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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



255 words match “PARALLEL”

PACA n.
A small South American rodent (Cologenys paca), having blackish brown fur, with four parallel rows of white spots along its sides; the spotted cavy. It is nearly allied to the agouti and the Guinea pig.
PADDLE n.
essel, having paddles (or floats) on its circumference, and revolving in a vertical plane parallel to the vessel's length.
PARABOLA n.
ne of the conic sections formed by the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane parallel to one of its sides. It is a curve, any point of which is equally distant from a fixed point, called the focus, and a fixed straight line, called the directrix. See Focus.
PARABOLIC; PARABOLICAL a.
noid. -- Parabolic mirror (Opt.), a mirror having a paraboloidal surface which gives for parallel rays (as those from very distant objects) images free from aberration. It is used in reflecting telescopes. -- Parabolic spindle, the solid generated by revolving the portion of a parabola cut off by a line drawn at righ…
PARABOLOID n.
on of a parabola about its axis; any surface of the second order whose sections by planes parallel to a given line are parabolas.
PARAGON v.
To compare; to parallel; to put in rivalry or emulation with. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.
PATTERN v.
To serve as an example for; also, to parallel. To pattern after, to imitate; to follow.
PENCILED a.
Marked with parallel or radiating lines.
PERIOECI; PERIOECIANS n.
Those who live on the same parallel of latitude but on opposite meridians, so that it is noon in one place when it is midnight in the other. Compare Antoeci.
PERITOMOUS a.
Cleaving in more directions than one, parallel to the axis.
PERSPECTIVE a.
to the principal face of the object, the perspective is called oblique perspective; when parallel to that face, parallel perspective. -- Perspective shell (Zoöl.), any shell of the genus Solarium and allied genera. See Solarium.
PHASING CURRENT n.
The momentary current between two alternating-current generators when juxtaposed in parallel and not agreeing exactly in phase or period.
PINACOID n.
A plane parallel to two of the crystalline axes.
POLAR a.
rdinates. Polar axis, that axis of an astronomical instrument, as an equatorial, which is parallel to the earths axis. -- Polar bear (Zoöl.), a large bear (Ursus, or Thalarctos, maritimus) inhabiting the arctic regions. It sometimes measures nearly nine feet in length and weighs 1,600 pounds. It is partially amphibiou…
POLYGON n.
t the side necessary to complete the figure represents the resultant of those forces. Cf. Parallelogram of forces, under Parallelogram.
POLYSYNTHETIC a.
c twinning (Min.), repeated twinning, like that of the triclinic feldspar, producing fine parallel bands in alternately reversed positions.
PRISM n. 3 definitions
A solid whose bases or ends are any similar, equal, and parallel plane figures, and whose sides are parallelograms.
PROJECTION n.
Mercator's projection, a mode of representing the sphere in which the meridians are drawn parallel to each other, and the parallels of latitude are straight lines whose distance from each other increases with their distance from the equator, so that at all places the degrees of latitude and longitude have to each other…
PUMICE n.
ght porous volcanic scoria, usually of a gray color, the pores of which are capillary and parallel, giving it a fibrous structure. It is supposed to be produced by the disengagement of watery vapor without liquid or plastic lava. It is much used, esp. in the form of powder, for smoothing and polishing. Called also pumi…
PUPPET n.
covers a hole in its seat, and opens by moving bodily away from the seat while remaining parallel with it, -- used in steam engines, pumps, safety valves, etc. Its edge is often beveled, and fits in a conical recess in the seat when the valve is closed. See the valves shown in Illusts. of Plunger pump, and Safety valv…
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