*adra*

n. [ F., a corruption of tragacanth. ] Gum tragacanth. Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. bi- + quadrate. ] (Math.) The fourth power, or the square of the square. Thus 4x4=16, the square of 4, and 16x16=256, the biquadrate of 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. bi- + quadratic: cf. F. biquadratique. ] (Math.) Of or pertaining to the biquadrate, or fourth power. [ 1913 Webster ]

Biquadratic equation (Alg.), an equation of the fourth degree, or an equation in some term of which the unknown quantity is raised to the fourth power. --
Biquadratic root of a number, the square root of the square root of that number. Thus the square root of 81 is 9, and the square root of 9 is 3, which is the biquadratic root of 81. Hutton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Math.) (a) A biquadrate. (b) A biquadratic equation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. cadran. Cf. Quadrant. ] An instrument with a graduated disk by means of which the angles of gems are measured in the process of cutting and polishing. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. conquadratus, p. p. of conquadrare. ] To bring into a square. [ R. ] Ash. [ 1913 Webster ]

A thin quadrant, made of brass, wood, etc., showing a stereographic projection on the plane of the equator. By it are found the hour of the day, the sun's azimuth, the altitude of objects in degrees, etc. See Gunter's scale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Race, a water course. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ R. ] A large fish pound used for the capture of the tunny in the Mediterranean; also applied to the seines used for the same purpose. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So named after Madras, a city and presidency of India. ] 1. A large silk-and-cotton kerchief, usually of bright colors, such as those often used by negroes for turbans.

A black woman in blue cotton gown, red-and-yellow madras turban . . . crouched against the wall. G. W. Cable. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. A light patterned cotton fabric. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Pterygoid + quadrate. ] (Anat.) Of, pertaining to, or representing the pterygoid and quadrate bones or cartilages. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Quadræ [ L., a square, the socle, a platband, a fillet. ] (Arch.) (a) The plinth, or lowest member, of any pedestal, podium, water table, or the like. (b) A fillet, or listel. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See Quadrate. ] (Math.) That may be sqyared, or reduced to an equivalent square; -- said of a surface when the area limited by a curve can be exactly found, and expressed in a finite number of algebraic terms. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. quadragenarius, fr. qyadrageni forty each. ] Consisting of forty; forty years old. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. quadragena, fr. L. quadrageni forty each, akin to quadraginta forty. ] (R. C. Ch.) An indulgence of forty days, corresponding to the forty days of ancient canonical penance. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fr. quadragesimus the fortieth, fr. quadraginta forty; akin to quattuor four. See Four. ] (Eccl.) The forty days of fast preceding Easter; Lent. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadragesima Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, about forty days before Easter. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. quadragésimal. ] Belonging to Lent; used in Lent; Lenten. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. Offerings formerly made to the mother church of a diocese on Mid-Lent Sunday. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., fr. L. quadrangulum; quattuor four + angulus an angle. See Four, and Angle a corner. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Geom.) A plane figure having four angles, and consequently four sides; any figure having four angles. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A square or quadrangular space or inclosure, such a space or court surrounded by buildings, esp. such a court in a college or public school in England. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. quadrangulaire. ] Having four angles, and consequently four sides; tetragonal. -- Quad*ran"gu*lar*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

‖n.; pl. Quadrantes [ L. ] 1. (Rom. Antiq.) A fourth part of the coin called an as. See 3d As, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The fourth of a penny; a farthing. See Cur. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. quadrans, -antis, a fourth part, a fourth of a whole, fr. quattuor four: cf. F. quadrant, cadran. See Four, and cf. Cadrans. ] 1. The fourth part; the quarter. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Geom.) The quarter of a circle, or of the circumference of a circle, an arc of 90°, or one subtending a right angle at the center. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Anal. (Geom.) One of the four parts into which a plane is divided by the coordinate axes. The upper right-hand part is the first quadrant; the upper left-hand part the second; the lower left-hand part the third; and the lower right-hand part the fourth quadrant. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An instrument for measuring altitudes, variously constructed and mounted for different specific uses in astronomy, surveying, gunnery, etc., consisting commonly of a graduated arc of 90°, with an index or vernier, and either plain or telescopic sights, and usually having a plumb line or spirit level for fixing the vertical or horizontal direction. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gunner's quadrant, an instrument consisting of a graduated limb, with a plumb line or spirit level, and an arm by which it is applied to a cannon or mortar in adjusting it to the elevation required for attaining the desired range. --
Gunter's quadrant. See Gunter's quadrant, in the Vocabulary. --
Hadley's quadrant, a hand instrument used chiefly at sea to measure the altitude of the sun or other celestial body in ascertaining the vessel's position. It consists of a frame in the form of an octant having a graduated scale upon its arc, and an index arm, or alidade pivoted at its apex. Mirrors, called the index glass and the horizon glass, are fixed one upon the index arm and the other upon one side of the frame, respectively. When the instrument is held upright, the index arm may be swung so that the index glass will reflect an image of the sun upon the horizon glass, and when the reflected image of the sun coincides, to the observer's eye, with the horizon as seen directly through an opening at the side of the horizon glass, the index shows the sun's altitude upon the scale; -- more properly, but less commonly, called an octant. --
Quadrant of altitude, an appendage of the artificial globe, consisting of a slip of brass of the length of a quadrant of one of the great circles of the globe, and graduated. It may be fitted to the meridian, and being movable round to all points of the horizon, serves as a scale in measuring altitudes, azimuths, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. quadrantalis containing the fourth fourth part of a measure. ] (Geom.) Of or pertaining to a quadrant; also, included in the fourth part of a circle; as, quadrantal space. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadrantal triangle, a spherical triangle having one side equal to a quadrant or arc of 90°. --
Quadrantal versor, a versor that expresses rotation through one right angle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. ] 1. (Rom. Antiq.) A cubical vessel containing a Roman cubic foot, each side being a Roman square foot; -- used as a measure. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A cube. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. quadrat, cadrat. See Quadrate. ] 1. (Print.) A block of type metal lower than the letters, -- used in spacing and in blank lines. [ Abbrev. quad. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An old instrument used for taking altitudes; -- called also geometrical square, and line of shadows. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. quadratus squared, p. p. of quadrare to make four-cornered, to make square, to square, to fit, suit, from quadrus square, quattuor four. See Quadrant, and cf. Quadrat, Quarry an arrow, Square. ] 1. Having four equal sides, the opposite sides parallel, and four right angles; square. [ 1913 Webster ]

Figures, some round, some triangle, some quadrate. Foxe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Produced by multiplying a number by itself; square. “ Quadrate and cubical numbers.” Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Square; even; balanced; equal; exact. [ Archaic ] “ A quadrate, solid, wise man.” Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Squared; suited; correspondent. [ Archaic ] “ A generical description quadrate to both.” Harvey. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadrate bone (Anat.), a bone between the base of the lower jaw and the skull in most vertebrates below the mammals. In reptiles and birds it articulates the lower jaw with the skull; in mammals it is represented by the malleus or incus. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. quadratum. See Quadrate, a. ] 1. (Geom.) A plane surface with four equal sides and four right angles; a square; hence, figuratively, anything having the outline of a square. [ 1913 Webster ]

At which command, the powers militant
That stood for heaven, in mighty quadrate joined. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Astrol.) An aspect of the heavenly bodies in which they are distant from each other 90°, or the quarter of a circle; quartile. See the Note under Aspect, 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Anat.) The quadrate bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Quadrated p. pr. & vb. n. Quadrating. ] [ See Quadrate, a. ] To square; to agree; to suit; to correspond; -- followed by with. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The objections of these speculatists of its forms do not quadrate with their theories. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To adjust (a gun) on its carriage; also, to train (a gun) for horizontal firing. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. quadratique. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Of or pertaining to a square, or to squares; resembling a quadrate, or square; square. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Crystallog.) Tetragonal. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Alg.) Pertaining to terms of the second degree; as, a quadratic equation, in which the highest power of the unknown quantity is a square. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Alg.) That branch of algebra which treats of quadratic equations. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) (a) Of or pertaining to the quadrate and jugal bones. (b) Of or pertaining to the quadratojugal bone. -- n. The quadratojugal bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadratojugal bone (Anat.), a bone at the base of the lower jaw in many animals. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. -trixes or -trices [ NL. ] (Geom.) A curve made use of in the quadrature of other curves; as the quadratrix, of Dinostratus, or of Tschirnhausen. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. quadratura: cf. F. quadrature. See Quadrate, a. ] 1. (Math.) The act of squaring; the finding of a square having the same area as some given curvilinear figure; as, the quadrature of a circle; the operation of finding an expression for the area of a figure bounded wholly or in part by a curved line, as by a curve, two ordinates, and the axis of abscissas. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A quadrate; a square. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Integral Calculus) The integral used in obtaining the area bounded by a curve; hence, the definite integral of the product of any function of one variable into the differential of that variable. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Astron.) The position of one heavenly body in respect to another when distant from it 90°, or a quarter of a circle, as the moon when at an equal distance from the points of conjunction and opposition. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadrature of the moon (Astron.), the position of the moon when one half of the disk is illuminated. --
Quadrature of an orbit (Astron.), a point in an orbit which is at either extremity of the latus rectum drawn through the empty focus of the orbit. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Astrol.) An aspect of the planets when distant from each other the half of a quadrant, or forty-five degrees, or one sign and a half. Hutton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metal.) A mass of iron on which the operation of smelting has failed of its intended effect; -- so called from Shadrach, one of the three Hebrews who came forth unharmed from the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. (See Dan. iii. 26, 27.) [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. sparadrap; cf. It. sparadrappo, NL. sparadrapa. ] 1. A cerecloth. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) Any adhesive plaster. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Nearly or approximately square; almost square. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ ‖ } n. [ NL. tetradrachma, fr. Gr. tetra`drachmon; te`tra- (see Tetra-) + drachmh` drachm, drachma. ] A silver coin among the ancient Greeks, of the value of four drachms. The Attic tetradrachm was equal to 3s. 3d. sterling, or about 76 cents. [ 1913 Webster ]