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The first or the last term of a proportion or series. In the extreme as much as possible. "The position of the Port was difficult in the extreme." J. P. Peters.

The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem. The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. Dryden.

se door or window (Arch.), the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry. -- False fire, a combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for decoying a vess…

A series of strata, of the Middle Tertiary period, of France, abounding in shells, and used by Lyell as the type of his Miocene subdivision.

profitable to the compositor. Fat acid. (Chem.) See Sebacic acid, under Sebacic. -- Fat series, Fatty series (Chem.), the series of the paraffine hydrocarbons and their derivatives; the marsh gas or methane series. -- Natural fats (Chem.), the group of oily substances of natural occurrence, as butter, lard, tallow,…

of fat; greasy; gross; as, a fatty substance. Fatty acid (Chem.), any one of the paraffin series of monocarbonic acids, as formic acid, acetic, etc.; -- so called because the higher members, as stearic and palmitic acids, occur in the natural fats, and are themselves fatlike substances. -- Fatty clays. See under Clay.…

One of a complex series of double cyanides of ferric iron and some other base. Potassium ferricyanide (Chem.), red prussiate of potash; a dark, red, crystalline salt, K6(CN)12Fe2, consisting of the double cyanide of potassium and ferric iron. From it is derived the ferrous ferricyanate, Turnbull's blue.…

One of a series of complex double cyanides of ferrous iron and some other base. Potassium ferrocyanide (Chem.), yellow prussiate of potash; a tough, yellow, crystalline salt, K4(CN)6Fe, the starting point in the manufacture of almost all cyanogen compounds, and the basis of the ferric ferrocyanate, prussian blue. It is…

ow to indicate the other notes of the harmony). -- Figurate numbers (Math.), numbers, or series of numbers, formed from any arithmetical progression in which the first term is a unit, and the difference a whole number, by taking the first term, and the sums of the first two, first three, first four, etc., as the succe…

damp. See under Damp. -- Fire dog. See Firedog, in the Vocabulary. -- Fire drill. (a) A series of evolutions performed by fireman for practice. (b) An apparatus for producing fire by friction, by rapidly twirling a wooden pin in a wooden socket; -- used by the Hindoos during all historic time, and by many savage peop…

Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest; as, the first day of a month; the first year of a reign.

A flower-shaped ornament, esp. one terminating an object or forming one of a series, as a knob of a cover to a dish, or a flower- shaped part in a necklace.

A series of steps or stairs from one landing to another. Parker.

A channel of curved section; -- usually applied to one of a vertical series of such channels used to decorate columns and pilasters in classical architecture. See Illust. under Base, n.

A name given to the series of sandstones and schists overlying the true nummulitic formation in the Alps, and included in the Eocene Tertiary.

base; the ground part; the bottom, as of a mountain or column; also, the last of a row or series; the end or extremity, esp. if associated with inferiority; as, the foot of a hill; the foot of the procession; the foot of a class; the foot of the bed. And now at foot Of heaven's ascent they lift their feet. Milton.…

To have previous knowledge of; to know beforehand. Who would the miseries of man foreknow Dryden.

ve distillation of oxalic acid. It is the first member of the fatty acids in the paraffin series, and is homologous with acetic acid.

ning on a monorail has its adhesion materially increased by the pull of the tow rope on a series of inclined gripping wheels.

ng which implies a breach or defect; a vacant space or time; a hiatus; a mountain pass. Miseries ensued by the opening of that gap. Knolles. It would make a great gap in your own honor. Shak. Gap lathe (Mach.), a turning lathe with a deep notch in the bed to admit of turning a short object of large diameter. -- To sta…