ATLAS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Atlas

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/ˈætləs/ Listen

noun

Atlas n. (pl. atlases)

One who sustains a great burden.

(Anat.) The first vertebra of the neck, articulating immediately with the skull, thus sustaining the globe of the head, whence the name.

A collection of maps in a volume; Note: supposed to be so called from a picture of Atlas supporting the world, prefixed to some collections. This name is said to have been first used by Mercator, the celebrated geographer, in the 16th century.

A volume of plates illustrating any subject.

A work in which subjects are exhibited in a tabular from or arrangement; as, an historical atlas.

A large, square folio, resembling a volume of maps; called also atlas folio.

A drawing paper of large size. See under Paper, n.

Atlas powder, see Atlas powder in the vocabulary; a blasting compound containing nitroglycerin.

Atlas n. (pl. atlases) A rich kind of satin manufactured in India.

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Etymology of 'Atlas'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Atlas" Quotes from Famous Books

... South of the Atlas, and of the Great Desert, Middle Africa exhibits a new type of humanity in the NEGRO, with his dark skin, woolly hair, projecting jaws, and thick lips. As a rule, the skull of the Negro is remarkably long; ...

— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley

... and Nettlebed was more to Malfort's taste, and it was a sport for which Lady Fareham expressed a certain enthusiasm, and for which she attired herself to the perfection of picturesque costume. Her hunting-coats were marvels of embroidery on atlas and smooth cloth; but her smartest velvet and brocade she kept for the sunny mornings, when, with hooded peregrine on wrist, she sallied forth intent on slaughter, Angela, Papillon, and De Malfort for ...

— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... into Rome when the region was made a Roman province by Julius Caesar. It was probably known to the Romans in the time of Jugurtha; but the age of luxury had not then begun, and Marius and Sulla were more intent upon the glories of war than upon the arts of peace. The quarries on the slopes of the Atlas, worked for three hundred years to supply the enormous demand made by the luxury of the masters of the world, were at last supposed to be exhausted; and the idea has long prevailed that the marble could only be found among the ruins of ...

— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... almost personal hatred against the present reigning family. He is, in short, a political enthusiast of the most dangerous character, and proceeds in his agency with as much confidence, as if he felt himself the very Atlas who is alone capable of supporting ...

— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... art no Atlas for so great a weight: And Weakeling, Warwicke takes his gift againe, And Henry is ...

— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

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