*elli*

n. A painter in thin transparent water colors. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A natural family of soil and freshwater protozoa; cosmopolitan.
Syn. -- family Arcellidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L., fr. Gr. bde`llion; cf. Heb. b'dolakh bdellium (in sense 1). ] 1. An unidentified substance mentioned in the Bible (Gen. ii. 12, and Num. xi. 7), variously taken to be a gum, a precious stone, or pearls, or perhaps a kind of amber found in Arabia. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A gum resin of reddish brown color, brought from India, Persia, and Africa. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Indian bdellium or false myrrh is an exudation from Balsamodendron Roxburghii. Other kinds are known as African bdellium, Sicilian bdellium, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. belle et bonne, beautiful and good. ] A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness; a fair maid. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. bellicus. See Bellicose. ] Of or pertaining to war; warlike; martial. [ Obs. ] “Bellic Cæsar.” Feltham. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. bellicosus, fr. bellicus of war, fr. bellum war. See Duel. ] Inclined to war or contention; warlike; pugnacious. [ 1913 Webster ]

Arnold was, in fact, in a bellicose vein. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a bellicose manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Bellicose. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having (such) a belly; puffed out; -- used in composition; as, pot-bellied; shad-bellied. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. The quality of being belligerent. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. the act or state of being engaged in war or a warlike conflict; warfare.
Syn. -- hostilities. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. an aggressively hostile or warlike attitude or nature; a readiness to fight or offend, with little or no provocation. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

a. [ L. bellum war + gerens, -entis, waging, p. pr. of gerere to wage: cf. F. belligérant. See Bellicose, Jest. ] 1. Waging war; carrying on war. “Belligerent powers.” E. Everett. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Pertaining, or tending, to war; of or relating to belligerents; as, a belligerent tone; belligerent rights. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A nation or state recognized as carrying on war; a person engaged in warfare. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a belligerent manner; hostilely. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Bell to bellow. ] A bellowing, as of a deer in rutting time. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. bellipotens; bellum war + potens powerful, p. pr. of posse to be able. ] Mighty in war; armipotent. [ R. ] Blount. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a great belly; as, a big-bellied man or flagon; advanced in pregnancy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The employment of selling books. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus of incense-yielding trees of North Africa and India.
Syn. -- genus Boswellia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Relating to, or characteristic of, Dr. Johnson's biographer, James Boswell, whose hero worship made his narrative a faithful but often uncritical record of details. -- Bos"well*ize v. i. & t. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

n. The style of Boswell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. genus of herbs of SW America having usually creamy florets followed by one-seeded fruits in a prominent bristly sheath.
Syn. -- genus Brickelia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Having a ruptured belly. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ NL., after Georg Josef Kamel, or Camelli, a Jesuit who is said to have brought it from the East. ] 1. (Bot.) An Asiatic genus of small shrubs, often with shining leaves and showy flowers. Camellia Japonica is much cultivated for ornament, and Camellia Sassanqua and Camellia oleifera are grown in China for the oil which is pressed from their seeds. The tea plant is now referred to this genus under the name of Camellia Thea. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Hort.) An ornamental greenhouse shrub (Thea japonica) with glossy evergreen leaves and roselike red or white double flowers. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ From Alexander Campbell, of Virginia. ] (Eccl.) A member of the denomination called Christians or Disciples of Christ. They themselves repudiate the term Campbellite as a nickname. See Christian, 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ L., a lattice. See Cancel, v. t. ] 1. An interwoven or latticed wall or inclosure; latticework, rails, or crossbars, as around the bar of a court of justice, between the chancel and the nave of a church, or in a window. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Anat.) The interlacing osseous plates constituting the elastic porous tissue of certain parts of the bones, esp. in their articular extremities. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. either of two Mexican shrubs Pedilanthus bracteatus or Pedilanthus pavonis. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. a wax-coated shrub (Euphorbia antisyphilitica) of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Cell + -ferous. ] Bearing or producing cells. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a natural family comprising the leafhoppers.
Syn. -- family Cicadellidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Carrying on war in conjunction with another power. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A nation or state that carries on war in connection with another. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a natural family of insects including the ladybugs.
Syn. -- family Coccinellidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Columella + -form. ] Shaped like a little column, or columella. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ }, n. Corbel work or the construction of corbels; a series of corbels or piece of continuous corbeled masonry, sometimes of decorative purpose, as in the stalactite ornament of the Moslems. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

{ } n. [ After Covelli, the discoverer. ] (Min.) A native sulphide of copper, occuring in masses of a dark blue color; -- hence called indigo copper. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. adj. of or pertaining to Oliver Cromwell. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

‖n. pl. [ It., sing. dentello, prop., little tooth, dim. of dente tooth, L. dens, dentis. Cf. Dentil. ] Modillions. Spectator. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. dis- + embellish: cf. F. désembellir. ] To deprive of embellishment; to disadorn. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. di- = vellicatus, p. p. of vellicare to pluck, fr. vellere to pull. ] To pull in pieces. [ Obs. or R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Habitation; place or house in which a person lives; abode; domicile. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons. Jer. xlix. 33. [ 1913 Webster ]

God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Philip's dwelling fronted on the street. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dwelling house, a house intended to be occupied as a residence, in distinction from a store, office, or other building. --
Dwelling place, place of residence. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ a., n }. See Elenge, Elengeness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. 'e`lleipsis, prop., a defect, the inclination of the ellipse to the base of the cone being in defect when compared with that of the side to the base: cf. F. ellipse. See Ellipsis. ] 1. (Geom.) An oval or oblong figure, bounded by a regular curve, which corresponds to an oblique projection of a circle, or an oblique section of a cone through its opposite sides. The greatest diameter of the ellipse is the major axis, and the least diameter is the minor axis. See Conic section, under Conic, and cf. Focus. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Gram.) Omission. See Ellipsis. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The elliptical orbit of a planet. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun;
The dark Earth follows wheeled in her ellipse. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Ellipses [ L., fr. Gr. 'e`lleipsis a leaving, defect, fr. 'ellei`pein to leave in, fall short; 'en in + lei`pein to leave. See In, and Loan, and cf. Ellipse. ] 1. (Gram.) Omission; a figure of syntax, by which one or more words, which are obviously understood, are omitted; as, the virtues I admire, for, the virtues which I admire. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Geom.) An ellipse. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Printing) a printing symbol, usually three periods in a row (. . .), indicating the omission of some part of a text; -- used commonly in quotations, so as to suppress words not essential to the meaning. A long dash (---) and three asterisks (* * *) are sometimes used with the same meaning. [ PJC ]

n. [ Ellipse + graph: cf. F. ellipsographe. ] An instrument for describing ellipses; -- called also trammel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Ellipse + -oid: cf. F. ellipsoide. ] (Geom.) A solid, all plane sections of which are ellipses or circles. See Conoid, n., 2 (a). [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The ellipsoid has three principal plane sections, a, b, and c, each at right angles to the other two, and each dividing the solid into two equal and symmetrical parts. The lines of meeting of these principal sections are the axes, or principal diameters of the ellipsoid. The point where the three planes meet is the center. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ellipsoid of revolution, a spheroid; a solid figure generated by the revolution of an ellipse about one of its axes. It is called a prolate spheroid, or prolatum, when the ellipse is revolved about the major axis, and an oblate spheroid, or oblatum, when it is revolved about the minor axis.

{ } a. Pertaining to, or shaped like, an ellipsoid; as, ellipsoid or ellipsoidal form.

{ } a. [ Gr. &unr_;: cf. F. elliptique. See Ellipsis. ] 1. Of or pertaining to an ellipse; having the form of an ellipse; oblong, with rounded ends. [ 1913 Webster ]

The planets move in elliptic orbits. Cheyne. [ 1913 Webster ]

The billiard sharp who any one catches,
His doom's extremely hard --
He's made to dwell
In a dungeon cell
On a spot that's always barred.
And there he plays extravagant matches
In fitless finger-stalls
On a cloth untrue
With a twisted cue
And elliptical billiard balls!
Gilbert and Sullivan (The Mikado: The More Humane Mikado Song)

2. Having a part omitted; as, an elliptical phrase. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. leaving out information essential to comprehension; so concise as to be difficult to understand; obscure or ambiguous; -- of speech or writing; as, an elliptical comment. [ PJC ]

Elliptic chuck. See under Chuck. --
Elliptic compasses, an instrument arranged for drawing ellipses. --
Elliptic function. (Math.) See Function. --
Elliptic integral. (Math.) See Integral. --
Elliptic polarization. See under Polarization. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In the form of an ellipse. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. With a part omitted; as, elliptically expressed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. ellipticité. ] Deviation of an ellipse or a spheroid from the form of a circle or a sphere; especially, in reference to the figure of the earth, the difference between the equatorial and polar semidiameters, divided by the equatorial; thus, the ellipticity of the earth is 1/29966. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Some writers use ellipticity as the ratio of the difference of the two semiaxes to the minor axis, instead of the major. Nichol. [ 1913 Webster ]