Elegant El"e·gant adjective [ Latin elegans , -antis ; akin to eligere to pick out, choose, select: confer French élégant . See Elect .] 1. Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.

A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature.

Prescott.

2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste.

Syn. -- Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome; richly ornamental.

Elegantly El"e·gant·ly adverb In a manner to please nice taste; with elegance; with due symmetry; richly.

Elegiac E·le"gi·ac adjective [ Latin elegiacus , Greek ...: confer French élégiaque . See Elegy .] 1. Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as, an elegiac lay; elegiac strains.

Elegiac griefs, and songs of love.

Mrs. Browning.

2. Used in elegies; as, elegiac verse; the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter.

Elegiac E·le"gi·ac noun Elegiac verse.

Elegiacal El`e·gi"a·cal adjective Elegiac.

Elegiast E·le"gi·ast noun One who composes elegies. Goldsmith.

Elegiographer El`e·gi·og"ra·pher noun [ Greek ... an elegy + -graph + -er .] An elegist. [ Obsolete]

Elegist El"e·gist noun A write of elegies. T. Warton.

Elegit E·le"git noun [ Latin , he has chosen, from eligere to choose. See Elect .] (Law) A judicial writ of execution, by which a defendant's goods are appraised and delivered to the plaintiff, and, if not sufficient to satisfy the debt, all of his lands are delivered, to be held till the debt is paid by the rents and profits, or until the defendant's interest has expired.

Elegize El"e·gize transitive verb To lament in an elegy; to celebrate in elegiac verse; to bewail. Carlyle.

Elegy El"e·gy noun ; plural Elegies . [ Latin elegia , Greek ..., fem. sing. (cf. ..., prop., neut. plural of ... a distich in elegiac verse), from ... elegiac, from ... a song of mourning.] A mournful or plaintive poem; a funereal song; a poem of lamentation. Shak.

Eleidin E·le"i·din noun (Biol.) Lifeless matter deposited in the form of minute granules within the protoplasm of living cells.

Eleme, Elemi, figs El"e·me, El"e·mi, figs` (ĕl"e*mĭ). [ Turk. eleme anything which has been sifted and freed from dust or broken parts.] A kind of figs of superior quality.

Element El"e·ment noun [ French élément , Latin elementum .] 1. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.

2. One of the ultimate, undecomposable constituents of any kind of matter. Specifically: (Chemistry) A substance which cannot be decomposed into different kinds of matter by any means at present employed; as, the elements of water are oxygen and hydrogen.

» The elements are naturally classified in several families or groups, as the group of the alkaline elements, the halogen group, and the like. They are roughly divided into two great classes, the metals , as sodium, calcium, etc., which form basic compounds, and the nonmetals or metalloids , as oxygen, sulphur, chlorine, which form acid compounds; but the distinction is only relative, and some, as arsenic, tin, aluminium, etc., form both acid and basic compounds. The essential fact regarding every element is its relative atomic weight or equivalent . When the elements are tabulated in the order of their ascending atomic weights, the arrangement constitutes the series of the Periodic law of Mendelejeff. See Periodic law , under Periodic . This Periodic law enables us to predict the qualities of unknown elements. The number of elements known is about seventy-five, but the gaps in the Periodic law indicate the possibility of many more. Many of the elements with which we are familiar, as hydrogen, carbon, iron, gold, etc., have been recognized, by means of spectrum analysis, in the sun and the fixed stars. From certain evidence (as that afforded by the Periodic law, spectrum analysis, etc.) it appears that the chemical elements probably may not be simple bodies, but only very stable compounds of some simpler body or bodies. In formulas, the elements are designated by abbreviations of their names in Latin or New Latin.

Element El"e·ment (ĕl"e*mĕnt) transitive verb 1. To compound of elements or first principles. [ Obsolete] "[ Love] being elemented too." Donne.

2. To constitute; to make up with elements.

His very soul was elemented of nothing but sadness.

Walton.

Elemental El`e·men"tal (ĕl`e*mĕn"t a l) adjective 1. Pertaining to the elements, first principles, and primary ingredients, or to the four supposed elements of the material world; as, elemental air. " Elemental strife." Pope.

2. Pertaining to rudiments or first principles; rudimentary; elementary. "The elemental rules of erudition." Cawthorn.

Elementalism El`e·men"tal·ism (-ĭz'm) adjective The theory that the heathen divinities originated in the personification of elemental powers.

Elementality E`le·men·tal"i·ty (- mĕn*tăl"ĭ*tȳ) noun The condition of being composed of elements, or a thing so composed.

Elementally El`e·men"tal·ly adverb According to elements; literally; as, the words, "Take, eat; this is my body," elementally understood.

Elementar El`e·men"tar adjective Elementary. [ Obsolete] Skelton.

Elementariness El`e·men"ta·ri·ness noun The state of being elementary; original simplicity; uncompounded state.

Elementarity El`e·men·tar"i·ty noun Elementariness. [ Obsolete] Sir T. Browne.

Elementary El`e·men"ta·ry adjective [ Latin elementarius : confer French élémentaire .] 1. Having only one principle or constituent part; consisting of a single element; simple; uncompounded; as, an elementary substance.

2. Pertaining to, or treating of, the elements, rudiments, or first principles of anything; initial; rudimental; introductory; as, an elementary treatise.

3. Pertaining to one of the four elements, air, water, earth, fire. "Some luminous and fiery impressions in the elementary region." J. Spencer.

Elementation El`e·men·ta"tion noun Instruction in the elements or first principles. [ R.]

Elementoid El"e·men·toid` adjective [ Element + -oid .] Resembling an element.

Elemi El"e·mi noun [ Confer French élemi , Italian elemi , Spanish elemi ; of American or Oriental. origin.] A fragrant gum resin obtained chiefly from tropical trees of the genera Amyris and Canarium . A. elemifera yields Mexican elemi; C. commune , the Manila elemi. It is used in the manufacture of varnishes, also in ointments and plasters.

Elemin El"e·min noun (Chemistry) A transparent, colorless oil obtained from elemi resin by distillation with water; also, a crystallizable extract from the resin.

Elench E·lench" (e*lĕnk") noun ; plural Elenchs . [ Latin elenchus , Greek ..., from ... to convict, confute, prove: confer Old French elenche .] (Logic) (a) That part of an argument on which its conclusiveness depends; that which convinces of refutes an antagonist; a refutation. (b) A specious but fallacious argument; a sophism.

Elenchical E·len"chic·al adjective Pertaining to an elench.

Elenchically E·len"chic·al·ly adverb By means of an elench.

Elenchize E·len"chize intransitive verb To dispute. [ R.] B. Jonson.

Elenchtic, Elenchtical E·lench"tic, E·lench"tic·al adjective Same as Elenctic .

Elenchus E·len"chus noun [ Latin ] Same as Elench .

Elenctic, Elenctical E·lenc"tic, E·lenc"tic·al adjective [ Greek ....] (Logic) Serving to refute; refutative; -- applied to indirect modes of proof, and opposed to deictic .

Elenge El"enge adjective [ Confer Anglo-Saxon ellende foreign, strange, German elend miserable.] Sorrowful; wretched; full of trouble. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Elengeness El"enge·ness noun Loneliness; misery. [ Obsolete]

Elephansy El"e·phan·sy noun [ Latin elephantia .] Elephantiasis. [ Obsolete] Holland.

Elephant El"e·phant (ĕl"e*f a nt) noun [ Middle English elefaunt , olifant , Old French olifant , French éléphant , Latin elephantus , elephas , -antis , from Greek 'ele`fas , -fantos ; of unknown origin; perhaps from Sanskrit ibha , with the Semitic article al , el , prefixed, or from Semitic Aleph hindi Indian bull; or confer Goth. ulbandus camel, Anglo-Saxon olfend .] 1. (Zoology) A mammal of the order Proboscidia, of which two living species, Elephas Indicus and E. Africanus , and several fossil species, are known. They have a proboscis or trunk, and two large ivory tusks proceeding from the extremity of the upper jaw, and curving upwards. The molar teeth are large and have transverse folds. Elephants are the largest land animals now existing.

2. Ivory; the tusk of the elephant. [ Obsolete] Dryden.

Elephant apple (Botany) , an East Indian fruit with a rough, hard rind, and edible pulp, borne by Feronia elephantum , a large tree related to the orange. -- Elephant bed (Geol.) , at Brighton, England, abounding in fossil remains of elephants. Mantell. -- Elephant beetle (Zoology) , any very large beetle of the genus Goliathus (esp. G. giganteus ), of the family Scarabæidæ . They inhabit West Africa. -- Elephant fish (Zoology) , a chimæroid fish ( Callorhynchus antarcticus ), with a proboscis-like projection of the snout. -- Elephant paper , paper of large size, 23 × 28 inches. -- Double elephant paper , paper measuring 26¾ × 40 inches. See Note under Paper . -- Elephant seal (Zoology) , an African jumping shrew ( Macroscelides typicus ), having a long nose like a proboscis. -- Elephant's ear (Botany) , a name given to certain species of the genus Begonia, which have immense one-sided leaves. -- Elephant's foot (Botany) (a) A South African plant ( Testudinaria Elephantipes ), which has a massive rootstock covered with a kind of bark cracked with deep fissures; -- called also tortoise plant . The interior part is barely edible, whence the plant is also called Hottentot's bread . (b) A genus ( Elephantopus ) of coarse, composite weeds. -- Elephant's tusk (Zoology) , the tooth shell. See Dentalium .

Elephantiac El`e·phan"ti·ac adjective (Medicine) Affected with elephantiasis; characteristic of elephantiasis.

Elephantiasis El`e·phan·ti"a·sis noun [ Latin , from Greek ..., from 'ele`fas , -fantos , an elephant.] (Medicine) A disease of the skin, in which it become enormously thickened, and is rough, hard, and fissured, like an elephant's hide.

Elephantine El`e·phan"tine adjective [ Latin elephantinus of ivory, Greek ...: confer French éléphantin .] Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant (commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread.

Elephantine epoch (Geol.) , the epoch distinguished by the existence of large pachyderms. Mantell. -- Elephantine tortoise (Zoology) , a huge land tortoise; esp., Testudo elephantina , from islands in the Indian Ocean; and T. elephantopus , from the Galapagos Islands.

Elephantoid El"e·phan·toid` (?; 277), El`e*phan*toid"al adjective [ Elephant + -oid .] (Zoology) Resembling an elephant in form or appearance.

Eleusinian El`eu·sin"i·an adjective [ Latin Eleusinius , Greek ....] Pertaining to Eleusis, in Greece, or to secret rites in honor of Ceres, there celebrated; as, Eleusinian mysteries or festivals.

Eleuthero-petalous E·leu`ther·o-pet"al·ous adjective [ Greek 'eleu`qeros free + English petal .] (Botany) Having the petals free, that is, entirely separate from each other; -- said of both plant and flower.

Eleutheromania E·leu`ther·o·ma"ni·a noun [ Greek 'eleu`qeros free + English mania .] A mania or frantic zeal for freedom. [ R.] Carlyle.

Eleutheromaniac E·leu`ther·o·ma"ni·ac adjective Mad for freedom. [ R.]

Elevate El"e·vate adjective [ Latin elevatus , past participle ] Elevated; raised aloft. [ Poetic] Milton.

Elevate El"e·vate transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Elevated ; present participle & verbal noun Elevating .] [ Latin elevatus , past participle of elevare ; e + levare to lift up, raise, akin to levis light in weight. See Levity .] 1. To bring from a lower place to a higher; to lift up; to raise; as, to elevate a weight, a flagstaff, etc.

2. To raise to a higher station; to promote; as, to elevate to an office, or to a high social position.

3. To raise from a depressed state; to animate; to cheer; as, to elevate the spirits.

4. To exalt; to ennoble; to dignify; as, to elevate the mind or character.

5. To raise to a higher pitch, or to a greater degree of loudness; -- said of sounds; as, to elevate the voice.

6. To intoxicate in a slight degree; to render tipsy. [ Colloq. & Sportive] "The elevated cavaliers sent for two tubs of merry stingo." Sir W. Scott.

7. To lessen; to detract from; to disparage. [ A Latin meaning] [ Obsolete] Jer. Taylor.

To elevate a piece (Gun.) , to raise the muzzle; to lower the breech.

Syn. -- To exalt; dignify; ennoble; erect; raise; hoist; heighten; elate; cheer; flush; excite; animate.

Elevated El"e·va`ted adjective Uplifted; high; lofty; also, animated; noble; as, elevated thoughts.

Elevated railway , one in which the track is raised considerably above the ground, especially a city railway above the line of street travel.

Elevatedness El"e·va`ted·ness noun The quality of being elevated.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
You are here: Webster > Letter E > Page 20 of 100.
« Previous ¦12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 ¦ Next »