24 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Lead \Lead\ (l[e^]d), n. [OE. led, leed, lead, AS. le['a]d; akin
to D. lood, MHG. l[=o]t, G. loth plummet, sounding lead,
small weight, Sw. & Dan. lod. [root]123]
1. (Chem.) One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic
metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily
tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with
little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets,
etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible,
forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of
solder and type metal. Atomic weight, 206.4. Symbol Pb (L.
Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena,
lead sulphide.
2. An article made of lead or an alloy of lead; as:
(a) A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea.
(b) (Print.) A thin strip of type metal, used to separate
lines of type in printing.
(c) Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs;
hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne
plates.
I would have the tower two stories, and goodly
leads upon the top. --Bacon
3. A small cylinder of black lead or plumbago, used in
pencils.
{Black lead}, graphite or plumbago; -- so called from its
leadlike appearance and streak. [Colloq.]
{Coasting lead}, a sounding lead intermediate in weight
between a hand lead and deep-sea lead.
{Deep-sea lead}, the heaviest of sounding leads, used in
water exceeding a hundred fathoms in depth. --Ham. Nav.
Encyc.
{Hand lead}, a small lead use for sounding in shallow water.
{Krems lead}, {Kremnitz lead} [so called from Krems or
Kremnitz, in Austria], a pure variety of white lead,
formed into tablets, and called also {Krems, or Kremnitz,
white}, and {Vienna white}.
{Lead arming}, tallow put in the hollow of a sounding lead.
See {To arm the lead} (below).
{Lead colic}. See under {Colic}.
{Lead color}, a deep bluish gray color, like tarnished lead.
{Lead glance}. (Min.) Same as {Galena}.
{Lead line}
(a) (Med.) A dark line along the gums produced by a
deposit of metallic lead, due to lead poisoning.
(b) (Naut.) A sounding line.
{Lead mill}, a leaden polishing wheel, used by lapidaries.
{Lead ocher} (Min.), a massive sulphur-yellow oxide of lead.
Same as {Massicot}.
{Lead pencil}, a pencil of which the marking material is
graphite (black lead).
{Lead plant} (Bot.), a low leguminous plant, genus {Amorpha}
({A. canescens}), found in the Northwestern United States,
where its presence is supposed to indicate lead ore.
--Gray.
{Lead tree}.
(a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous
tree, {Leuc[ae]na glauca}; -- probably so called from
the glaucous color of the foliage.
(b) (Chem.) Lead crystallized in arborescent forms from a
solution of some lead salt, as by suspending a strip
of zinc in lead acetate.
{Mock lead}, a miner's term for blende.
{Red lead}, a scarlet, crystalline, granular powder,
consisting of minium when pure, but commonly containing
several of the oxides of lead. It is used as a paint or
cement and also as an ingredient of flint glass.
{Red lead ore} (Min.), crocoite.
{Sugar of lead}, acetate of lead.
{To arm the lead}, to fill the hollow in the bottom of a
sounding lead with tallow in order to discover the nature
of the bottom by the substances adhering. --Ham. Nav.
Encyc.
{To} {cast, or heave}, {the lead}, to cast the sounding lead
for ascertaining the depth of water.
{White lead}, hydrated carbonate of lead, obtained as a
white, amorphous powder, and much used as an ingredient of
white paint.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
{Law of Charles} (Physics), the law that the volume of a
given mass of gas increases or decreases, by a definite
fraction of its value for a given rise or fall of
temperature; -- sometimes less correctly styled {Gay
Lussac's law}, or {Dalton's law}.
{Law of nations}. See {International law}, under
{International}.
{Law of nature}.
(a) A broad generalization expressive of the constant
action, or effect, of natural conditions; as, death
is a law of nature; self-defense is a law of nature.
See {Law}, 4.
(b) A term denoting the standard, or system, of morality
deducible from a study of the nature and natural
relations of human beings independent of supernatural
revelation or of municipal and social usages.
{Law of the land}, due process of law; the general law of the
land.
{Laws of honor}. See under {Honor}.
{Laws of motion} (Physics), three laws defined by Sir Isaac
Newton: (1) Every body perseveres in its state of rest or
of moving uniformly in a straight line, except so far as
it is made to change that state by external force. (2)
Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force,
and takes place in the direction in which the force is
impressed. (3) Reaction is always equal and opposite to
action, that is to say, the actions of two bodies upon
each other are always equal and in opposite directions.
{Marine law}, or {Maritime law}, the law of the sea; a branch
of the law merchant relating to the affairs of the sea,
such as seamen, ships, shipping, navigation, and the like.
--Bouvier.
{Mariotte's law}. See {Boyle's law} (above).
{Martial law}.See under {Martial}.
{Military law}, a branch of the general municipal law,
consisting of rules ordained for the government of the
military force of a state in peace and war, and
administered in courts martial. --Kent. Warren's
Blackstone.
{Moral law},the law of duty as regards what is right and
wrong in the sight of God; specifically, the ten
commandments given by Moses. See {Law}, 2.
{Mosaic}, or {Ceremonial}, {law}. (Script.) See {Law}, 3.
{Municipal}, or {Positive}, {law}, a rule prescribed by the
supreme power of a state, declaring some right, enforcing
some duty, or prohibiting some act; -- distinguished from
international and constitutional law. See {Law}, 1.
{Periodic law}. (Chem.) See under {Periodic}.
{Roman law}, the system of principles and laws found in the
codes and treatises of the lawmakers and jurists of
ancient Rome, and incorporated more or less into the laws
of the several European countries and colonies founded by
them. See {Civil law} (above).
{Statute law}, the law as stated in statutes or positive
enactments of the legislative body.
{Sumptuary law}. See under {Sumptuary}.
{To go to law}, to seek a settlement of any matter by
bringing it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute
some one.
{To} {take, or have}, {the law of}, to bring the law to bear
upon; as, to take the law of one's neighbor. --Addison.
{Wager of law}. See under {Wager}.
Syn: Justice; equity.
Usage: {Law}, {Statute}, {Common law}, {Regulation}, {Edict},
{Decree}. Law is generic, and, when used with
reference to, or in connection with, the other words
here considered, denotes whatever is commanded by one
who has a right to require obedience. A statute is a
particular law drawn out in form, and distinctly
enacted and proclaimed. Common law is a rule of action
founded on long usage and the decisions of courts of
justice. A regulation is a limited and often,
temporary law, intended to secure some particular end
or object. An edict is a command or law issued by a
sovereign, and is peculiar to a despotic government. A
decree is a permanent order either of a court or of
the executive government. See {Justice}.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
{To be in the wind}, to be suggested or expected; to be a
matter of suspicion or surmise. [Colloq.]
{To carry the wind} (Man.), to toss the nose as high as the
ears, as a horse.
{To raise the wind}, to procure money. [Colloq.]
{To} {take, or have}, {the wind}, to gain or have the
advantage. --Bacon.
{To take the wind out of one's sails}, to cause one to stop,
or lose way, as when a vessel intercepts the wind of
another. [Colloq.]
{To take wind}, or {To get wind}, to be divulged; to become
public; as, the story got wind, or took wind.
{Wind band} (Mus.), a band of wind instruments; a military
band; the wind instruments of an orchestra.
{Wind chest} (Mus.), a chest or reservoir of wind in an
organ.
{Wind dropsy}. (Med.)
(a) Tympanites.
(b) Emphysema of the subcutaneous areolar tissue.
{Wind egg}, an imperfect, unimpregnated, or addled egg.
{Wind furnace}. See the Note under {Furnace}.
{Wind gauge}. See under {Gauge}.
{Wind gun}. Same as {Air gun}.
{Wind hatch} (Mining), the opening or place where the ore is
taken out of the earth.
{Wind instrument} (Mus.), an instrument of music sounded by
means of wind, especially by means of the breath, as a
flute, a clarinet, etc.
{Wind pump}, a pump moved by a windmill.
{Wind rose}, a table of the points of the compass, giving the
states of the barometer, etc., connected with winds from
the different directions.
{Wind sail}.
(a) (Naut.) A wide tube or funnel of canvas, used to
convey a stream of air for ventilation into the lower
compartments of a vessel.
(b) The sail or vane of a windmill.
{Wind shake}, a crack or incoherence in timber produced by
violent winds while the timber was growing.
{Wind shock}, a wind shake.
{Wind side}, the side next the wind; the windward side. [R.]
--Mrs. Browning.
{Wind rush} (Zo["o]l.), the redwing. [Prov. Eng.]
{Wind wheel}, a motor consisting of a wheel moved by wind.
{Wood wind} (Mus.), the flutes and reed instruments of an
orchestra, collectively.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Scale \Scale\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scaled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Scaling}.]
To weigh or measure according to a scale; to measure; also,
to grade or vary according to a scale or system.
Scaling his present bearing with his past. --Shak.
{To} {scale, or scale down}, {a debt, wages, etc.}, to reduce
a debt, etc., according to a fixed ratio or scale. [U.S.]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Nativity \Na*tiv"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Nativies}. [F. nativit['e], L.
nativitas. See {Native}, and cf. {Na["i]vet['E]}.]
1. The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the
circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner,
etc. --Chaucer.
I have served him from the hour of my nativity.
--Shak.
Thou hast left . . . the land of thy nativity.
--Ruth ii. 11.
These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield
us, pregnant with infernal flame. --Milton.
2. (Fine Arts) A picture representing or symbolizing the
early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in
a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to
express the stable in which he was born.
3. (Astrol.) A representation of the positions of the
heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to
indicate his future destinies; a horoscope.
{The Nativity}, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas
day.
{To}
{cast, or calculate},
{one's nativity} (Astrol.), to find out and represent the
position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's
birth.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Nutshell \Nut"shell`\, n.
1. The shell or hard external covering in which the kernel of
a nut is inclosed.
2. Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value.
3. (Zo["o]l.) A shell of the genus Nucula.
{To} {be, or lie}, {in a nutshell}, to be within a small
compass; to admit of very brief or simple determination or
statement. ``The remedy lay in a nutshell.'' --Macaulay.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Gapeseed \Gape"seed`\, n.
A person who looks or stares gapingly.
{To} {buy, or sow}, {gapeseed}, to stare idly or in idle
wonderment, instead of attending to business.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Pace \Pace\, n. [OE. pas, F. pas, from L. passus a step, pace,
orig., a stretching out of the feet in walking; cf. pandere,
passum, to spread, stretch; perh. akin to E. patent. Cf.
{Pas}, {Pass}.]
1. A single movement from one foot to the other in walking; a
step.
2. The length of a step in walking or marching, reckoned from
the heel of one foot to the heel of the other; -- used as
a unit in measuring distances; as, he advanced fifty
paces. ``The heigh of sixty pace .'' --Chaucer.
Note: Ordinarily the pace is estimated at two and one half
linear feet; but in measuring distances be stepping,
the pace is extended to three feet (one yard) or to
three and three tenths feet (one fifth of a rod). The
regulation marching pace in the English and United
States armies is thirty inches for quick time, and
thirty-six inches for double time. The Roman pace
(passus) was from the heel of one foot to the heel of
the same foot when it next touched the ground, five
Roman feet.
3. Manner of stepping or moving; gait; walk; as, the walk,
trot, canter, gallop, and amble are paces of the horse; a
swaggering pace; a quick pace. --Chaucer.
To-morrow, and