Search the Dictionary

The act of retarding, or delaying; retardation. [Obs.]

The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: acceleration. The retardations of our fluent motion. De Quinsey.

, a falling body moves toward the earth with an acceleration of velocity; -- opposed to retardation. A period of social improvement, or of intellectual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor. (Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its o…

inery to equalize the movement (opposing any sudden acceleration by its inertia and any retardation by its momentum), and to accumulate or give out energy for a variable or intermitting resistance. See Fly, n., 9. -- On the fly (Baseball), still in the air; -- said of a batted ball caught before touching the ground..…

A lagging or retardation of the effect, when the forces acting upon a body are changed, as if from velocity or internal friction; a temporary resistance to change from a condition previously invuced, observed in magnetism, thermoelectricity, etc., on reversal of polarity.

tain substances have a great inductive capacity. Inductive embarrassment (Physics), the retardation in signaling on an electric wire, produced by lateral induction. -- Inductive philosophy or method. See Philosophical induction, under Induction. -- Inductive sciences, those sciences which admit of, and employ, the in…

The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.

Retardation; delay. Retard, or Age, of the tide, the interval between the transit of the moon at which a tide originates and the appearance of the tide itself. It is found, in general, that any particular tide is not principally due to the moon's transit immediatelly proceeding, but to a transit which has occured some…

The act of retarding; retardation. Cowley.

, thus producing a momentary discord, suspending the concord which the ear expects. Cf. Retardation. Pleas in suspension (Law), pleas which temporarily abate or suspend a suit. -- Points of suspension (Mech.), the points, as in the axis or beam of a balance, at which the weights act, or from which they are suspended.…

ies as the components of sun and moon waves approach to, or recede from, one another. A retardation from this cause is called the lagging of the tide, while the acceleration of the recurrence of high water is termed the priming of the tide. See Lag of the tide, under 2d Lag. -- Tide dial, a dial to exhibit the state o…

case called accelerated velocity, in the latter, retarded velocity; the acceleration or retardation itself being also either uniform or variable. -- Virtual velocity. See under Virtual.