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egal or noral qualification, as of age, residence, character, etc., necessary for certain purposes, as for holding office, for marrying, for making contracts, will, etc.; legal power or right; competency. Capacity for heat, the power of absorbing heat. Substances differ in the amount of heat requisite to raise them a g…

ovable nut, attached to the finger board of a guitar or other fretted instrument for the purpose of raising uniformly the pitch of all the strings.

itical association in Italy, organized in the early part of the nineteenth centry for the purpose of changing the government into a republic.

Without thought or purpose; without due care; without attention to rule or system; unstudied; inconsiderate; spontaneouse; rash; as, a careless throw; a careless expression. He framed the careless rhyme. Beatie.

, formerly in use, designed to throw a large projectile with small velocity, used for the purpose of breaking or smashing in, rather than piercing, the object aimed at, as the side of a ship. It has no trunnions, but is supported on its carriage by a bolt passing through a loop on its under side.

A two-wheeled vehicle for the ordinary purposes of husbandry, or for transporting bulky and heavy articles. Packing all his goods in one poor cart. Dryden.

e next to king, and then the king around the castle to the square next beyond it, for the purpose of covering the king.

A tax or imposition an a dwelling within a certain distance of a castle, for the purpose of maintaining watch and ward in it; castle-ward.

A male person castrated for the purpose of improving his voice for singing; an artificial, or male, soprano. Swift.

; a tool; one who, or that which, is used by another as an instrument to a accomplish his purposes.

wood lashed together, and moved by paddles or sail; -- used as a surf boat and for other purposes on the coasts of the East and West Indies and South America. Modified forms are much used in the lumber regions of North America, and at life-saving stations.

A boy kept for unnatural purposes.

-- Proximate cause. See under Proximate. -- To make common cause with, to join with in purposes and aims. Macaulay.

Hollow relief; sculpture in relief within a sinking made for the purpose, so no part of it projects beyond the plain surface around.

A numbering of the people, and valuation of their estate, for the purpose of imposing taxes, etc.; -- usually made once in five years.

, or to the process of finding it. Centrobaric method (Math.), a process invented for the purpose of measuring the area or the volume generated by the rotation of a line or surface about a fixed axis, depending upon the principle that every figure formed by the revolution of a line or surface about such an axis has for…

A division of the Roman people formed according to their property, for the purpose of voting for civil officers.

A cerecloth used for the special purpose of enveloping a dead body when embalmed.

uce, agreed to by the commanders of armies, to give time for a capitulation, or for other purposes.

links or rings, usually of metal, connected, or fitted into one another, used for various purposes, as of support, of restraint, of ornament, of the exertion and transmission of mechanical power, etc. [They] put a chain of gold about his neck. Dan. v. 29.