TERMS STARTING WITH
meta- ::: --> Alt. of Met-
metabases ::: pl. --> of Metabasis
metabasis ::: n. --> A transition from one subject to another.
Same as Metabola.
meta bit "character" The most-signigicant {bit} of an 8-bit {character}, which is on in character values 128--255. Also called the {high bit}, "alt bit" (alternate bit) or {hobbit}. Some terminals and consoles (see {space-cadet keyboard}) have a META shift key. Others (including, *mirabile dictu*, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See also {bucky bits}. Historical note: although, in modern usage shaped by a universe of 8-bit {bytes}, the meta bit is invariably {hex} 80 ({octal} 0200), things were different on earlier machines with 36-bit words and 9-bit bytes. The MIT and Stanford keyboards (see {space-cadet keyboard}) generated hex 100 (octal 400) from their meta keys. [{Jargon File}] (2014-10-05)
meta bit ::: The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values 128--255. Also called high bit, alt bit, or hobbit. Some terminals and consoles (see dictu*, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See also bucky bits.Historical note: although in modern usage shaped by a universe of 8-bit bytes the meta bit is invariably hex 80 (octal 0200), things were different on earlier machines with 36 bit words and 9-bit bytes. The MIT and Stanford keyboards (see space-cadet keyboard) generated hex 100 (octal 400) from their meta keys.[Jargon File]
metabola ::: n. --> Alt. of Metabole ::: n. pl. --> Alt. of Metabolia
metabole ::: n. --> A change or mutation; a change of disease, symptoms, or treatment.
metabolian ::: n. --> An insect which undergoes a metamorphosis.
metabolia ::: n. pl. --> A comprehensive group of insects, including those that undegro a metamorphosis.
metabolic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metamorphosis; pertaining to, or involving, change.
Of or pertaining to metabolism; as, metabolic activity; metabolic force.
metabolisis ::: n. --> Metabolism.
metabolism ::: n. --> The act or process, by which living tissues or cells take up and convert into their own proper substance the nutritive material brought to them by the blood, or by which they transform their cell protoplasm into simpler substances, which are fitted either for excretion or for some special purpose, as in the manufacture of the digestive ferments. Hence, metabolism may be either constructive (anabolism), or destructive (katabolism).
metabolite ::: n. --> A product of metabolism; a substance produced by metabolic action, as urea.
metabolize ::: v. t. & i. --> To change by a metabolic process. See Metabolism.
metabranchial ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the lobe of the carapace of crabs covering the posterior branchiae.
metacarpal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metacarpus. ::: n. --> A metacarpal bone.
metacarpus ::: n. --> That part of the skeleton of the hand or forefoot between the carpus and phalanges. In man it consists of five bones. See Illust. of Artiodactyla.
metacenter ::: n. --> Alt. of -tre
metacetone ::: n. --> A colorless liquid of an agreeable odor, C6H10O, obtained by distilling a mixture of sugar and lime; -- so called because formerly regarded as a polymeric modification of acetone.
metachloral ::: n. --> A white, amorphous, insoluble substance regarded as a polymeric variety of chloral.
metachronism ::: n. --> An error committed in chronology by placing an event after its real time.
metachrosis ::: n. --> The power og changing color at will by the expansion of special pigment cells, under nerve influence, as seen in many reptiles, fishes, etc.
metacinnabarite ::: n. --> Sulphide of mercury in isometric form and black in color.
metacism ::: n. --> A defect in pronouncing the letter m, or a too frequent use of it.
metaclass "programming" The {class} of a class in an {object-oriented programming} language. A metaclass is a class whose {instances} are themselves classes. Typically there will only be one metaclass, called "Class" or similar, which is the class of all classes including itself. In some languages there will be no metaclass. The idea of a metaclass is closely associated with {introspection} - the ability of a program to access the structure and logic of itself or other programs. (2013-09-02)
metacrolein ::: n. --> A polymeric modification of acrolein obtained by heating it with caustic potash. It is a crystalline substance having an aromatic odor.
metacromion ::: n. --> A process projecting backward and downward from the acromion of the scapula of some mammals.
metadata "data, data processing" /me't*-day`t*/, or combinations of /may'-/ or (Commonwealth) /mee'-/; /-dah`t*/ (Or "meta-data") Data about {data}. In {data processing}, metadata is definitional data that provides information about or documentation of other data managed within an application or environment. For example, metadata would document data about {data elements} or {attributes}, (name, size, data type, etc) and data about {records} or {data structures} (length, fields, columns, etc) and data about data (where it is located, how it is associated, ownership, etc.). Metadata may include descriptive information about the context, quality and condition, or characteristics of the data. A collection of metadata, e.g. in a {database}, is called a {data dictionary}. Myers of {The Metadata Company} claims to have coined the term in 1969 though it appears in the book, "Extension of programming language concepts" published in 1968, by {Philip R. Bagley}. Bagley was a pioneer of computer document retrieval. "A survey of extensible programming languages" by Solntsseff and Yezerski (Annual Review in Automatic Programming, 1974, pp267-307) cites "the notion of 'metadata' introduced by Bagley". (2010-05-15)
meta-data ::: (data) /me't*-day`t*/, or combinations of /may'-/ or (Commonwealth) /mee'-/; /-dah`t*/ (Or meta data) Data about data. In data processing, meta-data is definitional data that provides information about or documentation of other data managed within an application or environment.For example, meta-data would document data about data elements or attributes, (name, size, data type, etc) and data about records or data structures (length, associated, ownership, etc.). Meta-data may include descriptive information about the context, quality and condition, or characteristics of the data.Not to be confused with Metadata. (1997-04-06)
metadiscoidal ::: a. --> Discoidal by derivation; -- applied especially to the placenta of man and apes, because it is supposed to have been derived from a diffused placenta.
metafile "graphics, file format" 1. An image file format for transport between different machines, often as a {device independent bitmap}. 2. A {functional specification} for encoding computer {graphics} for later display on some suitable device. (1996-09-20)
metafile ::: (graphics, file format) 1. An image file format for transport between different machines, often as a device independent bitmap.2. A functional specification for encoding computer graphics for later display on some suitable device. (1996-09-20)
metagastric ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the two posterior gastric lobes of the carapace of crabs.
metagenesis ::: n. --> The change of form which one animal species undergoes in a series of successively produced individuals, extending from the one developed from the ovum to the final perfected individual. Hence, metagenesis involves the production of sexual individuals by nonsexual means, either directly or through intervening sexless generations. Opposed to monogenesis. See Alternate generation, under Generation.
Alternation of sexual and asexual or gemmiparous generations; -- in distinction from heterogamy.
metagenetic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metagenesis.
metagenic ::: a. --> Metagenetic.
metage ::: v. --> Measurement, especially of coal.
Charge for, or price of, measuring.
metagnathous ::: a. --> Cross-billed; -- said of certain birds, as the crossbill.
metagrammatism ::: n. --> Anagrammatism.
metagraphic ::: a. --> By or pertaining to metagraphy.
metagraphy ::: n. --> The art or act of rendering the letters of the alphabet of one language into the possible equivalents of another; transliteration.
metaheuristic "algorithm, complexity, computability" A top-level general strategy which guides other {heuristics} to search for feasible solutions in domains where the task is hard. Metaheuristics have been most generally applied to problems classified as {NP-Hard} or {NP-Complete} by the theory of {computational complexity}. However, metaheuristics would also be applied to other {combinatorial} {optimisation} problems for which it is known that a {polynomial-time} solution exists but is not practical. Examples of metaheuristics are {Tabu Search}, {simulated annealing}, {genetic algorithms} and {memetic algorithms}. (1997-10-30)
metaheuristic ::: (algorithm, complexity, computability) A top-level general strategy which guides other heuristics to search for feasible solutions in domains where the task is hard.Metaheuristics have been most generally applied to problems classified as NP-Hard or NP-Complete by the theory of computational complexity. However, problems for which it is known that a polynomial-time solution exists but is not practical.Examples of metaheuristics are Tabu Search, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and memetic algorithms. (1997-10-30)
metainformation {metadata}
metalammonium ::: n. --> A hypothetical radical derived from ammonium by the substitution of metallic atoms in place of hydrogen.
metalanguage ::: 1. [theorem proving] A language in which proofs are manipulated and tactics are programmed, as opposed to the logic itself (the object language). The first ML was the metalanguage for the Edinburgh LCF proof assistant.2. [logic] A language in which to discuss the truth of statements in another language.
metalanguage 1. [theorem proving] A language in which proofs are manipulated and tactics are programmed, as opposed to the logic itself (the "{object language}"). The first {ML} was the metalanguage for the Edinburgh {LCF} proof assistant. 2. [logic] A language in which to discuss the truth of statements in another language.
metalbumin ::: n. --> A form of albumin found in ascitic and certain serous fluids. It is sometimes regarded as a mixture of albumin and mucin.
metaldehyde ::: n. --> A white crystalline substance isomeric with, and obtained from, acetic aldehyde by polymerization, and reconvertible into the same.
metaled ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Metal
metalepses ::: pl. --> of Metalepsis
metalepsis ::: n. --> The continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations, or the union of two or more tropes of a different kind in one word.
metalepsy ::: n. --> Exchange; replacement; substitution; metathesis.
metaleptical ::: a. --> Metaleptic.
metaleptic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a metalepsis.
Transverse; as, the metaleptic motion of a muscle.
Of, pertaining to, concerned in, or occurring by, metalepsy.
metaling ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Metal
metalled ::: --> of Metal
metallical ::: a. --> See Metallic.
metallic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a metal; of the nature of metal; resembling metal; as, a metallic appearance; a metallic alloy.
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by, the essential and implied properties of a metal, as contrasted with a nonmetal or metalloid; basic; antacid; positive.
metallicly ::: adv. --> In a metallic manner; by metallic means.
metallifacture ::: n. --> The production and working or manufacture of metals.
metalliferous ::: a. --> Producing metals; yielding metals.
metalliform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of a metal.
metalline ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or resembling, a metal; metallic; as, metalline properties.
Impregnated with metallic salts; chalybeate; as, metalline water. ::: n. --> A substance of variable composition, but resembling a
metalling ::: --> of Metal
metallist ::: n. --> A worker in metals, or one skilled in metals.
metallization ::: n. --> The act or process of metallizing.
metallized ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Metallize
metallize ::: v. t. --> To impart metallic properties to; to impregnate with a metal.
metallizing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Metallize
metallochrome ::: n. --> A coloring produced by the deposition of some metallic compound; specifically, the prismatic tints produced by depositing a film of peroxide of lead on polished steel by electricity.
metallochromy ::: n. --> The art or process of coloring metals.
metallographic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or by means of, metallography.
metallographist ::: n. --> One who writes on the subject of metals.
metallograph ::: n. --> A print made by metallography.
metallography ::: n. --> The science or art of metals and metal working; also, a treatise on metals.
A method of transferring impressions of the grain of wood to metallic surfaces by chemical action.
A substitute for lithography, in which metallic plates are used instead of stone.
metalloidal ::: a. --> Metalloid.
metalloid ::: n. --> Formerly, the metallic base of a fixed alkali, or alkaline earth; -- applied by Sir H. Davy to sodium, potassium, and some other metallic substances whose metallic character was supposed to be not well defined.
Now, one of several elementary substances which in the free state are unlike metals, and whose compounds possess or produce acid, rather than basic, properties; a nonmetal; as, boron, carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, chlorine, bromine, etc., are
metallorganic ::: a. --> Metalorganic.
metallotherapy ::: n. --> Treatment of disease by applying metallic plates to the surface of the body.
metallurgic ::: a. --> Alt. of Metallurgical
metallurgical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metallurgy.
metallurgist ::: n. --> One who works in metals, or prepares them for use; one who is skilled in metallurgy.
metallurgy ::: n. --> The art of working metals, comprehending the whole process of separating them from other matters in the ore, smelting, refining, and parting them; sometimes, in a narrower sense, only the process of extracting metals from their ores.
metalman ::: n. --> A worker in metals.
metalmen ::: pl. --> of Metalman
metal ::: n. --> An elementary substance, as sodium, calcium, or copper, whose oxide or hydroxide has basic rather than acid properties, as contrasted with the nonmetals, or metalloids. No sharp line can be drawn between the metals and nonmetals, and certain elements partake of both acid and basic qualities, as chromium, manganese, bismuth, etc.
Ore from which a metal is derived; -- so called by miners.
A mine from which ores are taken.
The substance of which anything is made; material; hence,
metalogical ::: a. --> Beyond the scope or province of logic.
metalorganic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or denoting, any one of a series of compounds of certain metallic elements with organic radicals; as, zinc methyl, sodium ethyl, etc.
metals, and commander of four
metamere ::: n. --> One of successive or homodynamous parts in animals and plants; one of a series of similar parts that follow one another in a vertebrate or articulate animal, as in an earthworm; a segment; a somite. See Illust. of Loeven&
metameric ::: a. --> Having the same elements united in the same proportion by weight, and with the same molecular weight, but possessing a different structure and different properties; as, methyl ether and ethyl alcohol are metameric compounds. See Isomeric.
Of or pertaining to a metamere or its formation; as, metameric segmentation.
metamerically ::: adv. --> In a metameric manner.
metamerism ::: n. --> The symmetry of a metameric structure; serial symmetry; the state of being made up of metameres.
The state or quality of being metameric; also, the relation or condition of metameric compounds.
metamer ::: n. --> Any one of several metameric forms of the same substance, or of different substances having the same composition; as, xylene has three metamers, viz., orthoxylene, metaxylene, and paraxylene.
metamorphic ::: a. --> Subject to change; changeable; variable.
Causing a change of structure.
Pertaining to, produced by, or exhibiting, certain changes which minerals or rocks may have undergone since their original deposition; -- especially applied to the recrystallization which sedimentary rocks have undergone through the influence of heat and pressure, after which they are called metamorphic rocks.
metamorphism ::: n. --> The state or quality of being metamorphic; the process by which the material of rock masses has been more or less recrystallized by heat, pressure, etc., as in the change of sedimentary limestone to marble.
metamorphist ::: n. --> One who believes that the body of Christ was merged into the Deity when he ascended.
metamorphize ::: v. t. --> To metamorphose.
metamorphosed ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Metamorphose
metamorphoser ::: n. --> One who metamorphoses.
metamorphoses ::: pl. --> of Metamorphosis
metamorphose ::: v. t. --> To change into a different form; to transform; to transmute. ::: n. --> Same as Metamorphosis.
metamorphosic ::: a. --> Changing the form; transforming.
metamorphosing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Metamorphose
metamorphosis ::: 1. Any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc. 2. A change or succession of changes in form during the life cycle of an animal, allowing it to adapt to different environmental conditions, as a caterpillar into a butterfly.
metamorphosis ::: n. --> Change of form, or structure; transformation.
A change in the form or function of a living organism, by a natural process of growth or development; as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom. Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction is usually impossible, but they
metanauplius ::: n. --> A larval crustacean in a stage following the nauplius, and having about seven pairs of appendages.
metanephritic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metanephros.
metanephros ::: n. --> The most posterior of the three pairs of embryonic renal organs developed in many vertebrates.
metanotum ::: n. --> The dorsal portion of the metaphorax of insects.
metantimonate ::: n. --> A salt of metantimonic acid.
metantimonic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or designating, an acid (formerly called antimonic acid) analogous to metaphosphoric acid, and obtained as a white amorphous insoluble substance, (HSbO3).
Formerly, designating an acid, which is now properly called pyroantimonic acid, and analogous to pyrophosphoric acid.
metapectic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or designating, a supposed acid obtained from pectin.
metapectin ::: n. --> A substance obtained from, and resembling, pectin, and occurring in overripe fruits.
metapeptone ::: n. --> An intermediate product formed in the gastric digestion of albuminous matter.
meta "philosophy" /me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X. For example, a {metasyntax} is {syntax} for specifying syntax, {metalanguage} is a language used to discuss language, {metadata} is data about data, and {meta-reasoning} is reasoning about reasoning. This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humour turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels. [{Jargon File}] (1999-04-06)
meta ::: (philosophy) /me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X.For example, a metasyntax is syntax for specifying syntax, metalanguage is a language used to discuss language, meta-data is data about data, and meta-reasoning is reasoning about reasoning.This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humour turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.[Jargon File] (1999-04-06)
metaphone ::: (algorithm, text) An algorithm for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. It's similar to soundex in purpose, but as it as well as more storage capacity, but neither of these requirements are usually prohibitive. It is in the public domain so it can be freely implemented.Metaphone was developed by Lawrence Philips . It is described in [Practical Algorithms for Programmers, Binstock & Rex, Addison Wesley, 1995]. (1998-12-22)
metaphone "algorithm, text" An {algorithm} for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. It's similar to {soundex} in purpose, but as it knows the basic rules of English pronunciation it's more accurate. The higher accuracy doesn't come free, though, metaphone requires more computational power as well as more storage capacity, but neither of these requirements are usually prohibitive. It is in the public domain so it can be freely implemented. Metaphone was developed by Lawrence Philips "lphilips@verity.com". It is described in ["Practical Algorithms for Programmers", Binstock & Rex, Addison Wesley, 1995]. (1998-12-22)
metaphoric ::: a. --> Alt. of Metaphorical
metaphorical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metaphor; comprising a metaphor; not literal; figurative; tropical; as, a metaphorical expression; a metaphorical sense.
metaphorist ::: n. --> One who makes metaphors.
metaphor ::: n. --> The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea.
metaphosphate ::: n. --> A salt of metaphosphoric acid.
metaphosphoric ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or designating, a monobasic acid, HPO3, analogous to nitric acid, and, by heating phosphoric acid, obtained as a crystalline substance, commonly called glacial phosphoric acid.
metaphrased ::: a. --> Translated literally.
metaphrase ::: n. --> A verbal translation; a version or translation from one language into another, word for word; -- opposed to paraphrase.
An answering phrase; repartee.
metaphrasis ::: n. --> Metaphrase.
metaphrastic ::: a. --> Alt. of Metaphrastical
metaphrastical ::: a. --> Close, or literal.
metaphrast ::: n. --> A literal translator.
metaphysical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metaphysics.
According to rules or principles of metaphysics; as, metaphysical reasoning.
Preternatural or supernatural.
metaphysical ::: highly abstract or theoretical; abstruse, relating to that which is immaterial or concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth.
metaphysically ::: adv. --> In the manner of metaphysical science, or of a metaphysician.
metaphysician ::: n. --> One who is versed in metaphysics.
metaphysic ::: n. --> See Metaphysics. ::: a. --> Metaphysical.
metaphysics ::: n. --> The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal being; ontology; also, the science of being, with reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being; phylosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.
Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena;
metaphysics ::: Traditionally, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with issues of ontology (what is being or reality?) and epistemology (how do we know it?). In Integral Theory, any assertion without injunctions is considered metaphysics, or a meaningless assertion (i.e., postulating a referent for which there is no means of verification). The term is also used in its traditional sense given the lack of alternatives.
metaphysis ::: n. --> Change of form; transformation.
metaplasm ::: n. --> A change in the letters or syllables of a word.
metaplast ::: n. --> A word having more than one form of the root.
metapode ::: n. --> The posterior division of the foot in the Gastropoda and Pteropoda.
metapodial ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metapodialia, or to the parts of the limbs to which they belong.
metapodiale ::: n. --> One of the bones of either the metacarpus or metatarsus.
metapodialia ::: pl. --> of Metapodiale
metapodia ::: pl. --> of Metapodium
metapodium ::: n. --> Same as Metapode.
metapophyses ::: pl. --> of Metapophysis
metapophysis ::: n. --> A tubercle projecting from the anterior articular processes of some vertebr/; a mammillary process.
metaprogram ::: A program which modifies or generates other programs. A compiler is an example of a metaprogram: it takes a program as input and produces another (compiled) one as output. (1994-10-24)
metaprogram A program which modifies or generates other programs. A {compiler} is an example of a metaprogram: it takes a program as input and produces another (compiled) one as output. (1994-10-24)
metapterygium ::: n. --> The posterior of the three principal basal cartilages in the fins of fishes.
metasilicate ::: n. --> A salt of metasilicic acid.
metasilicic ::: a. --> Designating an acid derived from silicic acid by the removal of water; of or pertaining to such an acid.
metasomatism ::: n. --> An alteration in a mineral or rock mass when involving a chemical change of the substance, as of chrysolite to serpentine; -- opposed to ordinary metamorphism, as implying simply a recrystallization.
metasome ::: n. --> One of the component segments of the body of an animal.
metastable (mĕt′ə-stā′bəl) ::: adj. --> Of, relating to, or being an unstable but relatively long-lived state of a chemical or physical system, as of a supersaturated solution or an excited atom.
metastannate ::: n. --> A salt of metastannic acid.
metastannic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or designating, a compound of tin (metastannic acid), obtained, as an isomeric modification of stannic acid, in the form of a white amorphous substance.
metastases ::: pl. --> of Metastasis
metastasis ::: n. --> A spiritual change, as during baptism.
A change in the location of a disease, as from one part to another.
The act or process by which matter is taken up by cells or tissues and is transformed into other matter; in plants, the act or process by which are produced all of those chemical changes in the constituents of the plant which are not accompanied by a production of organic matter; metabolism.
metastatic ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or caused by, metastasis; as, a metastatic abscess; the metastatic processes of growth.
metasternal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metasternum.
metasternum ::: n. --> The most posterior element of the sternum; the ensiform process; xiphisternum.
The ventral plate of the third or last segment of the thorax of insects.
metastoma ::: n. --> Alt. of Metastome
metastome ::: n. --> A median elevation behind the mouth in the arthropods.
metasyntactic variable "grammar" Strictly, a {variable} used in {metasyntax}, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word {foo} is the {canonical} example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a {scratch} file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, quux, quuux, quuuux...: MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere. At MIT (but not at Stanford), {baz} dropped out of use for a while in the 1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this sequence inserts {qux} before quux. bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). {foo}, {bar}, thud, grunt: This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables include ack, barf, foo, and {gorp}. {foo}, {bar}, fum: This series is reported to be common at {Xerox PARC}. {fred}, {barney}: See the entry for {fred}. These tend to be Britishisms. {toto}, titi, tata, tutu: Standard series of metasyntactic variables among francophones. {corge}, {grault}, {flarp}: Popular at Rutgers University and among {GOSMACS} hackers. zxc, spqr, {wombat}: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. {foo}, {bar}, zot: {Helsinki University of Technology}, Finland. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and {baz} nearly so). The compounds {foobar} and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; {barf} and {mumble}, for example. See also {Commonwealth Hackish} for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth. [{Jargon File}] (1995-11-13)
metasyntactic variable ::: (grammar) Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use foo or other words like it as permanent names for anything.In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time.To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: foo, bar, baz, quux, quuux, quuuux...: MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere. At MIT (but not at Stanford), baz dropped out of use for a while in the 1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this sequence inserts qux before quux. bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). foo, bar, thud, grunt: This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables include ack, barf, foo, and gorp. foo, bar, fum: This series is reported to be common at Xerox PARC. fred, barney: See the entry for fred. These tend to be Britishisms. toto, titi, tata, tutu: Standard series of metasyntactic variables among francophones. corge, grault, flarp: Popular at Rutgers University and among GOSMACS hackers. zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. foo, bar, zot: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. blarg, wibble: New ZealandOf all these, only foo and bar are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and foobaz also enjoy very wide currency.Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example.See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.[Jargon File] (1995-11-13)
metasyntactic variable ::: (grammar) Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use foo or other words like it as permanent names for anything.In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time.To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures:foo, bar, baz, quux, quuux, quuuux...: MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere. At MIT (but not at Stanford), baz dropped out of use for a while in the 1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this sequence inserts qux before quux.bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on).foo, bar, thud, grunt: This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables include ack, barf, foo, and gorp.foo, bar, fum: This series is reported to be common at Xerox PARC.fred, barney: See the entry for fred. These tend to be Britishisms.toto, titi, tata, tutu: Standard series of metasyntactic variables among francophones.corge, grault, flarp: Popular at Rutgers University and among GOSMACS hackers.zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England).shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/.foo, bar, zot: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.blarg, wibble: New ZealandOf all these, only foo and bar are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and foobaz also enjoy very wide currency.Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example.See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.[Jargon File] (1995-11-13)
metasyntax "grammar" {Syntax} used to describe {syntax}. The best known example is {BNF} and its variants such as {EBNF}. A {metasyntactic variable} is a {variable} used in {metasyntax}. (1999-04-06)
metasyntax ::: (grammar) Syntax used to describe syntax. The best known example is BNF and its variants such as EBNF.A metasyntactic variable is a variable used in metasyntax. (1999-04-06)
metatarsal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metatarsus. ::: n. --> A metatarsal bone.
metatarse ::: n. --> Metatarsus.
metatarsi ::: pl. --> of Metatarsus
metatarsus ::: n. --> That part of the skeleton of the hind or lower limb between the tarsus and phalanges; metatarse. It consists, in the human foot, of five bones. See Illustration in Appendix.
metatheses ::: pl. --> of Metathesis
metathesis ::: n. --> Transposition, as of the letters or syllables of a word; as, pistris for pristis; meagre for meager.
A mere change in place of a morbid substance, without removal from the body.
The act, process, or result of exchange, substitution, or replacement of atoms and radicals; thus, by metathesis an acid gives up all or part of its hydrogen, takes on an equivalent amount of a metal or base, and forms a salt.
metathetic ::: a. --> Alt. of Metathetical
metathetical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to metathesis.
metathoracic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the metathorax.
metathorax ::: n. --> The last or posterior segment of the thorax in insects. See Illust. of Coleoptera.
metatitanic ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or designating, an acid of titanium analogous to metasilicic acid.
metatungstate ::: n. --> A salt of metatungstic acid.
metatungstic ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or designating, an acid known only in its salts (the metatungstates) and properly called polytungstic, or pyrotungstic, acid.
metavanadate ::: n. --> A salt of metavanadic acid.
metavanadic ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or designating, a vanadic acid analogous to metaphosphoric acid.
metaxylene ::: n. --> That variety of xylene, or dimethyl benzene, in which the two methyl groups occupy the meta position with reference to each other. It is a colorless inf/ammable liquid.
metayage ::: n. --> A system of farming on halves.
metayer ::: a. --> One who cultivates land for a share (usually one half) of its yield, receiving stock, tools, and seed from the landlord.
metazoan ::: n. --> One of the Metazoa.
metazoa ::: n. pl. --> Those animals in which the protoplasmic mass, constituting the egg, is converted into a multitude of cells, which are metamorphosed into the tissues of the body. A central cavity is commonly developed, and the cells around it are at first arranged in two layers, -- the ectoderm and endoderm. The group comprises nearly all animals except the Protozoa.
metazoans ::: pl. --> of Metazoan
metazoic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Metazoa.
metazoon ::: n. --> One of the Metazoa.
META 5 Early syntax-directed {compiler-compiler}, used for translating one {high-level language} to another. Versions: META II, META-3. ["META 5: A Tool to Manipulate Strings of Data", D.K. Oppenheim et al, Proc 21st Natl Conf, ACM 1966]. [Sammet 1969, p. 638]. (1995-01-23)
META 5 ::: Early syntax-directed compiler-compiler, used for translating one high-level language to another.Versions: META II, META-3.[META 5: A Tool to Manipulate Strings of Data, D.K. Oppenheim et al, Proc 21st Natl Conf, ACM 1966].[Sammet 1969, p. 638]. (1995-01-23)
Meta Analysis ::: The statistical procedure used to combine numerous and independent research results into one study. Each research study becomes one subject in the meta-analysis.
MetaCard ::: A commercial human interface and hypertext system for Unix and the X Window System, similar to Hypercard. (1994-11-17)
MetaCard A commercial human interface and {hypertext} system for {Unix} and the {X Window System}, similar to {Hypercard}. (1994-11-17)
Meta-CASE tool ::: A term sometimes used for software packages (like TBK or VSF) which allow users to develop or customise their own CASE tools.
Meta-CASE tool A term sometimes used for software packages (like TBK or VSF) which allow users to develop or customise their own CASE tools.
Meta Class System "language" (MCS) A portable {object-oriented} extension of {Common Lisp} from {GMD}. It integrates the functionality of {CLOS} and {TELOS}. {(ftp://gmdzi.gmd.de/pub/lisp/mcs)}. (1994-10-21)
Metaclass ::: The class of a class. A metaclass is a class whose instances are themselves classes.
Meta-Crystal ::: A language for transformations of Crystal programs. Implemented in T. Meta-Crystal- A Metalanguage for Parallel-Program Optimisation, J.A. Yang et al, TR YALEU/DCS/TR-786, Yale Apr 1990. (See Crystal).
Meta-Crystal "language" A language for transformations of {Crystal} programs. Implemented in {T}. ["Meta-Crystal - A Metalanguage for Parallel-Program Optimisation", J.A. Yang et al, TR YALEU/DCS/TR-786, Yale Apr 1990]. (2016-01-19)
Metadata Information Partners {The Metadata Company}
Metadata ::: (product) (Note: One unhyphenated word with initial capital; contrast meta data) A word coined by Jack E. Myers to represent current and future lines of products implementing the concepts of his MetaModel, and also to designate his company The Metadata Company that would develop and market those products.A data and publication search performed when Myers coined the term, early in the summer of 1969, did not discover any use either of the word metadata or meta data. Myers used the term in a 1973 product brochure and it is an Incontestable registered U.S. Trademark. (1997-04-06)
META element "web" An {HTML} {element}, with tag name of "META", expressing {metadata} about a given {HTML} document. HTML standards do not require that documents have META elements but if META elements occur, they must be inside the document's HEAD element. The META element can be used to identify properties of a document (e.g., author, expiration date, a list of key words, etc.) and assign values to those properties, typically by specifying a NAME {attribute} (to name the property) and a CONTENT attribute (to assign a value for that property). The HTML 4 specification doesn't standardise particular NAME properties or CONTENT values; but it is conventional to use a "Description" property to convey a short summary of the document, and a "Keywords" property to provide a list of {keywords} relevant to the document, as in: "META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Information from around the world on kumquat farming techniques and current kumquat production and consumption data"" "META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="kumquat, Fortunella"" META elements with HTTP-EQUIV and CONTENT attributes can simulate the effect of {HTTP} header lines, as in: "META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="Tue, 22 Mar 2000 16:18:35 GMT"" "META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="10; URL=http://foldoc.org/"" Other properties may be application-specific. For example, the {Robots Exclusion (http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/norobots.html)}. standard uses the "robots" property for asserting that the given document should not be indexed by robots, nor should links in it be followed: "META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex,follow"" (2001-02-07)
META element ::: (World-Wide Web) An element, with tag name of META, expressing meta-data about a given HTML document. HTML standards do not require that documents have META elements; but if META elements occur, they must be inside the document's HEAD element.The META element can be used to identify properties of a document (e.g., author, expiration date, a list of key words, etc.) and assign values to those of the document, and a Keywords property to provide a list of keywords relevant to the document, as in: META NAME=Description CONTENT=Information from around the world on kumquat farming techniques and current kumquat META elements with HTTP-EQUIV and CONTENT attributes can simulate the effect of HTTP header lines, as in: META HTTP-EQUIV=Expires CONTENT=Tue, 22 Mar 2000 16:18:35 GMT>META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT=10; URL=http://foldoc.org/> indexed by robots, nor should links in it be followed: META NAME=robots CONTENT=noindex,follow> (2001-02-07)
META element ::: (World-Wide Web) An element, with tag name of META, expressing meta-data about a given HTML document. HTML standards do not require that documents have META elements; but if META elements occur, they must be inside the document's HEAD element.The META element can be used to identify properties of a document (e.g., author, expiration date, a list of key words, etc.) and assign values to those of the document, and a Keywords property to provide a list of keywords relevant to the document, as in: META NAME=Description CONTENT=Information from around theworld on kumquat farming techniques and current kumquat META elements with HTTP-EQUIV and CONTENT attributes can simulate the effect of HTTP header lines, as in: META HTTP-EQUIV=Expires CONTENT=Tue, 22 Mar 2000 16:18:35 GMT>META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT=10; URL=http://foldoc.org/> indexed by robots, nor should links in it be followed: META NAME=robots CONTENT=noindex,follow> (2001-02-07)
METAFONT ::: A system for the design of raster-based alphabets by Donald Knuth. A companion to TeX.[The METAFONT Book, Donald Knuth, A-W 1986. Version 2.0, March 1990]. (1994-11-04)
METAFONT A system for the design of raster-based alphabets by {Donald Knuth}. A companion to {TeX}. ["The METAFONT Book," Donald Knuth, A-W 1986. Version 2.0, March 1990]. (1994-11-04)
Metagnomy: A scientific term for knowledge obtained without the use of any of the five normally known human senses.
Metagraphology: Psychometry (q.v.) in which handwriting or a handwritten script serves as the basis of the divination.
Meta-II ::: An early compiler-compiler.[Meta-II: a Syntax Oriented Compiler Writing Language, V. Schorre, Proc 19th ACM Natl Conf 1964]. (1995-01-23)
Meta-II An early {compiler-compiler}. ["Meta-II: a Syntax Oriented Compiler Writing Language", V. Schorre, Proc 19th ACM Natl Conf 1964]. (1995-01-23)
Meta-IV {Vienna Development Method Specification Language}
METAL ::: 1. Mega-Extensive Telecommunications Applications Language. BBS language for PRODOS 8 on Apple II.2. The syntax-definition formalism of the Mentor system. Metal specifications are compiled to specifications for a scanner/parser generator such as Lex/Yacc. Metal: A Formalism to Specify Formalisms, G. Kahn et al, Sci Comp Prog 3:151-188 (1983).
METAL 1. Mega-Extensive Telecommunications Applications Language. BBS language for PRODOS 8 on Apple II. 2. The syntax-definition formalism of the Mentor system. Metal specifications are compiled to specifications for a scanner/parser generator such as Lex/Yacc. "Metal: A Formalism to Specify Formalisms", G. Kahn et al, Sci Comp Prog 3:151-188 (1983).
Metalanguage: A language used to make assertions about another language; any language whose symbols refer to the properties of the symbols of another language. (Formed by analogy with "metamathematics", the study of formalized mathematical systems.) -- M.B.
META "language" The {assembly language} for the {CYBER 200}, developed at {CDC} ca 1977. [CDC Pub 60256020]. [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-16)
Metalogical: That which belongs to the basis of logic. Metalogical truths are the laws of thought, the formal conditions of thinking inherent in reason. (Schopenhauer.) -- H.H.
Metal Oxide Semiconductor "electronics" (MOS) The three materials used to form a {gate} in the most common kind of {Field Effect Transistor} - a {MOSFET}. [Other MOS devices?] (1996-05-27)
Metal Oxide Semiconductor ::: (electronics) (MOS) The three materials used to form a gate in the most common kind of Field Effect Transistor - a MOSFET.[Other MOS devices?] (1996-05-27)
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor "electronics" (MOSFET) A {Field Effect Transistor} in which the conducting channel is insulated from the gate terminal by a layer of oxide. Therefore it does not conduct even if a reverse voltage is applied to the gate. (1997-02-24)
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor ::: (electronics) (MOSFET) A Field Effect Transistor in which the conducting channel is insulated from the gate terminal by a layer of oxide. Therefore it does not conduct even if a reverse voltage is applied to the gate. (1997-02-24)
Metamathematics: See Proof theory, and Syntax, logical. Metaphor: Rhetorical figure transposing a term from its original concept to another and similar one. In its origin, all language was metaphoric; so was poetry. Metaphor is a short fable (Vico). -- L.V.
Metaphors such as woman and mother are always symbolical when referring to motherhood, and have no associations with physical sex, for “esotericism ignores both sexes. Its highest Deity is sexless as it is formless, neither Father nor Mother; and its first manifested beings, celestial and terrestrial alike, become only gradually androgynous and finally separate into distinct sexes” (SD 1:136n). This was clearly understood originally, so that there was no degrading or misinterpreting of these figures of speech. With descending cycles, however, humanity’s religious conceptions equally materialized: the key ideas having been forgotten or lost, abstractions became concreted into materializations, a masculine Creator or feminine Creatrix were then placed at the summit of the various pantheons, and early religious philosophy — which was as scientific as it was religious and philosophical — cast upon the background of the spatial universe images of human surroundings and way of life; so that the deities in the mythologies finally became human images, more powerful but equally swayed by passion, driven by impulse, and restricted by these even as human beings are. Such projection of human attributes into the cosmic spaces led to a still more materialized visioning of the divinities, so that the feminine or productive characteristics of nature in the popular religious mythologies finally gave way before the masculine, and the earlier, essentially beautiful idea of the mother of nature was swallowed up in the purely masculine traits of national divinities, many of them distinctly male and evil, such as the Jewish Jehovah, who waxed wroth and smelt the sweet savor of burnt sacrifices, or again the Greek Zeus swayed by ignoble passions.
Metaphysical deduction: An examination of the logical functions of thought that there are certain a priori forms of synthesis which belong to the very constitution, the bare, purely formal machinery of the understanding. -- H.H.
Metaphysical dualism: The view that there are two realities—mind and matter, or God and the world-stuff.
Metaphysical essence: (in Scholasticism) The complexus of notes which are in a thing, as it is conceived by us -- i.e. the principle and primary notes by which that thing is sufficiently understood and distinguished from other things. -- H.G.
Metaphysical ethics: Any view according to which ethics is a branch of metaphysics, ethical principles being derived from metaphysical principles and ethical notions being defined in terms of metaphysical notions. -- W.K.F.
Metaphysical: Is the substantial essence of the whole thing -- as rational animal is said to bt the metaphysical form of man. -- H.G.
Metaphysically, the personal nature of the World Ground;
Metaphysical naturalism: That view of reality which holds that reality is nature, and that the ultimate is found within the framework of nature.
Metaphysical philosophy is an attempt to fix the fundamental realities and principles of being as distinct from its processes and the phenomena which result from those processes. But it is on the fundamental realities that the processes depend: our own process of life, its aim and method, should be in accordance with the truth of being that we see; otherwise our metaphysical truth can be only a play of the intellect without any dynamic importance.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 693
Metaphysics and psychology are not distinct in Herbert's view. In his day psychology was also philosophy. It was still a metaphysical science in the sense that it is differentiated from physical science. It was only later that psychology repudiated philosophy. Accepting Kant's challenge to make psychology a mathematical science, he developed an elaborate system of mathematical constructions that proved the least fruitful phase of his system. As a mathematical science psychology can use only calculation, not experiment. As the mind or soul is unitary, indivisible. science, including philosophy, is neither analytical nor experimental. Bv denying analysis to psychology, Herbart combatted the division of mind into separate faculties. Psychology is not the mere description of the mind, but the working out of its mathematical laws.
Metaphysics: (Gr. meta ta Physika) Arbitrary title given by Andronicus of Rhodes, circa 70 B.C. to a certain collection of Aristotelean writings.
Metaphysics: In general, the philosophical theory of reality. Defined variously as the rational science of the supernatural or supersensuous, the science of formal and final causes, the science of the obscure, occult or mysterious.
Metaphysics. Pure Idealism or Immaterialism identifies ontological reality (substance, substantives, concrete individuality) exclusively with the ideal, ie., Mind, Spirit, Soul, Person, Archetypal Ideas, Thought. See Spiritualism, Mentalism, Monadism, Panpsychtsm, Idealistic Phenomenalism. With respect to the metaphysical status of self-consciousness and purposeful activity, Idealism is either impersonalistic or personalistic. See Personalism.
METAPHYSICS—The science of the first principles of being and of knowledge; the reasoned doctrine of the essential nature and fundamental relations of all that is real.
Metapsychics: A term coined by Prof. Richet and defined by him in his inaugural address as newly elected president of the Society for Psychical Research (in 1905), as “a science dealing with mechanical or psychological phenomena due to forces which seem to be intelligent, or to unknown powers, latent in human intelligence.”
Metarel)—one of the 200 fallen angels in the Enoch
Metastasis ::: The transfer of disease from one organ or part to another not directly connected with it.
META tag {META element}
Metathiax —in Conybeare, The Testament of
Metatron: According to the Hebrew Kabbalah, the angel who inhabits the Briatic world (see Briah), constituting the world of true spirit and governing the visible world.
Metatron and Messiah, both of the order of
Metatron, and Yefefiah. The French painter
Metatron, as vouched for in The Visions of
Metatron; Elijah: Malashiel or Maltiel (Elijah
Metatron (El Shaddai). 192
Metatron (El Shaddai). Reproduced from
Metatron enumerated in 3 Enoch.
Metatron has been identified as the Liberating
Metatron in Judaeo-Christian occult lore, where
Metatron—in the burial of Moses, Michael dis¬
Metatron is said to be “appointed over Michael
Metatron is the tallest angel in Heaven, and the
Metatron, Malachi, Gabriel, Akatriel, Yehadriel,
Metatron, master ( hazzan) of heavenly song.
Metatron)—mediator of the ineffable name and
Metatron (Metratton, Mittron, Metaraon, ,
Metatron, one of the greatest of the hierarchs,
Metatron originated in Jewish circles and “should
Metatron, Phadiel, Michael, Elijah, the “angel of
Metatron pointed out to Moses in the 4th Heaven.
Metatron (q.v.) in reciting the Shema. [Rf. 3
Metatron (q.v.) in reciting the Shema. [Rf introd.
Metatron (q.v.) in reciting the Shema. [Rf. introd.,
Metatron ( q.v .). [Rf. hechaloth text (Oxford MS.)
Metatron ( q.v .).
Metatron (q.v.).
Metatron, Radueriel, Soferiel. The heavenly
Metatron, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, Barbiel,
Metatron. [Rf. 3 Enoch, chap. 48.]
Metatron. [Rf. 3 Enoch.]
Metatron. [Rf The Vision of Ezekiel.]
Metatron. [Rf. Visions of Ezekiel] Scholem, Jewish
Metatron, Samael, and Chamuel have also been
Metatron; Sandalphon.]
Metatron. [See Appendix.]
Metatron; Shekinah; Helias the Prophet.] In the
Metatron; Shekinah]
Meta tr on.
Metatron.
Metatron’s names. In Conybeare, The Testament of
Metatron’s secret names is Bizbul (according to the
Metatron. The last named is called “Master of
Metatron, the “lesser YHWH” (i.e., the lesser God) and twin brother of Sandalphon, also
Metatron to the Babylonian Jews, and nothing
Metatron under one of his many agnomina. [Cf.
Metatron, Uriel, or the Lord Himself. According
Metatron “when he seals the guilty in Israel.”
Metatron “when Metatron does kindness to the
Meta-Vlisp "language" An innovative {Lisp} dialect by E. St.James of IBP, France. (2000-12-19)
Meta-Vlisp ::: (language) An innovative Lisp dialect by E. St.James of IBP, France.(2000-12-19)
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. A curved or angular piece of metal or other hard substance for catching, pulling, holding, or suspending something. 2.* Fig.* That by which any one is attracted or ensnared and caught; a snare; a catch.
abacinate ::: v. t. --> To blind by a red-hot metal plate held before the eyes.
ametabola ::: n. pl. --> A group of insects which do not undergo any metamorphosis.
ametabolian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to insects that do undergo any metamorphosis.
ametabolic ::: a. --> Alt. of Ametabolous
ametabolous ::: a. --> Not undergoing any metamorphosis; as, ametabolic insects.
accordion ::: n. --> A small, portable, keyed wind instrument, whose tones are generated by play of the wind upon free metallic reeds.
acierage ::: n. --> The process of coating the surface of a metal plate (as a stereotype plate) with steellike iron by means of voltaic electricity; steeling.
actinium ::: n. --> A supposed metal, said by Phipson to be contained in commercial zinc; -- so called because certain of its compounds are darkened by exposure to light.
aerolite ::: n. --> A stone, or metallic mass, which has fallen to the earth from distant space; a meteorite; a meteoric stone.
aerugo ::: n. --> The rust of any metal, esp. of brass or copper; verdigris.
aftergrowth ::: n. --> A second growth or crop, or (metaphorically) development.
albata ::: n. --> A white metallic alloy; which is made into spoons, forks, teapots, etc. British plate or German silver. See German silver, under German.
alchemy ::: n. --> An imaginary art which aimed to transmute the baser metals into gold, to find the panacea, or universal remedy for diseases, etc. It led the way to modern chemistry.
A mixed metal composed mainly of brass, formerly used for various utensils; hence, a trumpet.
Miraculous power of transmuting something common into something precious.
alembic ::: n. --> An apparatus formerly used in distillation, usually made of glass or metal. It has mostly given place to the retort and worm still.
allay ::: v. t. --> To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm; as, to allay popular excitement; to allay the tumult of the passions.
To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate; as, to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity.
To diminish in strength; to abate; to subside.
To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
alloy ::: 1. A substance composed of two or more metals, or of a metal or metals with a nonmetal, intimately mixed, as by fusion or electrodeposition; a less costly metal mixed with a more valuable one, such as that which is added to gold and silver coinage. 2. Admixture, as with good with evil.
alloyage ::: n. --> The act or art of alloying metals; also, the combination or alloy.
alloy ::: v. t. --> Any combination or compound of metals fused together; a mixture of metals; for example, brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. But when mercury is one of the metals, the compound is called an amalgam.
The quality, or comparative purity, of gold or silver; fineness.
A baser metal mixed with a finer.
Admixture of anything which lessens the value or detracts
almond furnace ::: --> A kind of furnace used in refining, to separate the metal from cinders and other foreign matter.
aluminate ::: n. --> A compound formed from the hydrate of aluminium by the substitution of a metal for the hydrogen.
aluminium ::: n. --> The metallic base of alumina. This metal is white, but with a bluish tinge, and is remarkable for its resistance to oxidation, and for its lightness, having a specific gravity of about 2.6. Atomic weight 27.08. Symbol Al.
alum ::: n. --> A double sulphate formed of aluminium and some other element (esp. an alkali metal) or of aluminium. It has twenty-four molecules of water of crystallization. ::: v. t. --> To steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum.
amalgamate ::: v. t. --> To compound or mix, as quicksilver, with another metal; to unite, combine, or alloy with mercury.
To mix, so as to make a uniform compound; to unite or combine; as, to amalgamate two races; to amalgamate one race with another. ::: v. i.
amalgamation ::: n. --> The act or operation of compounding mercury with another metal; -- applied particularly to the process of separating gold and silver from their ores by mixing them with mercury.
The mixing or blending of different elements, races, societies, etc.; also, the result of such combination or blending; a homogeneous union.
amalgamator ::: n. --> One who, or that which, amalgamates. Specifically: A machine for separating precious metals from earthy particles by bringing them in contact with a body of mercury with which they form an amalgam.
amalgam ::: n. --> An alloy of mercury with another metal or metals; as, an amalgam of tin, bismuth, etc.
A mixture or compound of different things.
A native compound of mercury and silver. ::: v. t. / i. --> To amalgamate.
ammonium ::: n. --> A compound radical, NH4, having the chemical relations of a strongly basic element like the alkali metals.
ampyx ::: n. --> A woman&
amylene ::: n. --> One of a group of metameric hydrocarbons, C5H10, of the ethylene series. The colorless, volatile, mobile liquid commonly called amylene is a mixture of different members of the group.
anabolism ::: n. --> The constructive metabolism of the body, as distinguished from katabolism.
anhydride ::: n. --> An oxide of a nonmetallic body or an organic radical, capable of forming an acid by uniting with the elements of water; -- so called because it may be formed from an acid by the abstraction of water.
annealing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Anneal ::: n. --> The process used to render glass, iron, etc., less brittle, performed by allowing them to cool very gradually from a high heat.
The burning of metallic colors into glass, earthenware,
anneal ::: v. t. --> To subject to great heat, and then cool slowly, as glass, cast iron, steel, or other metal, for the purpose of rendering it less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
To heat, as glass, tiles, or earthenware, in order to fix the colors laid on them.
antimetabole ::: n. --> A figure in which the same words or ideas are repeated in transposed order.
antimetathesis ::: n. --> An antithesis in which the members are repeated in inverse order.
antiguggler ::: n. --> A crooked tube of metal, to be introduced into the neck of a bottle for drawing out the liquid without disturbing the sediment or causing a gurgling noise.
antimony ::: n. --> An elementary substance, resembling a metal in its appearance and physical properties, but in its chemical relations belonging to the class of nonmetallic substances. Atomic weight, 120. Symbol, Sb.
anvil ::: a heavy iron block with a smooth face, frequently of steel, on which heated metals are hammered into desired shapes.
anvil ::: n. --> An iron block, usually with a steel face, upon which metals are hammered and shaped.
Anything resembling an anvil in shape or use.
the incus. See Incus. ::: v. t. --> To form or shape on an anvil; to hammer out; as, anviled
architectonic ::: metaph. Of the systematic arrangement of knowledge.
argentic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, derived from, or containing, silver; -- said of certain compounds of silver in which this metal has its lowest proportion; as, argentic chloride.
argentite ::: n. --> Sulphide of silver; -- also called vitreous silver, or silver glance. It has a metallic luster, a lead-gray color, and is sectile like lead.
armor-plated ::: a. --> Covered with defensive plates of metal, as a ship of war; steel-clad.
armour ::: 1. Any covering worn as a defense against weapons, especially a metallic sheathing, suit of armour, mail. 2. Any quality, characteristic, situation, or thing that serves as protection. armours, armoured.* n. 1. Weapons. v. 2. Provides with weapons or whatever will add strength, force or security; supports; fortifies. *armed, arming.
a rod, esp. a forked stick supposed to be useful in locating underground water, metal deposits, etc.
arsenic ::: n. --> One of the elements, a solid substance resembling a metal in its physical properties, but in its chemical relations ranking with the nonmetals. It is of a steel-gray color and brilliant luster, though usually dull from tarnish. It is very brittle, and sublimes at 356¡ Fahrenheit. It is sometimes found native, but usually combined with silver, cobalt, nickel, iron, antimony, or sulphur. Orpiment and realgar are two of its sulphur compounds, the first of which is the true arsenicum of the ancients. The element and its compounds are
arsenide ::: n. --> A compound of arsenic with a metal, or positive element or radical; -- formerly called arseniuret.
arsenopyrite ::: n. --> A mineral of a tin-white color and metallic luster, containing arsenic, sulphur, and iron; -- also called arsenical pyrites and mispickel.
ascertain ::: v. t. --> To render (a person) certain; to cause to feel certain; to make confident; to assure; to apprise.
To make (a thing) certain to the mind; to free from obscurity, doubt, or change; to make sure of; to fix; to determine.
To find out or learn for a certainty, by trial, examination, or experiment; to get to know; as, to ascertain the weight of a commodity, or the purity of a metal.
as it would be if; as though. (Introducing a supposition, or way of conceiving some entity or situation, that is not to be taken literally, but yields some insight or convenience in metaphysics.)
assayer ::: n. --> One who assays. Specifically: One who examines metallic ores or compounds, for the purpose of determining the amount of any particular metal in the same, especially of gold or silver.
assaying ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Assay ::: n. --> The act or process of testing, esp. of analyzing or examining metals and ores, to determine the proportion of pure metal.
assay ::: n. --> Trial; attempt; essay.
Examination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine.
Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
Tested purity or value.
The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of
". . . as there is a constant dynamic energy in movement in the universe which takes various material forms more or less subtle or gross, so in each physical body or object, plant or animal or metal, there is stored and active the same constant dynamic force; a certain interchange of these two gives us the phenomena which we associate with the idea of life. It is this action that we recognise as the action of Life-Energy and that which so energises itself is the Life-Force. Mind-Energy, Life-Energy, material Energy are different dynamisms of one World-Force.” The Life Divine
“… as there is a constant dynamic energy in movement in the universe which takes various material forms more or less subtle or gross, so in each physical body or object, plant or animal or metal, there is stored and active the same constant dynamic force; a certain interchange of these two gives us the phenomena which we associate with the idea of life. It is this action that we recognise as the action of Life-Energy and that which so energises itself is the Life-Force. Mind-Energy, Life-Energy, material Energy are different dynamisms of one World-Force.” The Life Divine
aurochloride ::: n. --> The trichloride of gold combination with the chloride of another metal, forming a double chloride; -- called also chloraurate.
aurocyanide ::: n. --> A double cyanide of gold and some other metal or radical; -- called also cyanaurate.
automatism ::: n. --> The state or quality of being automatic; the power of self-moving; automatic, mechanical, or involuntary action. (Metaph.) A theory as to the activity of matter.
autotypography ::: n. --> A process resembling "nature printing," by which drawings executed on gelatin are impressed into a soft metal plate, from which the printing is done as from copperplate.
azoth ::: n. --> The first principle of metals, i. e., mercury, which was formerly supposed to exist in all metals, and to be extractable from them.
The universal remedy of Paracelsus.
babbitt metal ::: --> A soft white alloy of variable composition (as a nine parts of tin to one of copper, or of fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction.
babbitt ::: v. t. --> To line with Babbitt metal.
backsaw ::: n. --> A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an added metallic back.
bake ::: v. t. --> To prepare, as food, by cooking in a dry heat, either in an oven or under coals, or on heated stone or metal; as, to bake bread, meat, apples.
To dry or harden (anything) by subjecting to heat, as, to bake bricks; the sun bakes the ground.
To harden by cold. ::: v. i.
barite ::: n. --> Native sulphate of barium, a mineral occurring in transparent, colorless, white to yellow crystals (generally tabular), also in granular form, and in compact massive forms resembling marble. It has a high specific gravity, and hence is often called heavy spar. It is a common mineral in metallic veins.
barium ::: n. --> One of the elements, belonging to the alkaline earth group; a metal having a silver-white color, and melting at a very high temperature. It is difficult to obtain the pure metal, from the facility with which it becomes oxidized in the air. Atomic weight, 137. Symbol, Ba. Its oxide called baryta.
bar ::: n. --> A piece of wood, metal, or other material, long in proportion to its breadth or thickness, used as a lever and for various other purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door.
An indefinite quantity of some substance, so shaped as to be long in proportion to its breadth and thickness; as, a bar of gold or of lead; a bar of soap.
Anything which obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an
barytum ::: n. --> The metal barium. See Barium.
basanite ::: n. --> Lydian stone, or black jasper, a variety of siliceous or flinty slate, of a grayish or bluish black color. It is employed to test the purity of gold, the amount of alloy being indicated by the color left on the stone when rubbed by the metal.
base ::: a. --> Of little, or less than the usual, height; of low growth; as, base shrubs.
Low in place or position.
Of humble birth; or low degree; lowly; mean.
Illegitimate by birth; bastard.
Of little comparative value, as metal inferior to gold and silver, the precious metals.
Alloyed with inferior metal; debased; as, base coin; base
basipterygium ::: n. --> A bar of cartilage at the base of the embryonic fins of some fishes. It develops into the metapterygium.
batter ::: v. t. --> To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish; as, to batter a wall or rampart.
To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage.
To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.
A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc., beaten together and used in cookery.
beakiron ::: n. --> A bickern; a bench anvil with a long beak, adapted to reach the interior surface of sheet metal ware; the horn of an anvil.
beat ::: n. 1. A stroke or blow. 2. A regular sound or stroke. 3. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart. 4. A pulsating sound. 5. A forceful flapping of wings. beats, nerve-beat, hammer-beats, heart-beats, heart-beats", moment-beats, rhyme-beats. v. 6. To strike or pound with repeated blows. 7. To shape or break by repeated blows, as metal. 8. To sound in pulsations. 9. To throb rhythmically; pulsate, as the heart. 10. To flap, especially wings. 11. To strike with or as if with a series of violent blows, dash or pound repeatedly against, as waves, wind, etc. beats, beaten, beating. *adj. *sun-beat.
becket ::: n. --> A small grommet, or a ring or loop of rope / metal for holding things in position, as spars, ropes, etc.; also a bracket, a pocket, or a handle made of rope.
A spade for digging turf.
bell metal ::: --> A hard alloy or bronze, consisting usually of about three parts of copper to one of tin; -- used for making bells.
bell ::: n. --> A hollow metallic vessel, usually shaped somewhat like a cup with a flaring mouth, containing a clapper or tongue, and giving forth a ringing sound on being struck.
A hollow perforated sphere of metal containing a loose ball which causes it to sound when moved.
Anything in the form of a bell, as the cup or corol of a flower.
That part of the capital of a column included between the
beryllium ::: n. --> A metallic element found in the beryl. See Glucinum.
bessemer steel ::: --> Steel made directly from cast iron, by burning out a portion of the carbon and other impurities that the latter contains, through the agency of a blast of air which is forced through the molten metal; -- so called from Sir Henry Bessemer, an English engineer, the inventor of the process.
beyond ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The language of the Upanishad makes it strikingly clear that it is no metaphysical abstraction, no void Silence, no indeterminate Absolute which is offered to the soul that aspires, but rather the absolute of all that is possessed by it here in the relative world of its sojourning. All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. That which is here shadowed, is there found; the incomplete here is there the fulfilled. The Beyond is not an annullation, but a transfiguration of all that we are here in our world of forms; it is sovran Mind of this mind, secret Life of this life, the absolute Sense which supports and justifies our limited senses.” The Upanishads *
Beyond ::: “The language of the Upanishad makes it strikingly clear that it is no metaphysical abstraction, no void Silence, no indeterminate Absolute which is offered to the soul that aspires, but rather the absolute of all that is possessed by it here in the relative world of its sojourning. All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. That which is here shadowed, is there found; the incomplete here is there the fulfilled. The Beyond is not an annullation, but a transfiguration of all that we are here in our world of forms; it is sovran Mind of this mind, secret Life of this life, the absolute Sense which supports and justifies our limited senses.” The Upanishads
bimetallic ::: a. --> Of or relating to, or using, a double metallic standard (as gold and silver) for a system of coins or currency.
bimetallism ::: n. --> The legalized use of two metals (as gold and silver) in the currency of a country, at a fixed relative value; -- in opposition to monometallism.
bimetallist ::: n. --> An advocate of bimetallism.
biddery ware ::: --> A kind of metallic ware made in India. The material is a composition of zinc, tin, and lead, in which ornaments of gold and silver are inlaid or damascened.
biggin ::: n. --> A child&
billet ::: n. --> A small paper; a note; a short letter.
A ticket from a public officer directing soldiers at what house to lodge; as, a billet of residence.
A small stick of wood, as for firewood.
A short bar of metal, as of gold or iron.
An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood either square or round.
A strap which enters a buckle.
billon ::: n. --> An alloy of gold and silver with a large proportion of copper or other base metal, used in coinage.
bisilicate ::: n. --> A salt of metasilicic acid; -- so called because the ratio of the oxygen of the silica to the oxygen of the base is as two to one. The bisilicates include many of the most common and important minerals.
bismuth ::: n. --> One of the elements; a metal of a reddish white color, crystallizing in rhombohedrons. It is somewhat harder than lead, and rather brittle; masses show broad cleavage surfaces when broken across. It melts at 507¡ Fahr., being easily fused in the flame of a candle. It is found in a native state, and as a constituent of some minerals. Specific gravity 9.8. Atomic weight 207.5. Symbol Bi.
biting in ::: --> The process of corroding or eating into metallic plates, by means of an acid. See Etch.
blast ::: n. --> A violent gust of wind.
A forcible stream of air from an orifice, as from a bellows, the mouth, etc. Hence: The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace; as, to melt so many tons of iron at a blast.
The exhaust steam from and engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
blende ::: n. --> A mineral, called also sphalerite, and by miners mock lead, false galena, and black-jack. It is a zinc sulphide, but often contains some iron. Its color is usually yellow, brown, or black, and its luster resinous.
A general term for some minerals, chiefly metallic sulphides which have a somewhat brilliant but nonmetallic luster.
blond metal ::: --> A variety of clay ironstone, in Staffordshire, England, used for making tools.
blower ::: n. --> One who, or that which, blows.
A device for producing a current of air; as: (a) A metal plate temporarily placed before the upper part of a grate or open fire. (b) A machine for producing an artificial blast or current of air by pressure, as for increasing the draft of a furnace, ventilating a building or shaft, cleansing gram, etc.
A blowing out or excessive discharge of gas from a hole or fissure in a mine.
blowtube ::: n. --> A blowgun.
A similar instrument, commonly of tin, used by boys for discharging paper wads and other light missiles.
A long wrought iron tube, on the end of which the workman gathers a quantity of "metal" (melted glass), and through which he blows to expand or shape it; -- called also blowing tube, and blowpipe.
metamorphosis ::: 1. Any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc. 2. A change or succession of changes in form during the life cycle of an animal, allowing it to adapt to different environmental conditions, as a caterpillar into a butterfly.
metaphysical ::: highly abstract or theoretical; abstruse, relating to that which is immaterial or concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth.
boiler ::: n. --> One who boils.
A vessel in which any thing is boiled.
A strong metallic vessel, usually of wrought iron plates riveted together, or a composite structure variously formed, in which steam is generated for driving engines, or for heating, cooking, or other purposes.
borax ::: n. --> A white or gray crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors on porcelain, and as a soap. It occurs native in certain mineral springs, and is made from the boric acid of hot springs in Tuscany. It was originally obtained from a lake in Thibet, and was sent to Europe under the name of tincal. Borax is a pyroborate or tetraborate of sodium, Na2B4O7.10H2O.
boron ::: n. --> A nonmetallic element occurring abundantly in borax. It is reduced with difficulty to the free state, when it can be obtained in several different forms; viz., as a substance of a deep olive color, in a semimetallic form, and in colorless quadratic crystals similar to the diamond in hardness and other properties. It occurs in nature also in boracite, datolite, tourmaline, and some other minerals. Atomic weight 10.9. Symbol B.
boulangerite ::: n. --> A mineral of a bluish gray color and metallic luster, usually in plumose masses, also compact. It is a sulphide of antimony and lead.
bournonite ::: n. --> A mineral of a steel-gray to black color and metallic luster, occurring crystallized, often in twin crystals shaped like cogwheels (wheel ore), also massive. It is a sulphide of antimony, lead, and copper.
brass ::: n. --> An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.
A journal bearing, so called because frequently made of brass. A brass is often lined with a softer metal, when the latter is generally called a white metal lining. See Axle box, Journal Box, and Bearing.
Coin made of copper, brass, or bronze.
breasted ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Breast ::: a. --> Having a breast; -- used in composition with qualifying words, in either a literal or a metaphorical sense; as, a single-breasted coat.
breastplate ::: n. --> A plate of metal covering the breast as defensive armor.
A piece against which the workman presses his breast in operating a breast drill, or other similar tool.
A strap that runs across a horse&
brigandine ::: n. --> A coast of armor for the body, consisting of scales or plates, sometimes overlapping each other, generally of metal, and sewed to linen or other material. It was worn in the Middle Ages.
britannia ::: n. --> A white-metal alloy of tin, antimony, bismuth, copper, etc. It somewhat resembles silver, and is used for table ware. Called also Britannia metal.
broach ::: n. --> A spit.
An awl; a bodkin; also, a wooden rod or pin, sharpened at each end, used by thatchers.
A tool of steel, generally tapering, and of a polygonal form, with from four to eight cutting edges, for smoothing or enlarging holes in metal; sometimes made smooth or without edges, as for burnishing pivot holes in watches; a reamer. The broach for gun barrels is commonly square and without taper.
brocard ::: n. --> An elementary principle or maximum; a short, proverbial rule, in law, ethics, or metaphysics.
bronze ::: a. --> An alloy of copper and tin, to which small proportions of other metals, especially zinc, are sometimes added. It is hard and sonorous, and is used for statues, bells, cannon, etc., the proportions of the ingredients being varied to suit the particular purposes. The varieties containing the higher proportions of tin are brittle, as in bell metal and speculum metal.
A statue, bust, etc., cast in bronze.
A yellowish or reddish brown, the color of bronze; also, a
bronzine ::: n. --> A metal so prepared as to have the appearance of bronze. ::: a. --> Made of bronzine; resembling bronze; bronzelike.
bronzing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bronze ::: n. --> The act or art of communicating to articles in metal, wood, clay, plaster, etc., the appearance of bronze by means of bronze powders, or imitative painting, or by chemical processes.
A material for bronzing.
buckle ::: n. --> A device, usually of metal, consisting of a frame with one more movable tongues or catches, used for fastening things together, as parts of dress or harness, by means of a strap passing through the frame and pierced by the tongue.
A distortion bulge, bend, or kink, as in a saw blade or a plate of sheet metal.
A curl of hair, esp. a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also, the state of being curled.
buhlwork ::: n. --> Decorative woodwork in which tortoise shell, yellow metal, white metal, etc., are inlaid, forming scrolls, cartouches, etc.
bullionist ::: n. --> An advocate for a metallic currency, or a paper currency always convertible into gold.
bullion ::: n. --> Uncoined gold or silver in the mass.
Base or uncurrent coin.
Showy metallic ornament, as of gold, silver, or copper, on bridles, saddles, etc.
Heavy twisted fringe, made of fine gold or silver wire and used for epaulets; also, any heavy twisted fringe whose cords are prominent.
buprestidan ::: n. --> One of a tribe of beetles, of the genus Buprestis and allied genera, usually with brilliant metallic colors. The larvae are usually borers in timber, or beneath bark, and are often very destructive to trees.
burin ::: n. --> The cutting tool of an engraver on metal, used in line engraving. It is made of tempered steel, one end being ground off obliquely so as to produce a sharp point, and the other end inserted in a handle; a graver; also, the similarly shaped tool used by workers in marble.
The manner or style of execution of an engraver; as, a soft burin; a brilliant burin.
burnished ::: having a smooth glossy appearance ; luster, as rubbed and polished metal.
burr ::: n. --> Any rough or prickly envelope of the seeds of plants, whether a pericarp, a persistent calyx, or an involucre, as of the chestnut and burdock. Also, any weed which bears burs.
The thin ridge left by a tool in cutting or shaping metal. See Burr, n., 2.
A ring of iron on a lance or spear. See Burr, n., 4.
The lobe of the ear. See Burr, n., 5.
The sweetbread.
busk ::: n. --> A thin, elastic strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset. ::: v. t. & i. --> To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.
To go; to direct one&
"But in the larger universal consciousness there must be a power of carrying this movement to its absolute point, to the greatest extreme possible for any relative movement to reach, and this point is reached, not in human unconsciousness which is not abiding and always refers back to the awakened conscious being that man normally and characteristically is, but in the inconscience of material Nature. This inconscience is no more real than the ignorance of exclusive concentration in our temporary being which limits the waking consciousness of man; for as in us, so in the atom, the metal, the plant, in every form of material Nature, in every energy of material Nature, there is, we know, a secret soul, a secret will, a secret intelligence at work, other than the mute self-oblivious form, the Conscient, — conscient even in unconscious things, — of the Upanishad, without whose presence and informing Conscious-Force or Tapas no work of Nature could be done.” The Life Divine
“But in the larger universal consciousness there must be a power of carrying this movement to its absolute point, to the greatest extreme possible for any relative movement to reach, and this point is reached, not in human unconsciousness which is not abiding and always refers back to the awakened conscious being that man normally and characteristically is, but in the inconscience of material Nature. This inconscience is no more real than the ignorance of exclusive concentration in our temporary being which limits the waking consciousness of man; for as in us, so in the atom, the metal, the plant, in every form of material Nature, in every energy of material Nature, there is, we know, a secret soul, a secret will, a secret intelligence at work, other than the mute self-oblivious form, the Conscient,—conscient even in unconscious things,—of the Upanishad, without whose presence and informing Conscious-Force or Tapas no work of Nature could be done.” The Life Divine
button ::: n. --> A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
A catch, of various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; -- used also for ornament.
A bud; a germ of a plant.
A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.
butylene ::: n. --> Any one of three metameric hydrocarbons, C4H8, of the ethylene series. They are gaseous or easily liquefiable.
cabbiri ::: n. pl. --> Certain deities originally worshiped with mystical rites by the Pelasgians in Lemnos and Samothrace and afterwards throughout Greece; -- also called sons of Hephaestus (or Vulcan), as being masters of the art of working metals.
cachepot ::: n. --> An ornamental casing for a flowerpot, of porcelain, metal, paper, etc.
cadmium ::: n. --> A comparatively rare element related to zinc, and occurring in some zinc ores. It is a white metal, both ductile and malleable. Symbol Cd. Atomic weight 111.8. It was discovered by Stromeyer in 1817, who named it from its association with zinc or zinc ore.
caesium ::: n. --> A rare alkaline metal found in mineral water; -- so called from the two characteristic blue lines in its spectrum. It was the first element discovered by spectrum analysis, and is the most strongly basic and electro-positive substance known. Symbol Cs. Atomic weight 132.6.
cage ::: n. --> A box or inclosure, wholly or partly of openwork, in wood or metal, used for confining birds or other animals.
A place of confinement for malefactors
An outer framework of timber, inclosing something within it; as, the cage of a staircase.
A skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, as a ball valve.
A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.
calamistrum ::: n. --> A comblike structure on the metatarsus of the hind legs of certain spiders (Ciniflonidae), used to curl certain fibers in the construction of their webs.
calaverite ::: n. --> A bronze-yellow massive mineral with metallic luster; a telluride of gold; -- first found in Calaveras County California.
calcination ::: n. --> The act or process of disintegrating a substance, or rendering it friable by the action of heat, esp. by the expulsion of some volatile matter, as when carbonic and acid is expelled from carbonate of calcium in the burning of limestone in order to make lime.
The act or process of reducing a metal to an oxide or metallic calx; oxidation.
calcine ::: v. i. --> To reduce to a powder, or to a friable state, by the action of heat; to expel volatile matter from by means of heat, as carbonic acid from limestone, and thus (usually) to produce disintegration; as to, calcine bones.
To oxidize, as a metal by the action of heat; to reduce to a metallic calx.
To be converted into a powder or friable substance, or into a calx, by the action of heat.
calcium ::: n. --> An elementary substance; a metal which combined with oxygen forms lime. It is of a pale yellow color, tenacious, and malleable. It is a member of the alkaline earth group of elements. Atomic weight 40. Symbol Ca.
calefactory ::: a. --> Making hot; producing or communicating heat. ::: n. --> An apartment in a monastery, warmed and used as a sitting room.
A hollow sphere of metal, filled with hot water, or a chafing dish, placed on the altar in cold weather for the priest to
calk ::: v. t. --> To drive tarred oakum into the seams between the planks of (a ship, boat, etc.), to prevent leaking. The calking is completed by smearing the seams with melted pitch.
To make an indentation in the edge of a metal plate, as along a seam in a steam boiler or an iron ship, to force the edge of the upper plate hard against the lower and so fill the crevice.
To copy, as a drawing, by rubbing the back of it with red or black chalk, and then passing a blunt style or needle over the
calx ::: n. --> Quicklime.
The substance which remains when a metal or mineral has been subjected to calcination or combustion by heat, and which is, or may be, reduced to a fine powder.
Broken and refuse glass, returned to the post.
can ::: --> an obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry. [See Gan.] ::: n. --> A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids.
A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of tomatoes; an oil can; a
cannula ::: n. --> A small tube of metal, wood, or India rubber, used for various purposes, esp. for injecting or withdrawing fluids. It is usually associated with a trocar.
canon bone ::: --> The shank bone, or great bone above the fetlock, in the fore and hind legs of the horse and allied animals, corresponding to the middle metacarpal or metatarsal bone of most mammals. See Horse.
capsquare ::: n. --> A metal covering plate which passes over the trunnions of a cannon, and holds it in place.
carbon ::: n. --> An elementary substance, not metallic in its nature, which is present in all organic compounds. Atomic weight 11.97. Symbol C. it is combustible, and forms the base of lampblack and charcoal, and enters largely into mineral coals. In its pure crystallized state it constitutes the diamond, the hardest of known substances, occuring in monometric crystals like the octahedron, etc. Another modification is graphite, or blacklead, and in this it is soft, and occurs in hexagonal prisms or tables. When united with oxygen it forms carbon dioxide,
carpale ::: n. --> One of the bones or cartilages of the carpus; esp. one of the series articulating with the metacarpals.
cartridge ::: n. --> A complete charge for a firearm, contained in, or held together by, a case, capsule, or shell of metal, pasteboard, or other material.
cassiterite ::: n. --> Native tin dioxide; tin stone; a mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of reddish brown color, and brilliant adamantine luster; also massive, sometimes in compact forms with concentric fibrous structure resembling wood (wood tin), also in rolled fragments or pebbly (Stream tin). It is the chief source of metallic tin. See Black tin, under Black.
casting ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Cast ::: n. --> The act of one who casts or throws, as in fishing.
The act or process of making casts or impressions, or of shaping metal or plaster in a mold; the act or the process of pouring molten metal into a mold.
castrametation ::: n. --> The art or act of encamping; the making or laying out of a camp.
cast ::: v. 1. To throw with force; hurl. 2. To form (liquid metal, for example) into a particular shape by pouring into a mould. Also fig. 3. To cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth. 4. To throw on the ground, as in wrestling. 5. To put or place, esp. hastily or forcibly. 6. To direct (the eye, a glance, etc.) 7. To throw (something) forth or off. 8. To bestow; confer. casts, casting.
cathetometer ::: n. --> An instrument for the accurate measurement of small differences of height; esp. of the differences in the height of the upper surfaces of two columns of mercury or other fluid, or of the same column at different times. It consists of a telescopic leveling apparatus (d), which slides up or down a perpendicular metallic standard very finely graduated (bb). The telescope is raised or depressed in order to sight the objects or surfaces, and the differences in vertical height are thus shown on the graduated
cavernulous ::: a. --> Full of little cavities; as, cavernulous metal.
cellaret ::: n. --> A receptacle, as in a dining room, for a few bottles of wine or liquor, made in the form of a chest or coffer, or a deep drawer in a sideboard, and usually lined with metal.
celt ::: n. --> One of an ancient race of people, who formerly inhabited a great part of Central and Western Europe, and whose descendants at the present day occupy Ireland, Wales, the Highlands of Scotland, and the northern shores of France.
A weapon or implement of stone or metal, found in the tumuli, or barrows, of the early Celtic nations.
centreboard ::: n. --> A movable or sliding keel formed of a broad board or slab of wood or metal which may be raised into a water-tight case amidships, when in shallow water, or may be lowered to increase the area of lateral resistance and prevent leeway when the vessel is beating to windward. It is used in vessels of all sizes along the coast of the United States
cerasin ::: n. --> A white amorphous substance, the insoluble part of cherry gum; -- called also meta-arabinic acid.
A gummy mucilaginous substance; -- called also bassorin, tragacanthin, etc.
cerite ::: n. --> A gastropod shell belonging to the family Cerithiidae; -- so called from its hornlike form.
A mineral of a brownish of cherry-red color, commonly massive. It is a hydrous silicate of cerium and allied metals.
cerium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element, occurring in the minerals cerite, allanite, monazite, etc. Symbol Ce. Atomic weight 141.5. It resembles iron in color and luster, but is soft, and both malleable and ductile. It tarnishes readily in the air.
chain ::: n. --> A series of links or rings, usually of metal, connected, or fitted into one another, used for various purposes, as of support, of restraint, of ornament, of the exertion and transmission of mechanical power, etc.
That which confines, fetters, or secures, as a chain; a bond; as, the chains of habit.
A series of things linked together; or a series of things connected and following each other in succession; as, a chain of
chalcocite ::: n. --> Native copper sulphide, called also copper glance, and vitreous copper; a mineral of a black color and metallic luster.
chape ::: n. --> The piece by which an object is attached to something, as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.
The transverse guard of a sword or dagger.
The metal plate or tip which protects the end of a scabbard, belt, etc.
chase ::: v. t. --> To pursue for the purpose of killing or taking, as an enemy, or game; to hunt.
To follow as if to catch; to pursue; to compel to move on; to drive by following; to cause to fly; -- often with away or off; as, to chase the hens away.
To pursue eagerly, as hunters pursue game.
To ornament (a surface of metal) by embossing, cutting away parts, and the like.
chasing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Chase ::: n. --> The art of ornamenting metal by means of chasing tools; also, a piece of ornamental work produced in this way.
chink ::: n. --> A small cleft, rent, or fissure, of greater length than breadth; a gap or crack; as, the chinks of wall.
A short, sharp sound, as of metal struck with a slight degree of violence.
Money; cash. ::: v. i.
chiselled ::: shaped or cut as with a chisel, a metal tool with a sharp bevelled edge, used to cut and shape stone, wood, or metal. chisels.
chisel ::: n. --> A tool with a cutting edge on one end of a metal blade, used in dressing, shaping, or working in timber, stone, metal, etc.; -- usually driven by a mallet or hammer. ::: v. t. --> To cut, pare, gouge, or engrave with a chisel; as, to chisel a block of marble into a statue.
chromite ::: n. --> A black submetallic mineral consisting of oxide of chromium and iron; -- called also chromic iron.
A compound or salt of chromous hydroxide regarded as an acid.
chromium ::: n. --> A comparatively rare element occurring most abundantly in the mineral chromite. Atomic weight 52.5. Symbol Cr. When isolated it is a hard, brittle, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty. Its chief commercial importance is for its compounds, as potassium chromate, lead chromate, etc., which are brilliantly colored and are used dyeing and calico printing. Called also chrome.
chrysochlore ::: n. --> A South African mole of the genus Chrysochloris; the golden mole, the fur of which reflects brilliant metallic hues of green and gold.
chrysolites ::: brown or yellow-green olivine found in igneous and metamorphic rocks and used as gemstones such as topaz, etc.
cinder ::: n. --> Partly burned or vitrified coal, or other combustible, in which fire is extinct.
A hot coal without flame; an ember.
A scale thrown off in forging metal.
The slag of a furnace, or scoriaceous lava from a volcano.
ciselure ::: n. --> The process of chasing on metals; also, the work thus chased.
clamp ::: n. --> Something rigid that holds fast or binds things together; a piece of wood or metal, used to hold two or more pieces together.
An instrument with a screw or screws by which work is held in its place or two parts are temporarily held together.
A piece of wood placed across another, or inserted into another, to bind or strengthen.
One of a pair of movable pieces of lead, or other soft material, to cover the jaws of a vise and enable it to grasp without
clang ::: 1. A loud resounding noise, as a large bell or metal when struck. 2. v. To make or cause to make, or produce a loud ringing, resonant sound as of a large bell.
clangorous ::: a. --> Making a clangor; having a ringing, metallic sound.
clangous ::: a. --> Making a clang, or a ringing metallic sound.
clang ::: v. t. --> To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. ::: v. i. --> To give out a clang; to resound. ::: n.
clank ::: n. --> A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. ::: v. t. --> To cause to sound with a clank; as, the prisoners clank
clash ::: n. 1. A loud, harsh noise, such as that made by two metal objects in collision. 2. An encounter between hostile forces; a battle or skirmish. 3. A conflict, as between opposing or irreconcilable ideas. v. 4. To engage in a physical conflict or contest, as in a game or a battle (often followed by with). 5. To come into conflict; be in opposition. clashes, clashed, clashing.
clavichord ::: an early keyboard instrument producing a soft sound by means of metal blades attached to the inner ends of the keys gently striking the strings.
cleat ::: n. --> A strip of wood or iron fastened on transversely to something in order to give strength, prevent warping, hold position, etc.
A device made of wood or metal, having two arms, around which turns may be taken with a line or rope so as to hold securely and yet be readily released. It is bolted by the middle to a deck or mast, etc., or it may be lashed to a rope.
clevis ::: n. --> A piece of metal bent in the form of an oxbow, with the two ends perforated to receive a pin, used on the end of the tongue of a plow, wagen, etc., to attach it to a draft chain, whiffletree, etc.; -- called also clavel, clevy.
clink ::: v. i. --> To cause to give out a slight, sharp, tinkling, sound, as by striking metallic or other sonorous bodies together.
To give out a slight, sharp, tinkling sound.
To rhyme. [Humorous]. ::: n. --> A slight, sharp, tinkling sound, made by the collision of
cloisonne ::: a. --> Inlaid between partitions: -- said of enamel when the lines which divide the different patches of fields are composed of a kind of metal wire secured to the ground; as distinguished from champleve enamel, in which the ground is engraved or scooped out to receive the enamel.
coak ::: n. --> See Coke, n.
A kind of tenon connecting the face of a scarfed timber with the face of another timber, or a dowel or pin of hard wood or iron uniting timbers.
A metallic bushing or strengthening piece in the center of a wooden block sheave. ::: v. t.
cobalt ::: n. --> A tough, lustrous, reddish white metal of the iron group, not easily fusible, and somewhat magnetic. Atomic weight 59.1. Symbol Co.
A commercial name of a crude arsenic used as fly poison.
cobaltous ::: a. --> Pertaining to, derived from, or containing, cobalt; -- said esp. of cobalt compounds in which the metal has its lower valence.
cometarium ::: n. --> An instrument, intended to represent the revolution of a comet round the sun.
cometary ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or resembling, a comet.
coin ::: 1. A small piece of metal, usually flat and circular, authorized by a government for use as money. 2. A mode of expression considered standard, a symbol; token.
coinage ::: v. t. --> The act or process of converting metal into money.
Coins; the aggregate coin of a time or place.
The cost or expense of coining money.
The act or process of fabricating or inventing; formation; fabrication; that which is fabricated or forged.
coin ::: n. --> A quoin; a corner or external angle; a wedge. See Coigne, and Quoin.
A piece of metal on which certain characters are stamped by government authority, making it legally current as money; -- much used in a collective sense.
That which serves for payment or recompense. ::: v. t.
colander ::: n. --> A utensil with a bottom perforated with little holes for straining liquids, mashed vegetable pulp, etc.; a strainer of wickerwork, perforated metal, or the like.
coleridgian ::: a. --> Pertaining to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or to his poetry or metaphysics.
collet ::: --> An inferior church servant. [Obs.] See Acolyte. ::: n. --> A small collar or neckband.
A small metal ring; a small collar fastened on an arbor; as, the collet on the balance arbor of a watch; a small socket on a stem, for holding a drill.
coloradoite ::: n. --> Mercury telluride, an iron-black metallic mineral, found in Colorado.
columbite ::: n. --> A mineral of a black color, submetallic luster, and high specific specific gravity. It is a niobate (or columbate) of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron; -- first found in New England.
converter ::: n. --> One who converts; one who makes converts.
A retort, used in the Bessemer process, in which molten cast iron is decarburized and converted into steel by a blast of air forced through the liquid metal.
copper ::: n. --> A common metal of a reddish color, both ductile and malleable, and very tenacious. It is one of the best conductors of heat and electricity. Symbol Cu. Atomic weight 63.3. It is one of the most useful metals in itself, and also in its alloys, brass and bronze.
A coin made of copper; a penny, cent, or other minor coin of copper.
A vessel, especially a large boiler, made of copper.
the boilers in the galley for cooking; as, a ship&
coridine ::: n. --> A colorless or yellowish oil, C10H15N, of a leathery odor, occuring in coal tar, Dippel&
costeaning ::: n. --> The process by which miners seek to discover metallic lodes. It consist in sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein, in such manner as to cross all the veins between the two pits.
cotter ::: n. --> Alt. of Cottar
A piece of wood or metal, commonly wedge-shaped, used for fastening together parts of a machine or structure. It is driven into an opening through one or all of the parts. [See Illust.] In the United States a cotter is commonly called a key.
A toggle. ::: v. t.
counters ::: anything used in keeping account, as a disk of metal or wood, used in some games, as checkers, for marking a player"s position or for keeping score.
countersink ::: v. t. --> To chamfer or form a depression around the top of (a hole in wood, metal, etc.) for the reception of the head of a screw or bolt below the surface, either wholly or in part; as, to countersink a hole for a screw.
To cause to sink even with or below the surface; as, to countersink a screw or bolt into woodwork. ::: n.
couple ::: a. --> That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
Two of the same kind connected or considered together; a pair; a brace.
A male and female associated together; esp., a man and woman who are married or betrothed.
See Couple-close.
One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a
cresol ::: n. --> Any one of three metameric substances, CH3.C6H4.OH, homologous with and resembling phenol. They are obtained from coal tar and wood tar, and are colorless, oily liquids or solids. [Called also cresylic acid.]
crocose ::: n. --> A white crystalline sugar, metameric with glucose, obtained from the coloring matter of saffron.
crocus ::: n. --> A genus of iridaceous plants, with pretty blossoms rising separately from the bulb or corm. C. vernus is one of the earliest of spring-blooming flowers; C. sativus produces the saffron, and blossoms in the autumn.
A deep yellow powder; the oxide of some metal calcined to a red or deep yellow color; esp., the oxide of iron (Crocus of Mars or colcothar) thus produced from salts of iron, and used as a polishing powder.
crown ::: n. **1. An ornament worn on the head by kings and those having sovereign power, often made of precious metal and ornamented with gems. 2. A wreath or garland for the head, awarded as a sign of victory, success, honour, etc. 3. The distinction that comes from a great achievement; reward, honour. 4. The top or summit of something, esp. of a rounded object. etc. 5. The highest or more nearly perfect state of anything. 6. An exalting or chief attribute. 7. The acme or supreme source of honour, excellence, beauty, etc. v. 8. To put a crown on the head of, symbolically vesting with royal title, powers, etc. 9. To place something on or over the head or top of. crowns, crowned.**
crucible ::: n. --> A vessel or melting pot, composed of some very refractory substance, as clay, graphite, platinum, and used for melting and calcining substances which require a strong degree of heat, as metals, ores, etc.
A hollow place at the bottom of a furnace, to receive the melted metal.
A test of the most decisive kind; a severe trial; as, the crucible of affliction.
crucifix ::: n. --> A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions.
The cross or religion of Christ.
cryptidine ::: n. --> One of the quinoline bases, obtained from coal tar as an oily liquid, C11H11N; also, any one of several substances metameric with, and resembling, cryptidine proper.
cuboid ::: a. --> Cube-shaped, or nearly so; as, the cuboid bone of the foot. ::: n. --> The bone of the tarsus, which, in man and most mammals, supports the metatarsals of the fourth and fifth toes.
cupel ::: n. --> A shallow porous cup, used in refining precious metals, commonly made of bone ashes (phosphate of lime). ::: v. t. --> To refine by means of a cupel.
cupola ::: n. --> A roof having a rounded form, hemispherical or nearly so; also, a ceiling having the same form. When on a large scale it is usually called dome.
A small structure standing on the top of a dome; a lantern.
A furnace for melting iron or other metals in large quantity, -- used chiefly in foundries and steel works.
A revolving shot-proof turret for heavy ordnance.
The top of the spire of the cochlea of the ear.
damasken ::: v. --> To decorate, as iron, steel, etc., with a peculiar marking or "water" produced in the process of manufacture, or with designs produced by inlaying or incrusting with another metal, as silver or gold, or by etching, etc., to damask.
davyum ::: n. --> A rare metallic element found in platinum ore. It is a white malleable substance. Symbol Da. Atomic weight 154.
departer ::: n. --> One who refines metals by separation.
One who departs.
didymium ::: n. --> A rare metallic substance usually associated with the metal cerium; -- hence its name. It was formerly supposed to be an element, but has since been found to consist of two simpler elementary substances, neodymium and praseodymium. See Neodymium, and Praseodymium.
dingdong ::: n. --> The sound of, or as of, repeated strokes on a metallic body, as a bell; a repeated and monotonous sound.
An attachment to a clock by which the quarter hours are struck upon bells of different tones.
dioxide ::: n. --> An oxide containing two atoms of oxygen in each molecule; binoxide.
An oxide containing but one atom or equivalent of oxygen to two of a metal; a suboxide.
diptera ::: n. pl. --> An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillae) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvae (called maggots) being usually without feet.
disassimilation ::: n. --> The decomposition of complex substances, within the organism, into simpler ones suitable only for excretion, with evolution of energy, -- a normal nutritional process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism.
disk ::: n. --> A discus; a quoit.
A flat, circular plate; as, a disk of metal or paper.
The circular figure of a celestial body, as seen projected of the heavens.
A circular structure either in plants or animals; as, a blood disk; germinal disk, etc.
The whole surface of a leaf.
The central part of a radiate compound flower, as in
DIVINISATION. ::: Taking up of the human elements, show- ing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purifi- cation and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole earthly life to its full power and Ananda.
This divinisation of the nature is a metamorphosis, a change from the falsehood of our ignorant nature into the truth of God- nature.
docimacy ::: n. --> The art or practice of applying tests to ascertain the nature, quality, etc., of objects, as of metals or ores, of medicines, or of facts pertaining to physiology.
docimology ::: n. --> A treatise on the art of testing, as in assaying metals, etc.
doubtful ::: a. --> Not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating in belief; also used, metaphorically, of the body when its action is affected by such a state of mind; as, we are doubtful of a fact, or of the propriety of a measure.
Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like.
Characterized by ambiguity; dubious; as, a doubtful
dowel ::: n. --> A pin, or block, of wood or metal, fitting into holes in the abutting portions of two pieces, and being partly in one piece and partly in the other, to keep them in their proper relative position.
A piece of wood driven into a wall, so that other pieces may be nailed to it. ::: v. t.
downward ::: adj. 1. Descending from a source or beginning. 2. Moving or tending to a lower place or condition. 3. Toward a lower amount, degree, or rank. adv. 4. Spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position.
drawbench ::: n. --> A machine in which strips of metal are drawn through a drawplate; especially, one in which wire is thus made; -- also called drawing bench.
drill press ::: --> A machine for drilling holes in metal, the drill being pressed to the metal by the action of a screw.
drill ::: v. t. --> To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum.
dross ::: n. --> The scum or refuse matter which is thrown off, or falls from, metals in smelting the ore, or in the process of melting; recrement.
Rust of metals.
Waste matter; any worthless matter separated from the better part; leavings; dregs; refuse.
drum ::: n. --> An instrument of percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band.
Anything resembling a drum in form
A sheet iron radiator, often in the shape of a drum, for
ductilimeter ::: n. --> An instrument for accurately determining the ductility of metals.
ductility ::: n. --> The property of a metal which allows it to be drawn into wires or filaments.
Tractableness; pliableness.
dulcimer ::: n. --> An instrument, having stretched metallic wires which are beaten with two light hammers held in the hands of the performer.
An ancient musical instrument in use among the Jews. Dan. iii. 5. It is supposed to be the same with the psaltery.
dvergr ::: n. --> A dwarf supposed to dwell in rocks and hills and to be skillful in working metals.
eat ::: --> of Eat
of Eat ::: v. t. --> To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread.
To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a
edging ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Edge ::: n. --> That which forms an edge or border, as the fringe, trimming, etc., of a garment, or a border in a garden.
The operation of shaping or dressing the edge of anything, as of a piece of metal.
electer ::: n. --> Amber. See Electrum.
A metallic substance compounded of gold and silver; an alloy.
electro-metallurgy ::: n. --> The act or art precipitating a metal electro-chemical action, by which a coating is deposited, on a prepared surface, as in electroplating and electrotyping; galvanoplasty.
electro-etching ::: n. --> A mode of etching upon metals by electrolytic action.
electro-magnet ::: n. --> A mass, usually of soft iron, but sometimes of some other magnetic metal, as nickel or cobalt, rendered temporarily magnetic by being placed within a coil of wire through which a current of electricity is passing. The metal is generally in the form of a bar, either straight, or bent into the shape of a horseshoe.
electro-motion ::: n. --> The motion of electricity or its passage from one metal to another in a voltaic circuit; mechanical action produced by means of electricity.
electro-negative ::: a. --> Having the property of being attracted by an electro-positive body, or a tendency to pass to the positive pole in electrolysis, by the law that opposite electricities attract each other.
Negative; nonmetallic; acid; -- opposed to positive, metallic, or basic. ::: n.
electrophorus ::: n. --> An instrument for exciting electricity, and repeating the charge indefinitely by induction, consisting of a flat cake of resin, shelllac, or ebonite, upon which is placed a plate of metal.
electroplate ::: v. t. --> To plate or cover with a coating of metal, usually silver, nickel, or gold, by means of electrolysis.
electroplating ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Electroplate ::: n. --> The art or process of depositing a coating (commonly) of silver, gold, or nickel on an inferior metal, by means of electricity.
electro-positive ::: a. --> Of such a nature relatively to some other associated body or bodies, as to tend to the negative pole of a voltaic battery, in electrolysis, while the associated body tends to the positive pole; -- the converse or correlative of electro-negative.
Hence: Positive; metallic; basic; -- distinguished from negative, nonmetallic, or acid. ::: n.
electro-thermancy ::: n. --> That branch of electrical science which treats of the effect of an electric current upon the temperature of a conductor, or a part of a circuit composed of two different metals.
electro-tint ::: n. --> A style of engraving in relief by means of voltaic electricity. A picture is drawn on a metallic plate with some material which resists the fluids of a battery; so that, in electro-typing, the parts not covered by the varnish, etc., receive a deposition of metal, and produce the required copy in intaglio. A cast of this is then the plate for printing.
elixir ::: n. --> A tincture with more than one base; a compound tincture or medicine, composed of various substances, held in solution by alcohol in some form.
An imaginary liquor capable of transmuting metals into gold; also, one for producing life indefinitely; as, elixir vitae, or the elixir of life.
The refined spirit; the quintessence.
Any cordial or substance which invigorates.
elvan ::: a. --> Pertaining to elves; elvish.
Of or pertaining to certain veins of feldspathic or porphyritic rock crossing metalliferous veins in the mining districts of Cornwall; as, an elvan course. ::: n. --> Alt. of Elvanite
embellish ::: v. t. --> To make beautiful or elegant by ornaments; to decorate; to adorn; as, to embellish a book with pictures, a garden with shrubs and flowers, a narrative with striking anecdotes, or style with metaphors.
eminent ::: a. --> High; lofty; towering; prominent.
Being, metaphorically, above others, whether by birth, high station, merit, or virtue; high in public estimation; distinguished; conspicuous; as, an eminent station; an eminent historian, statements, statesman, or saint.
enamel ::: v. t. --> A variety of glass, used in ornament, to cover a surface, as of metal or pottery, and admitting of after decoration in color, or used itself for inlaying or application in varied colors.
A glassy, opaque bead obtained by the blowpipe.
That which is enameled; also, any smooth, glossy surface, resembling enamel, especially if variegated.
The intensely hard calcified tissue entering into the composition of teeth. It merely covers the exposed parts of the teeth
enargite ::: n. --> An iron-black mineral of metallic luster, occurring in small orthorhombic crystals, also massive. It contains sulphur, arsenic, copper, and often silver.
enclosed with a bar of wood or metal fixed horizontally for any of various purposes, as for a support, barrier, or fence. Also fig. **sense-railed.**
engraver ::: n. --> One who engraves; a person whose business it is to produce engraved work, especially on metal or wood.
engrave ::: v. t. --> To deposit in the grave; to bury.
To cut in; to make by incision.
To cut with a graving instrument in order to form an inscription or pictorial representation; to carve figures; to mark with incisions.
To form or represent by means of incisions upon wood, stone, metal, or the like; as, to engrave an inscription.
To impress deeply; to infix, as if with a graver.
engraving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Engrave ::: n. --> The act or art of producing upon hard material incised or raised patterns, characters, lines, and the like; especially, the art of producing such lines, etc., in the surface of metal plates or blocks of wood. Engraving is used for the decoration of the surface
entangle ::: v. t. --> To twist or interweave in such a manner as not to be easily separated; to make tangled, confused, and intricate; as, to entangle yarn or the hair.
To involve in such complications as to render extrication a bewildering difficulty; hence, metaphorically, to insnare; to perplex; to bewilder; to puzzle; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers.
erbium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element associated with several other rare elements in the mineral gadolinite from Ytterby in Sweden. Symbol Er. Atomic weight 165.9. Its salts are rose-colored and give characteristic spectra. Its sesquioxide is called erbia.
erythronium ::: n. --> A name originally given (from its red acid) to the metal vanadium.
espauliere ::: n. --> A defense for the shoulder, composed of flexible overlapping plates of metal, used in the 15th century; -- the origin of the modern epaulette.
etching ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Etch ::: n. --> The act, art, or practice of engraving by means of acid which eats away lines or surfaces left unprotected in metal, glass, or the like. See Etch, v. t.
ethylidene ::: --> An unsymmetrical, divalent, hydrocarbon radical, C2H4 metameric with ethylene but written thus, CH3.CH to distinguish it from the symmetrical ethylene, CH2.CH2. Its compounds are derived from aldehyde. Formerly called also ethidene.
eucairite ::: n. --> A metallic mineral, a selenide of copper and silver; -- so called by Berzelius on account of its being found soon after the discovery of the metal selenium.
euxenite ::: n. --> A brownish black mineral with a metallic luster, found in Norway. It contains niobium, titanium, yttrium, and uranium, with some other metals.
“Every man is knowingly or unknowingly the instrument of a universal Power and, apart from the inner Presence, there is no such essential difference between one action and another, one kind of instrumentation and another as would warrant the folly of an egoistic pride. The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit; the breath of divine Power blows where it lists and fills today one and tomorrow another with the word or the puissance. If the potter shapes one pot more perfectly than another, the merit lies not in the vessel but the maker. The attitude of our mind must not be ‘This is my strength’ or ‘Behold God’s power in me’, but rather ‘A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate.’” The Synthesis of Yoga
evolutionist ::: n. --> One skilled in evolutions.
one who holds the doctrine of evolution, either in biology or in metaphysics.
exhaust ::: v. t. --> To draw or let out wholly; to drain off completely; as, to exhaust the water of a well; the moisture of the earth is exhausted by evaporation.
To empty by drawing or letting out the contents; as, to exhaust a well, or a treasury.
To drain, metaphorically; to use or expend wholly, or till the supply comes to an end; to deprive wholly of strength; to use up; to weary or tire out; to wear out; as, to exhaust one&
expansion ::: n. --> The act of expanding or spreading out; the condition of being expanded; dilation; enlargement.
That which is expanded; expanse; extend surface; as, the expansion of a sheet or of a lake; the expansion was formed of metal.
Space through which anything is expanded; also, pure space.
Enlargement or extension of business transactions; esp., increase of the circulation of bank notes.
experimetalist ::: n. --> One who makes experiments; an experimenter.
extend ::: v. t. --> To stretch out; to prolong in space; to carry forward or continue in length; as, to extend a line in surveying; to extend a cord across the street.
To enlarge, as a surface or volume; to expand; to spread; to amplify; as, to extend metal plates by hammering or rolling them.
To enlarge; to widen; to carry out further; as, to extend the capacities, the sphere of usefulness, or commerce; to extend
extensibility ::: n. --> The quality of being extensible; the capacity of being extended; as, the extensibility of a fiber, or of a plate of metal.
external ::: a. --> Outward; exterior; relating to the outside, as of a body; being without; acting from without; -- opposed to internal; as, the external form or surface of a body.
Outside of or separate from ourselves; (Metaph.) separate from the perceiving mind.
Outwardly perceptible; visible; physical or corporeal, as distinguished from mental or moral.
Not intrinsic nor essential; accidental; accompanying;
eyelet ::: n. --> A small hole or perforation to receive a cord or fastener, as in garments, sails, etc.
A metal ring or grommet, or short metallic tube, the ends of which can be bent outward and over to fasten it in place; -- used to line an eyelet hole.
fabrile ::: a. --> Pertaining to a workman, or to work in stone, metal, wood etc.; as, fabrile skill.
fahlband ::: n. --> A stratum in crystalline rock, containing metallic sulphides.
Same as Tetrahedrite.
fatigue ::: n. --> Weariness from bodily labor or mental exertion; lassitude or exhaustion of strength.
The cause of weariness; labor; toil; as, the fatigues of war.
The weakening of a metal when subjected to repeated vibrations or strains.
To weary with labor or any bodily or mental exertion; to harass with toil; to exhaust the strength or endurance of; to tire.
ferrule ::: n. --> A ring or cap of metal put round a cane, tool, handle, or other similar object, to strengthen it, or prevent splitting and wearing.
A bushing for expanding the end of a flue to fasten it tightly in the tube plate, or for partly filling up its mouth.
ferruminate ::: v. t. --> To solder or unite, as metals.
fetlock ::: n. --> The cushionlike projection, bearing a tuft of long hair, on the back side of the leg above the hoof of the horse and similar animals. Also, the joint of the limb at this point (between the great pastern bone and the metacarpus), or the tuft of hair.
fid ::: n. --> A square bar of wood or iron, used to support the topmast, being passed through a hole or mortise at its heel, and resting on the trestle trees.
A wooden or metal bar or pin, used to support or steady anything.
A pin of hard wood, tapering to a point, used to open the strands of a rope in splicing.
A block of wood used in mounting and dismounting heavy guns.
figurate ::: a. --> Of a definite form or figure.
Figurative; metaphorical.
Florid; figurative; involving passing discords by the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices in the harmony; as, figurate counterpoint or descant.
figurative ::: a. --> Representing by a figure, or by resemblance; typical; representative.
Used in a sense that is tropical, as a metaphor; not literal; -- applied to words and expressions.
Abounding in figures of speech; flowery; florid; as, a highly figurative description.
Relating to the representation of form or figure by drawing, carving, etc. See Figure, n., 2.
fillet ::: n. --> A little band, especially one intended to encircle the hair of the head.
A piece of lean meat without bone; sometimes, a long strip rolled together and tied.
A thin strip or ribbon; esp.: (a) A strip of metal from which coins are punched. (b) A strip of card clothing. (c) A thin projecting band or strip.
A concave filling in of a reentrant angle where two
fining ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Fine ::: n. --> The act of imposing a fin/.
The process of fining or refining; clarification; also (Metal.), the conversion of cast iron into suitable for puddling, in a hearth or charcoal fire.
firework ::: n. --> A device for producing a striking display of light, or a figure or figures in plain or colored fire, by the combustion of materials that burn in some peculiar manner, as gunpowder, sulphur, metallic filings, and various salts. The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube filled with the combustible material. A number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to make, when kindled, a great variety of figures in fire, often variously colored. The skyrocket is a common form of firework. The name is also
fixation ::: n. --> The act of fixing, or the state of being fixed.
The act of uniting chemically with a solid substance or in a solid form; reduction to a non-volatile condition; -- said of gaseous elements.
The act or process of ceasing to be fluid and becoming firm.
A state of resistance to evaporation or volatilization by heat; -- said of metals.
flashing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Flash ::: n. --> The creation of an artifical flood by the sudden letting in of a body of water; -- called also flushing.
Pieces of metal, built into the joints of a wall, so as to lap over the edge of the gutters or to cover the edge of the
flask ::: n. --> A small bottle-shaped vessel for holding fluids; as, a flask of oil or wine.
A narrow-necked vessel of metal or glass, used for various purposes; as of sheet metal, to carry gunpowder in; or of wrought iron, to contain quicksilver; or of glass, to heat water in, etc.
A bed in a gun carriage.
The wooden or iron frame which holds the sand, etc., forming the mold used in a foundry; it consists of two or more parts; viz., the
flexibility ::: n. --> The state or quality of being flexible; flexibleness; pliancy; pliability; as, the flexibility of strips of hemlock, hickory, whalebone or metal, or of rays of light.
float ::: v. i. --> Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something.
A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft.
The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler.
The cork or quill used in angling, to support the bait
fluorine ::: n. --> A non-metallic, gaseous element, strongly acid or negative, or associated with chlorine, bromine, and iodine, in the halogen group of which it is the first member. It always occurs combined, is very active chemically, and possesses such an avidity for most elements, and silicon especially, that it can neither be prepared nor kept in glass vessels. If set free it immediately attacks the containing material, so that it was not isolated until 1886. It is a pungent, corrosive, colorless gas. Symbol F. Atomic weight 19.
fluxion ::: n. --> The act of flowing.
The matter that flows.
Fusion; the running of metals into a fluid state.
An unnatural or excessive flow of blood or fluid toward any organ; a determination.
A constantly varying indication.
The infinitely small increase or decrease of a variable or flowing quantity in a certain infinitely small and constant period of
flux ::: n. --> The act of flowing; a continuous moving on or passing by, as of a flowing stream; constant succession; change.
The setting in of the tide toward the shore, -- the ebb being called the reflux.
The state of being liquid through heat; fusion.
Any substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals or minerals, as alkalies, borax, lime, fluorite.
A fluid discharge from the bowels or other part; especially,
fodder ::: n. --> A weight by which lead and some other metals were formerly sold, in England, varying from 19/ to 24 cwt.; a fother.
That which is fed out to cattle horses, and sheep, as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc. ::: v.t. --> To feed, as cattle, with dry food or cut grass, etc.;to
foliation ::: n. --> The process of forming into a leaf or leaves.
The manner in which the young leaves are dispo/ed within the bud.
The act of beating a metal into a thin plate, leaf, foil, or lamina.
The act of coating with an amalgam of tin foil and quicksilver, as in making looking-glasses.
The enrichment of an opening by means of foils, arranged
footman ::: n. --> A soldier who marches and fights on foot; a foot soldier.
A man in waiting; a male servant whose duties are to attend the door, the carriage, the table, etc.
Formerly, a servant who ran in front of his master&
forge ::: n. 1. A special fireplace, hearth, or furnace in which metal is heated before shaping. v. 2. To form (metal, for example) by heating in a forge and beating or hammering into shape. 3. To form or make, esp. by concentrated effort or energy; shape, fabricate, fashion, mould. 4. To imitate (handwriting, a signature, etc.) fraudulently; to counterfeit; to commit forgery. forged.
forge ::: n. --> A place or establishment where iron or other metals are wrought by heating and hammering; especially, a furnace, or a shop with its furnace, etc., where iron is heated and wrought; a smithy.
The works where wrought iron is produced directly from the ore, or where iron is rendered malleable by puddling and shingling; a shingling mill.
The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of metalic bodies.
forgery ::: n. --> The act of forging metal into shape.
The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; esp., the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another; the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud; as, the forgery of a bond.
That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised, or counterfeited.
forging ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Forge ::: n. --> The act of shaping metal by hammering or pressing.
The act of counterfeiting.
A piece of forged work in