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A series of strata, of the Middle Tertiary period, of France, abounding in shells, and used by Lyell as the type of his Miocene subdivision.

A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a period of abstinence from food or certain kinds of food; as, an annual fast. Fast day, a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and religious offices as a means of invoking the favor of God. -- To break one's fast, to put an end to a period of abstinence by ta…

ertakes, in consideration of the payment of a premium or small percentage -- usually made periodically -- to indemnify an owner of property from loss by fire during a specified period. -- Fire irons, utensils for a fireplace or grate, as tongs, poker, and shovel. -- Fire main, a pipe for water, to be used in putting…

oplexy, which produces convulsions or unconsciousness; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness. And when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake. Shak.

The time during which a flash is visible; an instant; a very brief period. The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash. Bacon.

e system of vegetable species growing without cultivation in a given locality, region, or period; a list or description of, or treatise on, such plants.

To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperties; as, a flowing period; flowing numbers; to sound smoothly to the ear; to be uttered easily. Virgil is sweet and flowingin his hexameters. Dryden.

or decrease of a variable or flowing quantity in a certain infinitely small and constant period of time; the rate of variation of a fluent; an incerement; a differential. (b) pl.

A group of beds of the same age or period; as, the Eocene formation.

ing, the non-extension of slavery; -- esp. applied to a party which was active during the period 1846-1856. [U.S.] -- Free"soil`er, n. [U.S.] -- Free"-soil`ism, n. [U.S.]

ectric field, emitted by radioactive substances. The prevailing view is that they are non-periodic ether pulses differing from Röntgen rays only in being more penetrating.

and marl in the South of England, between the upper and lower greensand of the Cretaceous period.

A newspaper; a printed sheet published periodically; esp., the official journal published by the British government, and containing legal and state notices.

f the same genealogical rank or remove from an ancestor; the mass of beings living at one period; also, the average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child, usually assumed to be one third of a century; an age. This is the book of the generation…

The closing subdivision of the Hamilton period in the American Devonian system; -- so called because the formations of this period crop out in Genesee, New York.

Circling the earth periodically.

British or British colonial architecture of the period of the four Georges, especially that of the period before 1800.

een transported by moving ice, land ice, or icebergs; bowlder drift. -- Glacial epoch or period (Geol.), a period during which the climate of the modern temperate regions was polar, and ice covered large portions of the northern hemisphere to the mountain tops. -- Glacial theory or hypothesis. (Geol.) See Glacier the…

ges. Dryden. (b) (Roman Literature) The best part (B. C. 81 -- A. D. 14) of the classical period of Latinity; the time when Cicero, Cæsar, Virgil, etc., wrote. Hence: (c) That period in the history of a literature, etc., when it flourishes in its greatest purity or attains its greatest glory; as, the Elizabethan age ha…

ne's self from proceeding; to hold up; to cease progress; to stop for a longer or shorter period; to come to a stop; to stand still.