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An authoritative command or order to do something; an effectual decree. His fiat laid the corner stone. Willis.

Bidding or manifesting defiance. [Obs.] Shelford.

Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and fiatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; as, an absurd person, an absurd opinion; an absurd dream. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. 'This phrase absurd to call a vi…

Commission; fiat; order; decree. [Obs.] Spenser.

-- Graphic arts, a name given to those fine arts which pertain to the representation on a fiat surface of natural objects; as distinguished from music, etc., and also from sculpture. -- Graphic formula. (Chem.) See under Formula. -- Graphic granite. See under Granite. -- Graphic method, the method of scientific anal…

o the ground; to lie prone, or move uneasily with the body prostrate on the earth; to lie fiat on one's belly, expressive of abjectness; to crawl. To creep and grovel on the ground. Dryden.

nd kill large fish, as whales; a harping iron. It consists of a long shank, with a broad, fiat, triangular head, sharpened at both edges, and is thrown by hand, or discharged from a gun. Harpoon fork, a kind of hayfork, consisting of bar with hinged barbs at one end a loop for a rope at the other end, used for lifting…

Something used to secure and hold in place something else, as a long fiat-headed nail, a catch a hook, a clinch, a clamp, etc.; hence, a support. "His holdfast was gone." Bp. Montagu.

To lay fiat; to throw down; to level; to fell; as, to prostrate the body; to prostrate trees or plants. Evelyn.

The act of prostrating, throwing down, or laying fiat; as, the prostration of the body.

f certain instruments, and set in vibration by the breath. In the clarinet it is a single fiat reed; in the oboe and bassoon it is double, forming a compressed tube.

g, as of a ball along the ground when a gun is fired at a low angle of elevation, or of a fiat stone thrown along the surface of water. Ricochet firing (Mil.), the firing of guns or howitzers, usually with small charges, at an elevation of only a few degrees, so as to cause the balls or shells to bound or skip along th…