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A curve, in which a body, starting from a given point, and descending solely by the force of gravity, will reach another given point in a shorter time than it could by any other path. This curve of quickest descent, as it is sometimes called, is, in a vacuum, the same as the cycloid.

Any division extending like a branch; any arm or part connected with the main body of thing; ramification; as, the branch of an antler; the branch of a chandelier; a branch of a river; a branch of a railway. Most of the branches , or streams, were dried up. W. Irving.

Furnished with branches; shooting our branches; extending in a branch or branches. Shaded with branching palm. Milton.

A summer or girder extending across a building flush with, and supporting, the upper part of a front or external wall; a long lintel; a girder; -- used principally above shop windows. [Written also brestsummer and bressummer.]

aloons. [Colloq.] Breeches buoy, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and…

Extending far and wide; extensive; vast; as, the broad expanse of ocean.

the bronchi and their ramifications in the lungs. Bronchial arteries, branches of the descending aorta, accompanying the bronchia in all their ramifications. -- Bronchial cells, the air cells terminating the bronchia. -- Bronchial glands, glands whose functions are unknown, seated along the bronchia. -- Bronchial me…

To bound to limit; to be at, or form, the edge of. [R.] Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts That brow this bottom glade. Milton.

To spring with quick plunging leaps, descending with the fore legs rigid and the head held as low down as possible; -- said of a vicious horse or mule.

A swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, esp. when caused by pressure; as, a bulge in a wall.

Bulged; bulging; bending, or tending to bend, outward. [Colloq.]

Having the quality of rising or floating in a fluid; tending to rise or float; as, iron is buoyant in mercury. "Buoyant on the flood." Pope.

ntic coast of the United States (esp. Chilo mycterus geometricus) having the power of distending its body with water or air, so as to resemble a chestnut bur; -- called also ball fish, balloon fish, and swellfish.

Tending to excite laughter or contempt by extravagant images, or by a contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it, as when a trifling subject is treated with mock gravity; jocular; ironical. It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary…

A sudden breaking forth; a violent rending; an explosion; as, a burst of thunder; a burst of applause; a burst of passion; a burst of inspiration. Bursts of fox-hunting melody. W. Irving.

Tending to form, or to become, a calx or earthlike substance on being oxidized or burnt; as magnesium, calcium. etc.

A piece or point of land, extending beyind the adjacent coast into the sea or a lake; a promonotory; a headland. Cape buffalo (Zoöl.) a large and powerful buffalo of South Africa (Bubalus Caffer). It is said to be the most dangerous wild beast of Africa. See Buffalo, 2. -- Cape jasmine, Cape jassamine. See Jasmine. -…

A printing process depending on the effect of light on bichromatized gelatin. Paper coated with a mixture of the gelatin and a pigment is called carbon paper or carbon tissue. This is exposed under a negative and the film is transferred from the paper to some other support and developed by washing (the unexposed portio…

week before Lent, esp. at Rome and Naples, during a few days (three to ten) before Lent, ending with Shrove Tuesday. The carnival at Venice is everywhere talked of. Addison.

A carack. See Carack. Carrick bend (Naut.), a kind of knot, used for bending together hawsers or other ropes. -- Carrick bitts (Naut.), the bitts which support the windlass. Totten.