- caused by the attraction of a mountain, or irregularities in the earth's density.

position at right angles to the lines of magnetic force. See Paramagnetic. Diamagnetic attraction. See under Attraction.

mical expansion or dilatation of the heart and arteries; -- correlative to systole, or contraction.

g opinion or insinuation; diminution of value; dishonor; indignity; reproach; disgrace; detraction; -- commonly with to. It ought to be no disparagement to a star that it is not the sun. South. Imitation is a disparagement and a degradation in a Christian minister. I. Taylor.

The act of dispraising; detraction; blame censure; reproach; disparagement. Dryden. In praise and in dispraise the same. Tennyson.

g or disuniting; a state of separation; disunion. It will add infinitely dissociation, distraction, and confusion of these confederate republics. Burke.

A state of being distracted; distraction. Bp. Hall.

Capacity of being drawn; force necessary to draw; traction. The Hertfordshire wheel plow . . . is of the easiest draught. Mortimer.

Owing; ascribable, as to a cause. This effect is due to the attraction of the sun. J. D. Forbes.

A contraction for even. See Even. I have e'en done with you. L'Estrange.

A contraction for ever. See Ever.

A drug, as ergot, which by exciting uterine contractions promotes the expulsion of the contents of the uterus.

Violent distraction of mind; violent emotion; excessive grief of anxiety; insanity; madness. [Obs.] That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. Shak. Our words will but increase his ecstasy. Marlowe.

. . . for such are the conditions of an elective kingdom. Dryden. Elective affinity or attraction (Chem.), a tendency to unite with certain things; chemism.

n which involves polarity, or opposition of properties in opposite directions; also, by attraction for many substances, by a law involving attraction between surfaces of unlike polarity, and repulsion between those of like; by exhibiting accumulated polar tension when the circuit is broken; and by producing heat, light…

organism with a current of electricity, by noting the presence or absence of muscular contraction.

Pertaining the reaction (contraction) of the muscles under electricity, or their sensibility to it.

The act of lengthening, or the state of being lengthened; protraction; extension. "Elongation of the fibers." Arbuthnot.

An obsolete or colloquial contraction of the old form hem, them. Addison.