PERPENDICULAR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Perpendicular

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/pˌərpəndˈɪkjələr/ Listen

noun

Perpendicular n.

A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon; a vertical line or direction.

(Geom.) A line or plane falling at right angles on another line or surface, or making equal angles with it on each side.

adjective

Perpendicular adj.

Exactly upright or vertical; pointing to the zenith; at right angles to the plane of the horizon; extending in a right line from any point toward the center of the earth.

(Geom.) At right angles to a given line or surface; as, the line ad is perpendicular to the line bc.

Perpendicular style (Arch.), a name given to the latest variety of English Gothic architecture, which prevailed from the close of the 14th century to the early part of the 16th; probably so called from the vertical style of its window mullions.

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Etymology of 'Perpendicular'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Perpendicular" Quotes from Famous Books

... his cap, the young Kentuckian slowly moved the side of his head to the right. In doing so, he kept his face in a perpendicular position, so that the least possible part of his head was exposed. Had he inclined it, the upper portion would have shown before the eye could have been brought ...

— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... here, except Mr. Grimes, an alleged colored preacher. I immediately rushed to the door—some officers were between the green door and the outer door; I put my shoulder to green door—just then it cracked, the perpendicular piece was broken. I pushed as hard as I could with one of my feet against the judges' desk; I was there some three minutes; some one or two officers were outside pulling green door toward them. The crowd rushed in, surrounded the prisoner and left. I should think thirty or forty ...

— Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave • Various

... helpless against the argument that lay in it. But she was permitted to move now, and her husband never again made any reference to what had occurred this morning. He knew the force of his own words. If this white-handed man with the perpendicular profile had been sent to govern a difficult colony, he might have won reputation among his contemporaries. He had certainly ability, would have understood that it was safer to exterminate than to cajole superseded proprietors, and would not have ...

— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot

... August, Bumsteadville slowly bakes, like an ogre's family-dish of stuffed cottages and greens, with here and there some slowly moving object, like a loose vegetable on a sluggish current of tidal gravy, and the spire of the Ritualistic church shooting-up at one end like an incorrigibly perpendicular leg of magnified mutton. ...

— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 26, September 24, 1870 • Various

... very much that he had never heard of or seen this castle before; but when he reflected on the subject, he saw that it was as much separated from the village by the perpendicular rock on which it stood as if it were in ...

— The Junior Classics, Volume 1 • Willam Patten

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