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Turning or facing inward, or toward the axis of the part to which it belongs. Gray.

A loose panicle, the axis of which falls to pieces, as in certain grasses.

A gorgonian coral having a horny axis.

A quadrilateral, one of whose diagonals is an axis of symmetry. Henrici.

teel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction. Knife-edge file. See Illust. of File.

hidaceous genus Spiranthes, in which the white flowers are set in spirals about a slender axis and remotely resemble braided hair.

ng cutlery, etc. It is usually in the form of wheel or disk, which revolves on a vertical axis. Lap joint, a joint made by one layer, part, or piece, overlapping another, as in the scarfing of timbers. -- Lap weld, a lap joint made by welding together overlapping edges or ends. -- Inside lap (Steam Engine), lap of th…

the directrix and terminated both ways by the curve. It is the parameter of the principal axis. See Focus, and Parameter.

A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; -- used for transmitting and modifying force and motion. Specif., a bar of metal, wood, or other rigid substance, used to exert a pressure, or sustain a weight, at one po…

Libration in latitude, that which depends on the varying position of the moon's axis in respect to the spectator, causing the alternate appearance and disappearance of either pole. (c) Diurnal or parallactic libration, that which brings into view on the upper limb, at rising and setting, some parts not in the average v…

ism, as the gorgonians, corals, and corallines, esp. those gorgonians having a calcareous axis. All the lithophytes except the corallines are animals.

A fibrous and muscular band lying within the longitudinal axis of the tongue in many mammals, as the dog.

A dome parallel to the longer lateral axis of an orthorhombic crystal. See Dome, n., 4.

ater by a semitone, either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone. Major axis (Geom.), the greater axis. See Focus, n., 2. -- Major key (Mus.), a key in which one and two, two and three, four and five, five and six and seven, make major seconds, and three and four, and seven and eight, make minor seco…

ge of the distances throughout one revolution of the planet, equivalent to the semi-major axis of the orbit. -- Mean error (Math. Phys.), the average error of a number of observations found by taking the mean value of the positive and negative errors without regard to sign. -- Mean-square error, or Error of the mean…

F. Meckel, a German anatomist. Meckelian cartilage, the cartilaginous rod which forms the axis of the mandible; -- called also Meckel's cartilage.

Anat.), the layer of white semifluid substance (myelin), between the primitive sheath and axis cylinder of a medullated nerve fiber.

Tendency, or measure of tendency, to produce motion, esp. motion about a fixed point or axis. Moment of a couple (Mech.), the product of either of its forces into the perpendicular distance between them. -- Moment of a force. (Mech.) (a) With respect to a point, the product of the intensity of the force into the perpe…

Having only one axis; developing along a single line or plane; as, monaxial development.

ing one oblique inclination; -- applied to strata that dip in only one direction from the axis of elevation.