Search the Dictionary

simple ratio, as of one to one, two to three, or some other, always expressible in whole numbers. -- Atomic weight (Chem.), the weight of the atom of an element as compared with the weight of the atom of hydrogen, taken as a standard.

Degree of atomic attraction; equivalence; valence; also (a later use) the number of atoms in an elementary molecule. See Valence.

nd prayer to the Virgin Mary, as mother of God; -- used in the Roman Catholic church. To number Ave Maries on his beads. Shak.

kinds of grain in the principal corn markets. On an average, taking the mean of unequal numbers or quantities.

the state of a benefice becoming void by the death, deprivation, or resignation of the incumbent. Wolsey, . . . on every avoidance of St. Peter's chair, was sitting down therein, when suddenly some one or other clapped in before him. Fuller.

hich has one such axis, the ellipse, which has two, or the circle, which has an infinite number. The two axes of the ellipse are the major axis and the minor axis, and the two axes of the hyperbola are the transverse axis and the conjugate axis. -- Axis of a lens, the straight line passing through its center and perpe…

To equal in number, weight, force, or proportion; to counterpoise, counterbalance, counteract, or neutralize. One expression . . . must check and balance another. Kent.

An artistic dance performed as a theatrical entertainment, or an interlude, by a number of persons, usually women. Sometimes, a scene accompanied by pantomime and dancing.

The whole number of votes cast at an election, or in a given territory or electoral district. Ballot box, a box for receiving ballots.

st Indian plant ( Momordica balsamina), of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices. -- Balsam fir (Bot.), the American coniferous tree, Abies balsamea, from which the useful Canada balsam is derived. -- Balsam of co…

trap, or any narrow ligament with which a thing is encircled, or fastened, or by which a number of things are tied, bound together, or confined; a fetter. Every one's bands were loosed. Acis xvi 26.

t, and not through embrasures. -- Barbette gun, or Barbette battery, a single gun, or a number of guns, mounted in barbette, or partially protected by a parapet or turret. -- Barbette carriage, a gun carriage which elevates guns sufficiently to be in barbette. [See Illust. of Casemate.]

The number from which a mathematical table is constructed; as, the base of a system of logarithms.

A game of ball, so called from the bases or bounds ( four in number) which designate the circuit which each player must endeavor to make after striking the ball.

of an acid to unite with one or more atoms or equivalents of a base, as indicated by the number of replaceable hydrogen atoms contained in the acid.

Battery en écharpe, one that plays obliquely. -- Battery gun, a gun capable of firing a number, of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load. -- Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery. -- In battery, projecting, as a…

A catalogue of persons, for the rest of whose souls a certain number of prayers are to be said or counted off on the beads of a chaplet; hence, a catalogue in general. On Fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be field. Spenser. It is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are direc…

ind force devised by Sir F. Beaufort, R. N., in 1805, in which the force is indicated by numbers from 0 to 12.

To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position. "Bedded hair." Shak.

To drag through, encumber with, or fix in, the mire; to soil by passing through mud or dirt. Bemired and benighted in the dog. Burke.