Search the Dictionary

e. -- Spindle shell. (Zoöl.) See Spindle, 7. above. -- Spindle side, the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to spear side. Ld. Lytton. [R.] "King Lycaon, grandson, by the spindle side, of Oceanus." Lowell. -- Spindle tree (Bot.), any shrub or tree of the genus Eunymus. The wood of E. Europæus was us…

e United States, and much valued as a food fish. It is of a bright silvery color, with iridescent reflections. Called also weakfish, squitee, chickwit, and sea trout. The spotted squeteague (C. nebulosus) of the Southern United States is a similar fish, but the back and upper fins are spotted with black. It is called a…

Deep and precipitous, having steep descent. [R.] Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire. Shak.

tors. "All that are of noble stem." Milton. While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent. Herbert.

Descent, as from dignity or superiority; condescension; an act or position of humiliation. Can any loyal subject see With patience such a stoop from sovereignty Dryden.

Race; stock; generation; descent; family. He is of a noble strain. Shak. With animals and plants a cross between different varieties, or between individuals of the same variety but of another strain, gives vigor and fertility to the offspring. Darwin.

An order or series of descendants; lineage; race; descent. "A long succession must ensue." Milton.

The descent of the sun below the horizon; also, the time when the sun sets; evening. Also used figuratively. 'T is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore. Campbell.

velocity; rapidity; as, the swiftness of a bird; the swiftness of a stream; swiftness of descent in a falling body; swiftness of thought, etc.

ea in the pigmented layer of the choroid coat of the eye in many animals, which has an iridescent or metallic luster and helps to make the eye visible in the dark. Sometimes applied to the whole layer of pigmented epithelium of the choroid.

The line of continuous maximum descent from any point on a land surface, or that cutting all contours and angles.

or genealogy of the gods; that branch of heathen theology which deals with the origin and descent of the deities; also, a poem treating of such genealogies; as, the Theogony of Hesiod.

Derivation by descent; propagation. [R.] If by traduction came thy mind, Our wonder is the less to find A soul so charming from a stock so good. Dryden.

Capable of being turned down; specif. (Elec.), designating, or pertaining to, an incandescent lamp with a small additional filament which can be made incandescent when only a small amount of light is required.

Submission; decline; descent. [Obs.]

. -- Venus's girdle (Zoöl.), a long, flat, ribbonlike, very delicate, transparent and iridescent ctenophore (Cestum Veneris) which swims in the open sea. Its form is due to the enormous development of two spheromeres. See Illust. in Appendix. -- Venus's hair (Bot.), a delicate and graceful fern (Adiantum Capillus-Ven…

To make vile; to debase; to degrade; to revile. [R.] Were virtue by descent, a noble name Could never villanize his father's fame. Dryden.

Quality or state of being viridescent.

A fall, or perpendicular descent, of the water of a river or stream, or a descent nearly perpendicular; a cascade; a cataract.

Of or pertaining to Auer von Welsbach or the incandescent gas burner invented by him. -- Welsbach burner, a burner in which the combustion of a mixture of air and gas or vapor is employed to heat to incandescence a mantle composed of thoria and ceria. The mantle is made by soaking a "stocking" in a solution of nitrates…