Search the Dictionary

any respect; lack of uniformity; disproportion; unevenness; disparity; diversity; as, an inequality in size, stature, numbers, power, distances, motions, rank, property, etc. There is so great an inequality in the length of our legs and arms as makes it impossible for us to walk on all four. Ray. Notwithstanding which…

Inequality of the pupils of the eye.

To carry or advance near; to cause to approach. To approximate the inequality of riches to the level of nature. Burke.

Inequality in marriage; marriage with an inferior. [Obs.] Chaucer. Dissuaded her from such a disparage. Spenser.

Inequality; difference in age, rank, condition, or excellence; dissimilitude; -- followed by between, in, of, as to, etc.; as, disparity in, or of, years; a disparity as to color. The disparity between God and his intelligent creatures. I. Taylor. The disparity of numbers was not such as ought to cause any uneasiness.…

An inequality of the moon's motion is its orbit to the attraction of the sun, by which the equation of the center is diminished at the syzygies, and increased at the quadratures by about 1º 20'.

Inequality; disparity; disproportion; difference of degree, rank, excellence, number, etc. Milton.

a ray of light or heat, falls on any surface. In equal incidences there is a considerable inequality of refractions. Sir I. Newton. Angle of incidence, the angle which a ray of light, or the line of incidence of a body, falling on any surface, makes with a perpendicular to that surface; also formerly, the complement of…

An inequality.

expression unconnected with any other by the sign of addition, substraction, equality, or inequality.

favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. "Preëminent by so much odds." Milton. "The fearful odds of that unequal fray." Trench. The odds Is that we scare are men and you are gods. Shak. There appe…

Inequality of surface, as of the ground in the game of bowls; unevenness. Shak.

f ages, or to a long period of time; accomplished in a long progress of time; as, secular inequality; the secular refrigeration of the globe.

The quality or state of being unequal; inequality; unevenness. Jer. Taylor.

lculus. -- Variation compass. See under Compass. -- Variation of the moon (Astron.), an inequality of the moon's motion, depending on the angular distance of the moon from the sun. It is greater at the octants, and zero at the quadratures. -- Variation of the needle (Geog. & Naut.), the angle included between the tr…

An inequality in a board. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Unevenness; inequality of surface. Sir I. Newton.