OFFICE n.
That which a person does, either voluntarily or by appointment, for, or with reference to, others; customary duty, or a duty that arises from the relations of man to man; as, kind offices, pious offices. I would I could do a good office between you. Shak.
OPEN DOOR n.
ortunity for political and commercial intercourse open to all upon equal terms, esp. with reference to a nation whose policy is wholly or partially fixed by nations foreign to itself, or to territory newly acquired by a conquering nation. In this sense, often used adjectively, as, open-door system, open-door policy, et…
OPTICALLY adv.
By optics or sight; with reference to optics. Optically active, Optically inactive (Chem. Physics), terms used of certain metameric substances which, while identical with each other in other respects, differ in this, viz., that they do or do not produce right-handed or left-handed circular polarization of light. -- Op…
ORATION n.
ing an important subject in a formal and dignified manner; especially, a discourse having reference to some special occasion, as a funeral, an anniversary, a celebration, or the like; -- distinguished from an argument in court, a popular harangue, a sermon, a lecture, etc.; as, Webster's oration at Bunker Hill. The lor…
PARACENTRIC; PARACENTRICAL a.
olving body, as a planet, by which it approaches to, or recedes from, the center, without reference to its motion in space, or to its motion as reckoned in any other direction.
PARALLAX n.
head remaining unmoved. -- Diurnal, or Geocentric, parallax, the parallax of a body with reference to the earth's center. This is the kind of parallax that is generally understood when the term is used without qualification. -- Heliocentric parallax, the parallax of a body with reference to the sun, or the angle subt…