one of many families or subfamilies into which some classification systems subdivide the Liliaceae but not widely accepted; sometimes included in subfamily Amaryllidaceae.
Loading earlier words…
The higher part of the scale. See Alto.
of or pertaining to the Altaic languages.
Of or pertaining to the Altai, a mountain chain in Central Asia.
A raised structure (as a square or oblong erection of stone or wood) on which sacrifices are offered or incense burned to a deity.
a boy who assists a priest at the clebration of the Holy Mass and other forms of public worship; -- also called acolyte.
The offerings made upon the altar, or to a church.
A chaplain. A vicar of a church.
The painting or piece of sculpture above and behind the altar; reredos.
In the proper position of an altar, that is, at the east of a church with its ends towards the north and south.
An instrument for taking azimuths and altitudes simultaneously.
To become, in some respects, different; to vary; to change; as, the weather alters almost daily; rocks or minerals alter by exposure.
The quality of being alterable; alterableness.
Capable of being altered.
The quality of being alterable; variableness; alterability.
In an alterable manner.
An alterative.
The act of altering or making different.
A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations.
To contend in words; to dispute with zeal, heat, or anger; to wrangle.
Warm contention in words; dispute carried on with heat or anger; controversy; wrangle; wordy contest.
Characterized by wrangling; scolding.
The state or quality of being other; a being otherwise.
Acting by turns; alternate.
Alternateness; alternation.
Composed of alternate layers, as some rocks.
A usage, among diplomats, of rotation in precedence among representatives of equal rank, sometimes determined by lot and at other times in regular order. The practice obtains in the signing of treaties and conventions between nations.
To happen, succeed, or act by turns; to follow reciprocally in place or time; -- followed by with; as, the flood and ebb tides alternate with each other.
In reciprocal succession; succeeding by turns; in alternate order.
The quality of being alternate, or of following by turns.
The reciprocal succession of things in time or place; the act of following and being followed by turns; alternate succession, performance, or occurrence; as, the alternation of day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter, hope and fear.
An offer of two things, one of which may be chosen, but not both; a choice between two things, so that if one is taken, the other must be left.
In the manner of alternatives, or that admits the choice of one out of two things.
The quality of being alternative, or of offering a choice between two.
An electric generator or dynamo for producing alternating currents.
Succession by turns; alternation.
A genus of plants of the Mallow family. It includes the officinal marsh mallow, and the garden hollyhocks. An ornamental shrub (Hibiscus Syriacus) of the Mallow family.
Asparagine.
The national assembly or parliament of Iceland. See Thing, n., 8.
Although.
An instrument of the saxhorn family, used exclusively in military music, often replacing the French horn.
Grant all this; be it that; supposing that; notwithstanding; though.
Lofty speech; pompous language.
High-sounding; pompous in speech.
An instrument for taking altitudes, as a quadrant, sextant, etc.
The art of measuring altitudes, or heights.
See Tincal.
An arrangement of lenses and mirrors which enables a person to see an object in spite of intervening objects. Since the early 1900's, most commonly called periscope.
High-sounding; lofty or pompous.
Altisonant.
The part or notes situated above F in alt.
Space extended upward; height; the perpendicular elevation of an object above its foundation, above the ground, or above a given level, or of one object above another; as, the altitude of a mountain, or of a bird above the top of a tree.
Of or pertaining to height; as, altitudinal measurements.
Lofty in doctrine, aims, etc.
Flying high.
Formerly the part sung by the highest male, or counter-tenor, voices; now the part sung by the lowest female, or contralto, voices, between in tenor and soprano. In instrumental music it now signifies the tenor.
A fleecy cloud formation consisting of large whitish or grayish globular cloudlets with shaded portions, often grouped in flocks or rows.
Alto-rilievo.
High relief; sculptured work in which the figures project more than half their thickness; as, this figure is an alto-rilievo or in alto-rilievo.
A cloud formation similar to cirro-stratus, but heavier and at a lower level; a stratus cloud at an intermediate altitude of 2 or 3 miles.
All together; conjointly.
nakedness; -- used mostly in the phrase /in the altogether/.
A theodolite.
Like the altrices.
Nursers, -- a term applied to those birds whose young are hatched in a very immature and helpless condition, so as to require the care of their parents for some time; -- opposed to pr/coces.
born naked and blind and dependent on parents for food; -- of hatchlings. Opposite of precocial.
Regard for others, both natural and moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; -- opposed to egoism or selfishness.
One imbued with altruism; -- opposed to egoist.
Regardful of others; beneficent; unselfish; -- opposed to egoistic or selfish.
One of the pear-shaped pots open at both ends, and so formed as to be fitted together, the neck of one into the bottom of another in succession; -- used in the process of sublimation.
A false or bastard wing. See under Bastard.
Pertaining to the alula.
To steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum.
Alum.
One of the earths, consisting of two parts of aluminium and three of oxygen, Al2O3.
A compound formed from the hydrate of aluminium by the substitution of a metal for the hydrogen.
Combined with alumina.
Alumina.
Of or containing aluminium; as, aluminic phosphate.
Containing alum.
Having the form of alumina.
same as aluminum, chiefly British in usage.
To treat or impregnate with alum; to alum.
Art or process of producing, and printing from, aluminium plates, after the manner of ordinary lithography.
Pertaining to or containing alum, or alumina; as, aluminous minerals, aluminous solution.
The metallic element forming the 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. Also called aluminium.
Somewhat like alum.
A female pupil; especially, a graduate of a school or college.
A pupil; especially, a graduate of a college or other seminary of learning.
Alum stone.
A white fibrous mineral frequently found on the walls of mines and quarries, chiefly hydrous sulphate of alumina; -- also called feather alum, and hair salt.
A walk or passage; -- applied to passages of various kinds.
Leathery.
The tanning or dressing of leather.
A beehive, or something resembling a beehive.
Formed or vaulted like a beehive.
Of, pertaining to, or resembling, alveoli or little cells, sacs, or sockets.
Alveolar.
Deeply pitted, like a honeycomb.
Same as Alveolus.
Having the form of alveoli, or little sockets, cells, or cavities.
A cell in a honeycomb.
The channel of a river.
Of, from, in, or pertaining to, the belly or the intestines; as, alvine discharges; alvine concretions.
Always.
At all times; ever; perpetually; throughout all time; continually; as, God is always the same.
A genus of cruciferous plants; madwort. The sweet alyssum (Alyssum maritimum), cultivated for bouquets, bears small, white, sweet-scented flowers.
a genus of amphibians comprising the midwife toads.
Lovableness.
Amasthenic.
The strawberry finch, a small Indian song bird (Estrelda amandava), commonly caged and kept for fighting. The female is olive brown; the male, in summer, mostly crimson; -- called also red waxbill.
A spongy, combustible substance, prepared from fungus (Boletus and Polyporus) which grows on old trees; German tinder; punk. It has been employed as a styptic by surgeons, but its common use is as tinder, for which purpose it is prepared by soaking it in a strong solution of niter.
a woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.
To lower, as a sail, a yard, etc.
To lower the topsail, in token of surrender; to yield.
To amalgamate.
Same as Amalgam.
To unite in an amalgam; to blend with another metal, as quicksilver.
Coalesced; united; combined.
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.
Characterized by amalgamation.
Loading more words…