The inferior and posterior of the three elements forming the periotic bone.

A tetanic spasm in which the body is bent backwards and stiffened.

The act of helping or aiding; help.

The inspissated juice of the Papaver somniferum, or white poppy.

The old name of the aromatic resinous juice of the Balsamodendron opobalsamum, now commonly called balm of Gilead. See under Balm.

A kind of plaster, said to have been invented by Mindererus, -- used for external injuries.

See Army organization, above.

The inspissated juice of an umbelliferous plant (the Opoponax Chironum), brought from Turkey and the East Indies in loose granules, or sometimes in larger masses, of a reddish yellow color, with specks of white. It has a strong smell and acrid taste, and was formerly used in medicine as an emmenagogue and antispasmodic.

Any American marsupial of the genera Didelphys and Chironectes; called also possum. The common species of the United States is Didelphys Virginiana.

An older division of the suborder Ophidia of serpents; it includes those snakes in which the mouth is not dilatable.

An inhabitant of a town.

To pledge; to pawn.

To crowd together; to fill with obstructions; to block up.

The act of filling or crowding together; a stopping by redundant matter; obstruction, particularly in the lower intestines.

Obstructive.

Filled; crowded.

The act of filling up, or the state of being filled up; fullness.

To oppose.

The act of opening an academical disputation; the proposition of objections to a tenet, as an exercise for a degree.

One who opposes; an adversary; an antagonist; a foe.

To suit.

The art or practice of taking advantage of opportunities or circumstances, or of seeking immediate advantage with little regard for ultimate consequences.

One who advocates or practices opportunism.

taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit; practising opportunism.

Fit or convenient time or situation; a time or place permitting or favorable for the execution of a purpose; a suitable combination of conditions; suitable occasion; chance.

The condition or quality of being opposable.

Capable of being opposed or resisted.

Opposition.

To be set opposite.

Not to be effectually opposed; irresistible.

One who opposes; an opponent; an antagonist; an adversary.

characterized by active opposition; as, two bitterly opposing schools of thought.

Placed over against; standing or situated over against or in front; facing; -- often with to; as, a house opposite to the Exchange; the concert hall and the state theater stood opposite each other on the plaza.

One who opposes; an opponent; an antagonist.

In a situation to face each other; in an opposite manner or direction; adversely.

The quality or state of being opposite.

Placed at the same node with a leaf, but separated from it by the whole diameter of the stem; as, an oppositifolious peduncle.

The act of opposing; an attempt to check, restrain, or defeat; resistance.

One who belongs to the opposition party.

Placed in front of a petal.

Placed in front of a sepal.

Capable of being put in opposition.

To impose excessive burdens upon; to overload; hence, to treat with unjust rigor or with cruelty.

having excessive or unfair burdens imposed.

The act of oppressing, or state of being oppressed.

Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law.

One who oppresses; one who imposes unjust burdens on others; one who harasses others with unjust laws or unreasonable severity.

Oppression.

Expressive of opprobrium; attaching disgrace; reproachful; scurrilous; as, opprobrious language.

A state of disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt; odium{3}.

Opprobrium.

To fight against; to attack; to be in conflict with; to oppose; to resist.

The act of oppugning; opposition; resistance.

Tending to awaken hostility; hostile; opposing; warring. An opponent.

Opposition.

One who opposes or attacks; that which opposes.

Education late in life.

An instrument for measuring the limits of distinct vision in different individuals, and thus determiming the proper focal length of a lens for correcting imperfect sight.

A catering; a buying of provisions.

That may be chosen; desirable.

The act of optating; a wish.

Something to be desired.

In an optative manner; with the expression of desire.

The organ of sight; an eye.

the ability of a chemical compound to rotate the plane of plane-polarized light. This is found only in chemicals whose molecular structure does not have a plane of symmetry, and is common in biochemical compounds.

a cable containing multiple optical fibers.

A thin fiber of very pure glass used to carry signals transmitted by means of light. It has much greater information-carrying capacity than a copper wire, and in the 1990's became a dominant means of transmitting telephone communications over long distances.

Of, pertaining to, or using vision or sight; as, optical illusions.

By optics or sight.

One skilled in optics.

That branch of physical science which treats of the nature and properties of light, the laws of its modification by opaque and transparent bodies, and the phenomena of vision.

A telescope with a diagonal eyepiece, suspended vertically in gimbals by the object end beneath a fixed diagonal plane mirror. It is used for delineating landscapes, by means of a pencil at the eye end which leaves the delineation on paper.

Government by the nobility.

Best possible; most desirable; optimum; as, the optimal concentration of a drug.

Of or pertaining to the nobility or aristocracy. A nobleman or aristocrat; a chief man in a state or city.

The nobility or aristocracy of ancient Rome, as opposed to the populares.

One of those who stand in the second rank of honors, immediately after the wranglers, in the University of Cambridge, England. They are divided into senior and junior optimes.

Same as optimize.

Of or pertaining to optimism; tending, or conforming, to the opinion that all events are ordered for the best.

The state of being best.

To make as useful, effective, or functional as possible; as, to optimize the speed of a computer program.

The most favorable condition, greatest degree, or largest amount possible under given circumstances.

The power of choosing; the right of choice or election; an alternative.

Involving an option; depending on the exercise of an option; left to one's discretion or choice; allowed but not compulsory; as, optional studies; it is optional with you to go or stay. See Elective, n.

In an optional manner.

A person who holds an option to buy or sell a financial instrument. See option.

The cavity of one of the optic lobes of the brain in many animals.

An image of external objects fixed on the retina by the photochemical action of light on the visual purple. See Optography.

The production of an optogram on the retina by the photochemical action of light on the visual purple; the fixation of an image in the eye. The object so photographed shows white on a purple or red background. See Visual purple, under Visual.

An instrument for measuring the distance of distinct vision, mainly for the selection of eveglasses.

One who is skilled in or practices optometry, especially one who examines the eyes for defects in vision and prescribes the proper lenses to correct any defects discovered.

Measurement of the range of vision, esp. by means of the optometer.

Wealth; riches; affluence.

See Opulence.

Having a large estate or property; wealthy; rich; affluent; as, an opulent city; an opulent citizen.

A genus of cactaceous plants; the prickly pear, or Indian fig.

An order of plants coextensive with the family Cactaceae, comprising the cactuses.

A work; a musical composition.

A small or petty work.

An opuscule.

Opium.

A small, handsome trout (Salvelinus oquassa), found in some of the lakes in Maine; -- called also blueback trout.

Yellow or gold color, -- represented in drawing or engraving by small dots.

A money of account among the Anglo-Saxons, valued, in the Domesday Book, at twenty pence sterling.

A South American monkey of the genus Callithrix, esp. Callithrix Moloch.

A genus (Atriplex) of herbs or low shrubs of the Goosefoot family, most of them with a mealy surface.

To utter oracles.

Of or pertaining to an oracle; uttering oracles; forecasting the future; as, an oracular tongue.

Oracular; of the nature of an oracle.

Stormy.

See Orison.

Uttered by the mouth, or in words; spoken, not written; verbal; as, oral traditions; oral testimony; oral law.

Surgery performed within the mouth cavity, especially that performed around the gums and teeth as an expedient for the purpose of preservation or replacement of teeth.

In an oral manner.

See Orang-outang.

An arboreal anthropoid ape (Pongo pygmaeus, formerly Simia satyrus), which inhabits Borneo and Sumatra. Often called simply orang. It is now an endangered species.

Of or pertaining to an orange; of the color of an orange; reddish yellow; as, an orange ribbon.

A drink made of orange juice and water, corresponding to lemonade; orange sherbet.

Candied orange peel; also, orangeade.

Attachment to the principles of the society of Orangemen; the tenets or practices of the Orangemen.