*tess*

n. [ From Cit. ] A city woman. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. contesseratio, from contesserare to contract friendship by means of the tesserae (friendship tokens). ] An assemblage; a collection; harmonious union. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That person of his [ George Herbert ], which afforded so unusual a contesseration of elegancies. Oley. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Countesses [ F. comtesse. See Count a nobleman. ] The wife of an earl in the British peerage, or of a count in the Continental nobility; also, a lady possessed of the same dignity in her own right. See the Note under Count. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ G., fr. F. délicatesse. ] 1. Relishes for the table; dainties; delicacies. “A dealer in delicatessen”. G. H. Putnam. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. ready-to-eat foods, such as cold cuts, cooked meats, and prepared salads. [ PJC ]

3. sing.; pl. delicatessens. a store or section of a store where delicatessen{ 2 } is sold. “Get a sandwich for lunch at the delicatessen counter.” [ PJC ]

‖n. [ L., fr. Gr. &unr_; (sc. &unr_;); dia` through + &unr_;, gen. of &unr_; four (sc. &unr_;.). ] 1. (Anc. Mus.) The interval of a fourth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Theol.) A continuous narrative arranged from the first four books of the New Testament. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An electuary compounded of four medicines. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman of extraordinary size. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female hermit. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. hostesse, ostesse. See Host a landlord. ] 1. A female host; a woman who hospitably entertains guests at her house. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A woman who entertains guests for compensation; a female innkeeper. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The character, personality, or office of a hostess. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. Jésuitesse. ] (R. C. Hist.) One of an order of nuns established on the principles of the Jesuits, but suppressed by Pope Urban in 1633.

n. A female Moabite. Ruth i. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ NL., fr. Gr. mo`nos single + &unr_; four. ] A single narrative framed from the statements of the four evangelists; a gospel harmony. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

(Pedagogy) A system of training and instruction, primarily for use with normal children aged from three to six years, devised by Dr. Maria Montessori while teaching in the “Houses of Childhood” (schools in the poorest tenement districts of Rome, Italy), and first fully described by her in 1909. The fundamental aim is to create self-motivation for education, and the leading features are freedom for physical activity (no stationary desks and chairs), informal and individual instruction, the very early development of reading and writing skills, and an extended sensory and motor training (with special emphasis on vision, touch, perception of movement, and their interconnections), mediated by a patented, standardized system of “didactic apparatus, ” which is declared to be “auto-regulative.” Most of the chief features of the method are borrowed from current methods used in many institutions for training feeble-minded children, and dating back especially to the work of the French-American physician Edouard O. Seguin (1812-80). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Turk. & Ar. muteçarif freely disposing of anything, master. ] In Turkey prior to the revolution, an administrative authority of any of certain sanjaks. They were appointed directly by the Sultan. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Turk. & Ar. muteçarifah office of a mutessarif. ] In Turkey, a sanjak whose head is a mutessarif. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Cf. F. poétesse. ] A female poet. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] Politeness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Porteass. [ Obs. ] Tyndale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman who is a prelate; the wife of a prelate. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Abp. Potter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. prophétesse, L. prophetissa. ] A female prophet. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. Poultry. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., fr. L. quinta essentia fifth essence. See Quint, and Essence. ] 1. The fifth or last and highest essence or power in a natural body. See Ferment oils, under Ferment. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The ancient Greeks recognized four elements, fire, air, water, and earth. The Pythagoreans added a fifth and called it nether, the fifth essence, which they said flew upward at creation and out of it the stars were made. The alchemists sometimes considered alcohol, or the ferment oils, as the fifth essence. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence: An extract from anything, containing its rarest virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a small quantity; pure or concentrated essence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The most characteristic form or most perfect example of some type of object. [ PJC ]

v. t. To distil or extract as a quintessence; to reduce to a quintessence. [ R. ] Stirling. “Truth quintessenced and raised to the highest power.” J. A. Symonds. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of the nature of a quintessence; purest; most characteristic. “Quintessential extract of mediocrity.” G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female regent. [ R. ] Cotgrave. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female saint. [ R. ] Bp. Fisher. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mus.) An imperfect or diminished fourth. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A maidservant. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. tessella a small square piece, a little cube, dim. of tessera a square piece of stone, wood, etc., a die. ] Formed of tesserae, as a mosaic. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Tessellate. ] (Zool.) A division of Crinoidea including numerous fossil species in which the body is covered with tessellated plates. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Tessellated p. pr. & vb. n. Tessellating. ] [ L. tessellatus tessellated. See Tessellar. ] To form into squares or checkers; to lay with checkered work. [ 1913 Webster ]

The floors are sometimes of wood, tessellated after the fashion of France. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. tesselatus. ] Tessellated. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Formed of little squares, as mosaic work; checkered; as, a tessellated pavement. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot. & Zool.) Marked like a checkerboard; as, a tessellated leaf. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of tessellating; also, the mosaic work so formed. J. Forsyth. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Tesserae [ L., a square piece, a die. See Tessellar. ] A small piece of marble, glass, earthenware, or the like, having a square, or nearly square, face, used by the ancients for mosaic, as for making pavements, for ornamenting walls, and like purposes; also, a similar piece of ivory, bone, wood, etc., used as a ticket of admission to theaters, or as a certificate for successful gladiators, and as a token for various other purposes. Fairholt. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Diversified by squares; done in mosaic; tessellated. [ Obs. ] Sir R. Atkyns (1712). [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Of, pertaining to, or containing, tesserae. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

a. (Crystallog.) Tesseral. [ 1913 Webster ]