SPage 436
- English Word Spiracle Definition The nostril, or one of the nostrils, of whales, porpoises, and allied animals.
- English Word Spiracle Definition One of the external openings communicating with the air tubes or tracheae of insects, myriapods, and arachnids. They are variable in number, and are usually situated on the sides of the thorax and abdomen, a pair to a segment. These openings are usually elliptical, and capable of being closed. See Illust. under Coleoptera.
- English Word Spiracle Definition A tubular orifice communicating with the gill cavity of certain ganoid and all elasmobranch fishes. It is the modified first gill cleft.
- English Word Spiracle Definition Any small aperture or vent for air or other fluid.
- English Word Spiracular Definition Of or pertaining to a spiracle.
- English Word Spiraea Definition A genus of shrubs or perennial herbs including the meadowsweet and the hardhack.
- English Word Spiraeic Definition Of, pertaining to, or derived from, the meadowsweet (Spiraea); formerly, designating an acid which is now called salicylic acid.
- English Word Spiral Definition Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it; as, the spiral curve of a watch spring.
- English Word Spiral Definition Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.
- English Word Spiral Definition Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.
- English Word Spiral Definition A plane curve, not reentrant, described by a point, called the generatrix, moving along a straight line according to a mathematical law, while the line is revolving about a fixed point called the pole. Cf. Helix.
- English Word Spiral Definition Anything which has a spiral form, as a spiral shell.
- English Word Spirality Definition The quality or states of being spiral.
- English Word Spirally Definition In a spiral form, manner, or direction.
- English Word Spiralozooid Definition One of the special defensive zooids of certain hydroids. They have the form of long, slender tentacles, and bear lasso cells.
- English Word Spirant Definition A term used differently by different authorities; -- by some as equivalent to fricative, -- that is, as including all the continuous consonants, except the nasals m, n, ng; with the further exception, by others, of the liquids r, l, and the semivowels w, y; by others limited to f, v, th surd and sonant, and the sound of German ch, -- thus excluding the sibilants, as well as the nasals, liquids, and semivowels. See Guide to Pronunciation, // 197-208.
- English Word Spiranthy Definition The occasional twisted growth of the parts of a flower.
- English Word Spiration Definition The act of breathing.
- English Word Spire Definition To breathe.
- English Word Spire Definition A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat.
- English Word Spire Definition A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically (Arch.), the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width; also, the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; the tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself.
- English Word Spire Definition A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the chargen in blasting.
- English Word Spire Definition The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
- English Word Spire Definition To shoot forth, or up in, or as if in, a spire.
- English Word Spire Definition A spiral; a curl; a whorl; a twist.
- English Word Spire Definition The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole. See Spiral, n.
- English Word Spired Definition of Spire
- English Word Spired Definition Having a spire; being in the form of a spire; as, a spired steeple.
- English Word Spiricle Definition One of certain minute coiled threads in the coating of some seeds. When moistened these threads protrude in great numbers.
- English Word Spirifer Definition Any one of numerous species of fossil brachipods of the genus Spirifer, or Delthyris, and allied genera, in which the long calcareous supports of the arms form a large spiral, or helix, on each side.