Search the Dictionary

of commending; praise; favorable representation in words; recommendation. Need we . . . epistles of commendatiom 2 Cor. iii. 1. By the commendation of the great officers. Bacon.

or organs which belong to it or to the typical form; having calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil.

ine, a steam engine in which the steam is condensed after having exerted its force on the piston.

Having the quality or power of conducting; as, the conductive tissue of a pistil. The ovarian walls . . . are seen to be distinctly conductive. Goodale (Gray's Bot. ).

ng, two or more moving parts; esp. a rod connecting a crank wrist with a beam, crosshead, piston rod, or piston, as in a steam engine.

oboe family. (b) A brass instrument, with cupped mouthpiece, and furnished with valves or pistons, now used in bands, and, in place of the trumpet, in orchestras. See Cornet-à-piston. (c) A certain organ stop or register.

An obsolete name for the cornet-à-piston.

rance of something; false; spurious; deceitful; hypocritical; as, a counterfeit philanthropist. "An arrant counterfeit rascal." Shak.

; as the solid crosspiece running between parallel slides, which receives motion from the piston of a steam engine and imparts it to the connecting rod, which is hinged to the crosshead.

The series or division of flowerless plants, or those never having true stamens and pistils, but propagated by spores of various kinds.

a mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston;

The chamber of a steam engine in which the piston is moved by the force of steam.

A large pistol formerly used. [Obs.] The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some. Foxe. A sort of pistol, called dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts. Grose.

Appertaining to a decree; containing a decree; as, a decretal epistle. Ayliffe.

Constituting or serving as a dedication; complimental. "An epistle dedicatory." Dryden.

ds, and other such writings; a simplified form of the hieratic character; -- called also epistolographic character, and enchorial character. See Enchorial.

A kind of short-barreled pocket pistol, of very large caliber, often carrying a half-ounce ball.

anon, or ecclesiastical writing of inferior authority; -- said of the Apocrypha, certain Epistles, etc.

various purposes. Diaphragm pump, one in which a flexible diaphragm takes the place of a piston.

The condition of certain species of plants, in which the stamens and pistil do not mature simultaneously, so that these plants can never fertilize themselves.