Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Element   Listen
noun
Element  n.  
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: (Chem.) 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. Note: 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 number, which is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus, and also equal to the number of electrons in orbitals around the nucleus when the atom is neutral. When the elements are tabulated in the order of their ascending atomic numbers, 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 in 1890 were about seventy-five, but at that time the gaps in the Periodic law indicated the possibility of many more. All of the elements up to atomic number 100 have now been observed though some are radioactive and very unstable, and in some cases cannot be accumulated in quantity sufficient to actually see by eye. The properties predicted by the periodic law wre close to the observed properties in many cases. Additional unstable elements of atomic number over 100 are observed from time to time, prepared in cyclotrons, particle acclerators, or nuclear reactors, and some of their properties are measurable by careful observation of microscopic quantities, as few as several atoms. For such unstable elements, the properties are now predicted primarily by calculations based on quantum mechanics. Such theories suggest that there may be an "island" of relative stability of elements of atomic number over 120, but this has yet to be confirmed by experiment. 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. The chemical elements are now known not be simple bodies, but only combinations of subatomic particles such as protons, neutrons, and electrons; ahd protons and neutrons are now believed to be themselves combinations of quarks, particles which are not observed singly, but only in combinations.
3.
One of the ultimate parts which are variously combined in anything; as, letters are the elements of written language; hence, also, a simple portion of that which is complex, as a shaft, lever, wheel, or any simple part in a machine; one of the essential ingredients of any mixture; a constituent part; as, quartz, feldspar, and mica are the elements of granite. "The simplicity which is so large an element in a noble nature was laughed to scorn."
4.
(a)
One out of several parts combined in a system of aggregation, when each is of the nature of the whole; as, a single cell is an element of the honeycomb.
(b)
(Anat.) One of the smallest natural divisions of the organism, as a blood corpuscle, a muscular fiber.
5.
(Biol.) One of the simplest essential parts, more commonly called cells, of which animal and vegetable organisms, or their tissues and organs, are composed.
6.
(Math.)
(a)
An infinitesimal part of anything of the same nature as the entire magnitude considered; as, in a solid an element may be the infinitesimal portion between any two planes that are separated an indefinitely small distance. In the calculus, element is sometimes used as synonymous with differential.
(b)
Sometimes a curve, or surface, or volume is considered as described by a moving point, or curve, or surface, the latter being at any instant called an element of the former.
(c)
One of the terms in an algebraic expression.
7.
One of the necessary data or values upon which a system of calculations depends, or general conclusions are based; as, the elements of a planet's orbit.
8.
pl. The simplest or fundamental principles of any system in philosophy, science, or art; rudiments; as, the elements of geometry, or of music.
9.
pl. Any outline or sketch, regarded as containing the fundamental ideas or features of the thing in question; as, the elements of a plan.
10.
One of the simple substances, as supposed by the ancient philosophers; one of the imaginary principles of matter.
(a)
The four elements were, air, earth, water, and fire; Note: whence it is said, water is the proper element of fishes; air is the element of birds. Hence, the state or sphere natural to anything or suited for its existence. "Of elements The grosser feeds the purer: Earth the Sea; Earth and the Sea feed Air; the Air those Fires Ethereal." "Does not our life consist of the four elements?" "And the complexion of the element (i. e.,the sky or air) In favor's like the work we have in hand, Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible." "About twelve ounces (of food), with mere element for drink." "They show that they are out of their element." Esp., The conditions and movements of the air. "The elements be kind to thee."
(b)
The elements of the alchemists were salt, sulphur, and mercury.
11.
pl. The whole material composing the world. "The elements shall melt with fervent heat."
12.
pl. (Eccl.) The bread and wine used in the eucharist or Lord's supper.
Magnetic element, one of the hypothetical elementary portions of which a magnet is regarded as made up.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Element" Quotes from Famous Books



... abiding consciousness of an end to be attained, reaching beyond her personal life and individual interests, which constitutes the religious element of the Woman's Movement of our day, and binds with the common bond of an impersonal enthusiasm into one solid body the women of whatsoever race, class, and nation who are struggling after the readjustment of ...
— Woman and Labour • Olive Schreiner

... human soul, and of human personality as previously understood, had to go. Man was simply the result of the interaction of numerous causes—and like the rest of nature, involved no independent spiritual element. Everything that was previously regarded as spiritual was interpreted as a mere adjunct to, or a shadow of, the sense world. Such a conception accounted for the whole of nature and of man, and so became an explanation ...
— Rudolph Eucken • Abel J. Jones

... add, had "great idols and plenty of them." We have seen in the account of the Taosse the ground that certain of their ceremonies afford for the allegation that they "sometimes also worship fire," whilst the whole account of that rite and of others mentioned by Duhalde,[13] shows what a powerful element of the old devil-dancing Shamanism there is in their practice. The French Jesuit, on the other hand, shows us what a prominent place female divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon,[14] though we cannot say of either sect that "their idols are all feminine." ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... improvement this side of the grave. For them the only really suitable and humane institution, I told myself a hundred times, would be a place of compulsory euthanasia—comfortably equipped lethal cubicles. For some there would be little need of the compulsory element. Police court officials (especially the court missionaries, the only philanthropic workers who earned my admiration; and they, of course, belonged to a properly organised corps, working on salary) know something of these people; but the big, bright, busy world of cleanly, educated folk know ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

... independence, however, than the integrity of the Dominion, as there was then considerable difference in sentiment between the North-west and the Eastern Provinces. The Manitobans, too, though the Irish element had become very strong, did not intend to succumb to Fenian raiders, however well organized and backed up. The weakest points were the Maritime Provinces, Ontario and British Columbia; not that the feeling in British Columbia was not loyal to the Dominion, but ...
— The Dominion in 1983 • Ralph Centennius

... water was rarely used alone by the poisoners; but it formed the basis of a hundred slower potions which ambition, fear, avarice, or hypocrisy mingled with the element of time, and colored with the various hues and aspects ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... is prevented from breaking out into flame with the condensing hydrogen, from the presence of affinities in the fermenting mass, ready to absorb and fix them into vinous spirit, ale, beer, &c., with the other component element, carbon; by which they are too instantaneously taken up and fixed, to amount to more than bare ebullition, and pass at once from an incipient state of elasticity, to a fixed and non-elastic one, while the redundant heat, which would otherwise appear, is taken up ...
— The American Practical Brewer and Tanner • Joseph Coppinger

... the coming of another roasting day. They were busy at the boats as soon as they could see to work, whilst Mr. Smith and myself ascended the cliffs to get a view towards the main. When I looked down upon the calm and glassy sea I could scarcely believe it was the same element which within so short a period had worked us such serious damage. To the north-east we could see the lofty white sandhills in Lyell's Range; to the eastward nothing was visible; yet this was the point to which I had determined to steer, for several ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 1 (of 2) • George Grey

... Ryder possessed in a high degree that strict passivity of mental vision which calls into being the elusive yet fixed element the mystic Blake so ardently refers to and makes a principle of, that element outside the mind's jurisdiction. His work is of the essence of poetry; it is alien to the realm of esthetics pure, for it ...
— Adventures in the Arts - Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets • Marsden Hartley

... not be presented anywhere for redemption. No man could present them except for the purpose fo funding them into the bonds of the United States. They were not convertible into coin. They lacked that essential element in currency. ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... forgotten that he was a prisoner, and Lawrence was the best of friends with the evil-looking guards, who followed them with loaded guns to some old ruinous patch of wall, fortification, or hall. Here the professor was in his element, drawing, planning, and measuring, longing the while to set a dozen strong-armed men to work digging up the stones embedded in the earth—a task which he was sure would be rewarded by the discovery of many objects ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn

... death of those two, the bare stoppage of breath, would be wholly inadequate. First, the manner of taking their lives must have the quality of strength and a force which in itself would have a large element of satisfaction; hence it must be striking, deliberate, brutal if you wish, revolting if you are particular. Second, it must be preceded by exposure, denunciation, publication, scorn, contempt, ...
— The Ape, the Idiot & Other People • W. C. Morrow

... the most killing joke in the world. The incongruities of these revels of wild men in a new world; their confusion when civilization meets them in the shape of a respectable woman or of a baby; their grotesque way of clinging to religion, as they understand it, make up the transatlantic element in this American humour. The rest of it is "European quite," though none the worse for that. It is more humane, on the whole, than the laughable and amazing paradoxes of Mark Twain, or the ...
— Lost Leaders • Andrew Lang

... subject matter, from which Lincoln, a lawyer and public speaker, never departed. Lincoln's grammar may not have been impeccable at this time, but his thinking powers were already little short of masterly. This, then, is the first element in the makeup of Lincoln's style, the ability to think straight and consequently to write straight. His legal training, which was then very meagre, cannot account for his logical thinking; it is more correct to ...
— Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters (Selections) • Abraham Lincoln

... yourself against certain fatty and starchy foods. A trick used by some hypnotherapists is to have the subject purchase a dress or suit several sizes too small and then work toward being able to wear it. This actually has worked in many cases because it adds the element of competitiveness to ...
— A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis • Melvin Powers

... The primary law of recall is this: The recurrence or stimulation of one element in a complex tends to recall all ...
— The Trained Memory • Warren Hilton

... and the reigning family were left to their own resources, to reconcile as they could the heterogeneous materials stranded by the receding tide of revolution. But concession formed no part of their character, and reconciliation was an unknown element in their plan of government. They took possession of the throne as though they had only been absent on a pleasure excursion, and, ignoring twenty years of parvenu glory, affected to be merely continuing an uninterrupted sovereignty. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, April, 1858 • Various

... religionists do, that one day the invisible shall become the visible, that she began to understand him. Such doctrine, he said, is paltry and materialistic, worthy of the theologian and the agnostic. We must rather, he said, seek to raise and purify our natures, so that we may see more of the spiritual element which resides in things, and which is visible to all in a greater or less degree as they put aside their grosser nature and attain step by step to a higher point of vision. She had always imagined there was nothing between the materialism of Owen and the theology of Monsignor. ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore

... our inmost, serious sentiment was wholly contained in this idea: to be useful to our country; all other things, our clothes, our food, advancement, were poor ephemeral details. As society did not exist, there was no such thing for us as social success, that leading element in the character of our nation. Our only gatherings were national festivals, moving ceremonies which nourished in us the love of our country. In the streets our eyes filled with tears when we saw an inscription in honor of the young drummer, ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 3 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 2 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... must be done; for everything depended on it, [577] In general, the government was still a government by independent departments; and in almost every department Whigs and Tories were still mingled, though not exactly in the old proportions. The Whig element had decidedly predominated, in 1689. The Tory element predominated, though not ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... quite inadequate to express the feeling which then lived and had its being in the hearts of all Southern women towards the heroes who had risen up to defend the liberties of the South. Exalted far above mere sentiment, holding no element of vanity or selfishness,—idolatrous, if you will, yet an idolatry which inspired the heart, nerved the hand, and made any sacrifice possible. No purer patriotism ever found lodgment in human breast. No more sacred ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers

... buried it with all seemly rites, and the knife with which it had been cut was buried in the same grave, having been defiled by contact with the demon. One man said it should be burned, but that was absurd because the demon would be only too glad to find itself in its native element, but to prevent Satan from rebuking the woman any more its mouth was stopped with furnace ashes. There was no time to obtain Palestine earth, which would have completely crushed ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... streets by day and by dark, I saw no disorderly behavior of any kind in the town away from the beach; I do not mean there was any by the sea, unless some athletic courtship among the young people of the watering-place element was to be accounted so. There was not much fashion there, except in a few pretty women who recalled the church parade of Hyde Park in their flowery and feathery costumes. Back in the town there was no fashion at all, but a general decency and comfort of dress. The Welsh costume survives ...
— Seven English Cities • W. D. Howells

... The heroic element (a real thing among us) takes queer forms sometimes. "No sheets, of course," is what one hears on every side, and to eat a meal standing and with dirty hands is to "play the game." Maxine Elliott said, "The nervous exhaustion attendant upon discomfort hinders work," and ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan

... anxiety for news from the front, Mrs. Gifford had differed in no degree from Miss Housman. To the school the Major was a mere abstraction; his leave had always occurred during the holidays, and up to this time his existence—apart from the element of romance with which it invested their head mistress—had not affected the atmosphere of Pendlemere in the least. It had occasionally occurred to some of the girls to question what would happen when the war was over, but they generally ended by deciding: "He'll have ...
— A harum-scarum schoolgirl • Angela Brazil

... of ice three inches thick round her; in a few weeks this ice became several feet thick, and the snow drifted up her hull so much that it seemed as if she were resting on the land, and had taken final leave of her native element. Strong hawsers were then secured to Store Island in order to guard against the possibility of her being carried away by any sudden disruption of the ice. The disposition of the masts, yards, and sails were next determined on; the top-gallant masts were struck, the lower yards got down ...
— The World of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne

... men are equal,—and so it is, that, as the Rebellion goes on, we receive weekly evidence that the sober, honest thought of English opinion is with us of the North. The class to which we refer, if it is not now, will very shortly be, the governing element. The tendency is irresistibly that way; the signs of its growing power are daily more and more manifest. That it should be deeply interested in the perpetuity of American institutions, as affecting its own position, ...
— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... utmost delicacy and finish. The drawing is scrupulously correct and the color soft and harmonious. When you paint in Dutch or Flemish you are clear and strong, but sometimes hard. There is less idealization and more of the realistic element — your SOLIDS predominate ...
— Select Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... ere you went, or stayed to take some slight matter of supper, and a glass of Rhenish. I thank you, however, for having graced my poor collation thus far; and I commend you to fortune, in your own courses, for the ordinary neither was, is, nor shall be, an element ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employed with equal ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... in your element now. We know that Denberg is loose and their capture of Thelma is no coincidence. I was pretty sure that Saranoff and his gang were at the bottom of this; now I am certain. They must have introduced something onto the ...
— Poisoned Air • Sterner St. Paul Meek

... apart from the other officers of the regiment; and his companionship during the uncomfortable incident of the sandstorm bulked unaccountably large in her mind. It seemed to denote that he was destined to introduce a new element into ...
— The Jungle Girl • Gordon Casserly

... Athenians went out and laid waste the lands of the Syracusans about the Anapus and carried all before them as at first by land and by sea, the Syracusans not offering to oppose them upon either element, unless it were with their cavalry and darters from the Olympieum. Next Demosthenes resolved to attempt the counterwall first by means of engines. As however the engines that he brought up were burnt by the enemy fighting from the wall, and the rest of the forces repulsed after attacking at ...
— The History of the Peloponnesian War • Thucydides

... sais plus quel endroit, dont le talent consistait a faire la barbe et a tailler les cheveux, avait imagine, pour achalander sa boutique, de peindre, sur une enseigne, un homme qui se noyait. Un nageur bienfaisant va pour le tirer du perfide element, et croit le sauver en le prenant par les cheveux; mais il ne lui reste a la main qu'une perruque et le pauvre diable descend au fond de l'eau. Aussi l'enseigne portait-elle en gros ...
— French Conversation and Composition • Harry Vincent Wann

... years are rich with experience, for while he could never be classed as a Yellow Reformer, his caustic, or amusing, or pathetic pen, as the case demanded, has never been idle. Away back in the old days the gambling element in Louisville fairly "owned the town" and he attempted to curtail their power. They tried to cajole him and to bribe him and when both alike failed, intimidated the millionaire owner of the Commercial ...
— The Dead Men's Song - Being the Story of a Poem and a Reminiscent Sketch of its - Author Young Ewing Allison • Champion Ingraham Hitchcock

... very careful for years in the selection and breeding of his dogs. There is as much difference between good and bad dogs as there is between high-spirited horses and miserably lazy ones. The hardy Eskimo was still the prevailing element in his dogs. There were, however, many crosses with some of the finest breeds of civilisation, such as the English mastiff, the Newfoundland, and the large Scottish staghound. Dogs are considered old enough to be broken ...
— Winter Adventures of Three Boys • Egerton R. Young

... termed—that is, as the war canoes are the property of a particular community inhabiting a village or district, as distinguished from the fishing-boats of individuals—it is probable that their hostile encounters may occasionally be carried on upon the element with which a nation of ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik

... actors and Arabi Pasha the guiding spirit, took place in Egypt; and although Tewfik, the Khedive, was not absolutely deposed, his authority was set at naught. He had, from the commencement of his reign, acted under English advice, and as there was a strong anti-foreign element in the movement, considerable apprehensions were excited lest the safety of the Suez Canal would be threatened, should the revolution be carried to a successful end. The support given by the English to the Khedive excited against us a strong feeling ...
— Our Soldiers - Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston

... In less trying characters, he may prove an acquisition; for he showed no lack of judgment nor of acquaintance with the conventional rules of the stage. At the Surrey, and in "Macbeth," he is entirely out of his element. Above all, let him never play with Mr. Hicks, whose energy in the combat scene, and ranting all through Macduff, brought down "Brayvo, Hicks!" in showers. The contrast is really ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari. Vol. 1, July 31, 1841 • Various

... marches over and over our whole country, he and his Devils in Camps volant; but that he pitches his grand Army or chief Encampment in our Adjacencies or Frontiers, which the Philosophers call Atmosphere; and whence he is call'd the Prince of the Power of that Element or part of the World we call Air; from whence he sends out his Spies, his Agents and Emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry his Commissions to his trusty and well beloved Cousins and Counsellors ...
— The History of the Devil - As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts • Daniel Defoe

... Ueberhell went back to his search for the unknown element which had given to his son's elixir the power that had been exhibited in such wonderful fashion. But he did not succeed in finding the right ingredient, for as often as he called Frau Vorkel to ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... of our Master Christ's deliberate, persistent, manifold testimony to the supernatural character and authority of the Old Testament; to the solidity of its records of fact, to the reality of its predictive element—on which He stayed His sacred soul in Gethsemane, and on the Cross itself. It is no longer a question of details, an inquiry whether the numerals are invariably authentic and accurate; whether the minute particulars ...
— To My Younger Brethren - Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work • Handley C. G. Moule

... eye upon her right along, for the belief was well grounded in them that whenever she came across a particularly satisfactory passage she would strike it out. Their suspicions were well founded. The passages which were so satisfactory to them always had an element of strength in them which sorely needed modification or expurgation, and were always sure to get it at their mother's hand. For my own entertainment, and to enjoy the protests of the children, I often abused my editor's innocent confidence. I often interlarded ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain

... tone-color, is that which distinguishes sounds of the same loudness and pitch produced by different instruments or voices. It is the result of the combination of the partial tones of a sound, that is, of the fundamental and its overtones. In music, tone-quality is of the utmost importance, but as an element of speech rhythm it is practically non-existent, and may be wholly neglected, though it plays, of course, a prominent part in the oral ...
— The Principles of English Versification • Paull Franklin Baum

... contemporary history must be reckoned as an important element in the civilization of any people, then I am afraid that the good folk of Englebourn must have been content, in the days of our story, with a very low place on the ladder. How, indeed, was knowledge ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... made to refer the claims to arbitration, and a Treaty negotiated for that purpose by Reverdy Johnson under Andrew Johnson's Administration, was rejected by the Senate, on the ground, among other reasons, that the element of chance entered into ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... hillock. The night was growing old, the tide had turned, and still she sat absorbed in thought and tender memory. How beautiful the world and life were! She took from her bosom the tiny whistle, which had been for five long, delicious weeks her power of summoning unlimited joy to herself. What a new element had entered into her existence! How powerful and self-sufficient she felt as she recalled her part in those wonderful pictures that were growing day by day in ...
— Janet of the Dunes • Harriet T. Comstock

... chemistry can as yet give but scanty information; it can tell that it is composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, and it can also tell the percentage of each element, but it cannot give more than a formula that will express it as a whole, giving no information as to the nature of the numerous albuminoid substances which compose it. Edward Cope, in his article on Comparative Anatomy,[5] gives ...
— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott

... of my people capture a monkey?" said the Dragon King, greatly puzzled. "The monkeys live on dry land, while we live in the water; and out of our element we are quite powerless! I don't see what we ...
— Japanese Fairy Tales • Yei Theodora Ozaki

... jeopardy, he would have ample time in which to formulate some plan of action for himself. At the present moment, it seemed, the one thing for him to do was to wait—and behave himself, according to the half-breed's instructions. There was, when he came to think about it, a saving element of humor about it all. He had always wanted to make a trip down the Three Rivers in a bateau. And ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood

... legislatures are extraordinarily sensitive to what the people, the politically effective people, really want. The Senators and Representatives in Congress do actually and accurately represent the men who send them there, and they respond like lightning to a clear order from the controlling element at home. It is in the power of public spirit to say whether men ...
— The Fight For Conservation • Gifford Pinchot

... reported the bill favorably but six out of fifteen members signed an adverse report. The debate in the House on March 18 was particularly acrid. Among the speakers in favor were Levin J. Chase of Concord and Edward C. Bean of Belmont, later Secretary of State. The saloon element as usual was prominent in the opposition. The roll call showed 98 ayes; ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various

... state, I have found that practically everyone knows that the condor is protected. Still, there is always the hunting element who do not hesitate to shoot anything alive and out of the ordinary, and a certain percentage of the condors are doubtless picked off each year by such criminals. It is possible, also, that the mercenary egg-collector continues to take his annual rents, though if this is done it ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday

... every thing in the place contributed to the harmony and the sweetness. The notes of the turtle-dove were deeper here than any where else; the hard oak, and the chaste laurel, and the whole exuberant family of trees, the earth, the water, every element of creation, seemed to have been compounded but for one object, and to breathe forth the ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Vol. 2 • Leigh Hunt

... unconsciously, developed along lines that were military in form. At first the title of "Captain" was used among the sailors and fishermen to designate the local leader of the company, and then it was extended wherever, among the rough element, the "Mr." or "Rev." would seem out of place. The usage and the spirit accompanying it soon spread, and by the year 1879 military methods and titles were officially added. The Rev. Wm. Booth, who, up to this time, had been known as "Superintendent of the Christian Mission," became "General" ...
— The Social Work of the Salvation Army • Edwin Gifford Lamb

... evening, or asked eagerly for a bedtime story in the long summer twilight. Tales such as "Jack the Giant Killer," "Tom Thumb," the "Children in the Wood," and "Guy of Warwick," were orally current even among the plain people of England, though frowned upon by many of the Puritan element. Therefore it is at least presumable that these were all familiar to the colonists. In fact, it is known that John Dunton, in sixteen hundred and eighty-six, sold in his Boston warehouse "The History of Tom Thumb," which he facetiously offered ...
— Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book • Rosalie V. Halsey

... contemplation, who reach the full fruition of their powers. Ages have not talked for nothing of the pains of passion and the pleasures of love. Love is a great ethical force; but passion, which is compact of every element of doubt and deceit, is cosmic and brutal, a tyrant if we yield to it, but if we master it, an obedient servant willing to work. I would rather die of passion myself, as I might of any other disease, than live to be ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... time, however, "Who are you?" said the old man; "and whence come ye? are you daemons of the sea, or unfortunate men, like ourselves? for such we are, born and bred on land, though now inhabitants of another element; swimming along with this great creature, who carries us about with him, not knowing what is to become of us, or whether we are alive or dead." To which I replied, "We, father, are men as you are, and but just arrived here, being swallowed up, together ...
— Trips to the Moon • Lucian

... mind, he affectionately inquired for the amiable boy he had seen take so touching an interest in the mournful errand to the church-yard on that ever-remembered day, and who, like a ministering seraph, had so guardingly watched the exposed head of his revered master, under the pitiless element ...
— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter

... of "coarse canvass," but of white cotton,) skimming along as quickly, but less safely than the sea-mews which hovered over them; their evident distress, their reduction to fluttering specks in the distance, their crowded succession, their littleness, as contending with the giant element, which made our stout forty-four's teak timbers (she was built in India) creak again; their aspect and their motion, all struck me as something far more "poetical" than the mere broad, brawling, shipless sea, and the sullen winds, could ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... spade, pick, and basket had to be laid on one side, and rifles seized. The attack repelled, the fight for water was renewed; and to the intense delight of all, about ten feet down the pure life-giving element came gushing in a clear current ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

... very element Of bondage, that here holds me pent, I'll make my furious sonnet: I'll turn my noose To tightrope use And madly ...
— Where the Blue Begins • Christopher Morley

... of a foreign enemy, or even with the rapacious demands of pirates and barbarians. Should a war be the result of the precarious situation of European affairs, and all the unruly passions attending it be let loose on the ocean, our escape from insults and depredations, not only on that element, but every part of the other bordering on it, will be truly miraculous. In the present condition of America, the States more immediately exposed to these calamities have nothing to hope from the phantom of a general government ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... People," including many varieties and unassorted. Mrs. Gilding exchanges invitations with a number of these because they are interesting or amusing, or because their parties are diverting and dazzling. And Mrs. Gilding herself, being typical of New York's Cavalier element rather than its Puritan strain, personally prefers diversion to edification. Needless to say, "Boston's Best," being ninety-eight per cent. Puritan, has no "new" list. Besides her list of "New People," she has a short "frivolous" list of other Cavaliers like herself, ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... virtue of his citizens by constructing a constitution out of opposing elements, deeming that success is barren when there is none to resist, and that the harmonious working of a political system is valueless if purchased by the suppression of any important element. Some have thought that the germ of this idea can be traced in Homer,[175] for he would not have represented Agamemnon as rejoicing when Achilles and Odysseus quarrel 'with savage words,' had he not thought that some great public benefit would arise from ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... to further his ends in a primary or in an election, Charley Hedrick needed the votes of the rough element that gathered about our little town, Abner Handy, card-sharper and jack-leg lawyer, would go forth into the byways and alleys and gather them in. For this service, when Hedrick carried the county—which was about four times out of five—Handy was rewarded by being put on ...
— In Our Town • William Allen White

... any concomitant attraction. The original Adelaide was a superb answer to the more earthy of his three natures; so utterly confined to her one plane as to be innocent of others. In the two Manila twilights which saw the dominance of his physical being, it was the Adelaide element which roused; and the scars they left behind ...
— Fate Knocks at the Door - A Novel • Will Levington Comfort

... sayest thou, Long Allen?" exclaimed another archer, with a most scornful emphasis on the despised element; "how wouldst like such beverage thyself, after ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott

... N. component; component part, integral part, integrant part[obs3]; element, constituent, ingredient, leaven; part and parcel; contents; appurtenance; feature; member &c. (part) 51; personnel. V. enter into, enter into the composition of; be a component &c. n; be part of, form part of &c. 51; merge in, be merged in; be implicated in; share in &c. (participate) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... tact enough to understand he would be out of his element in assisting females along that plank, and he was busy in sending what he called "the old lady's dunnage" on board, and in discharging the cabman. As soon as this was done, he sprang into the main-channels, and ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... The country was known and sparsely settled as far north as the Orange River, but beyond there was a great region which had never been penetrated save by some daring hunter or adventurous pioneer. It chanced—if there be indeed such an element as chance in the graver affairs of man—that a Zulu conqueror had swept over this land and left it untenanted, save by the dwarf bushmen, the hideous aborigines, lowest of the human race. There were fine grazing and good soil for the emigrants. They travelled in small ...
— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle

... her with inconsistency they did not act on her suggestion. Mrs. Spragg seemed to shrink from the thought of "going back to house-keeping," and Ralph suspected that she depended on the transit from hotel to hotel as the one element of variety in her life. As for Mr. Spragg, it was impossible to imagine any one in whom the domestic sentiments were more completely unlocalized and disconnected from any fixed habits; and he was probably aware of his changes of abode chiefly as they obliged him to ascend from the ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton

... men who leave their homes for public games, We leave our native element of darkness For life's brief light. And who has most of mirth, And wine, and love, may, like a satisfied guest, Return, contented, to the night ...
— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock

... college in Virginia he met Mary Jane Anderson, the daughter of Hezekiah Anderson, a Virginia planter who attained success in the political life of that State. They were married in 1840, and Sidney was their first-born. The poet thus inherited on his mother's side Scotch-Irish blood, an element in Southern life which has been often underestimated. She proved to be a hard-working woman, caring little for social life, but thoroughly interested in the religious training of her children. Her husband, although nominally ...
— Sidney Lanier • Edwin Mims

... uncommonly agitated, the water finds its way into creeks and holes of rocks, which in its calmer state it never reaches, in like manner the effect of these turbulent times is felt even at Orchard side, where in general we live as undisturbed by the political element, as shrimps or cockles that have been accidentally deposited in some hollow beyond the water mark, by the usual dashing of the waves. We were sitting yesterday after dinner, the two ladies and myself, very composedly, and without the least apprehension ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock

... of writer on the Woman's Page I often discuss affairs of the heart, getting much correspondence on the subject and (if a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed) giving unsparing help and assistance to perplexed lovers. But this case seemed entirely different. It lacked any element of the frivolous. I knew that Manor's whole happiness depended on ...
— Our Elizabeth - A Humour Novel • Florence A. Kilpatrick

... say, the chief part of this respite was devoted to completing the structure of their quaintly devised but beautiful temple. Since the dispersion of Jewry, probably, history affords us no parallel to the attachment of the Mormons for this edifice. Every architectural element, every most fantastic emblem it embodied, was associated, for them, with some cherished feature of their religion. Its erection had been enjoined upon them as a most sacred duty: they were proud of the honor it conferred upon their city, when it grew up in its splendor to become the chief ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne

... these light sketches we pass into an element different from that in which we have been lately dwelling. The scenes in which Gilbert and Davis played out their high natures were of the kind which we call peaceful, and the enemies with which they contended were principally ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... silence as to his origin and home, rather than have his family and friends face the undoubted peril lying before him? Besides, though his past life might have been wholly blameless, it would not be evidence in his favour. It might, indeed, if it had not been blameless, provide some element of unjust suspicion against him, furnish some fancied motive. The prisoner had chosen his path, and events had so far justified him. It must be clear to the minds of judge and jury that there were fatally weak places ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... The irreconcilables in the Dutch population who had dreamed of a greater Afrikander Republic, would they not take this opportunity to side with Germany who promised to further their ambitions? Great Britain expected some trouble from this element in the Union, and prepared for the worst, while Germany was equally active, and there was much intriguing to persuade the Dutch to cast in their lot with them. In other parts of Africa, Germany had to fight her battles unaided, but here in the enemy's camp ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... thrown into a fever, and, for years, he could not see any standing water, much less a running stream, without being thrown almost into convulsions. To overcome this weakness, he resolutely persisted in plunging into the waves until his aversion was changed into a great fondness for that element. ...
— The Empire of Russia • John S. C. Abbott

... always before me the alabaster tomb in the barber's shop rather than a view of life which is based on high politics, or even high literature. At first sight it may seem as if the life of an editor is not likely to contain very much of the alabaster tomb element. In truth, however, every life is an adventure, and if a sense of this adventure cannot be communicated to the reader, one may feel sure that it is the fault of the writer, not of the facts. A dull man might make a dull thing of his autobiography ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... of poetry suppressed by the Emperor, but in the generation of a type of court poetry, examples of which survive in their most repulsive form in the Silvae of Statius and the epigrams of Martial. The objection has its element of truth, but only affects a very small and comparatively unimportant portion of the poetry of ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... heard last 16th January, but was hindered by mischance; and which, I now find, completes, in two important particulars, the evidence of an instinctive truth in ancient symbolism; showing, first, that the Greek conception of an aetherial element pervading space is justified by the closest reasoning of modern physicists; and, secondly, that the blue of the sky, hitherto thought to be caused by watery vapour, is, indeed, reflected from the divided air itself; so that the bright blue of the eyes of Athena, and the deep blue of her aegis, ...
— The Queen of the Air • John Ruskin

... new citizens. A century and a half later they were described by the Norman conqueror as "burghers within London, French and English," and from the prevalence of certain names we find a large Danish element among them, while the term French indicates that perhaps the largest part were either Normans or Gauls from the opposite coast. It is possible that a careful survey of the early history of St. Paul's might bring a few facts to light, whether directly or by inference; ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various

... with a white cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side, and that design element of the Dannebrog (Danish flag) was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries of ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... and sensibilities, which the parties, described, experienced, can be imparted to the reader; and his feelings and affections keep pace with the developments of the story, as they arise with the progress of time and events. Headings to Chapters, in historical works, capable of this dramatic element, would be as out of place, and as much mar and defeat the effect, ...
— Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather - A Reply • Charles W. Upham

... invitation of the carpenters of that city adjourned to their hall. Questions arose as to the numerical influence of the colonies. Patrick Henry voiced the sentiment of Congress, "I am not a Virginian, I am an American." John Jay, who represented the conservative element said, "We have not come to make a constitution; the measure of arbitrary power is not full, it must run over before we undertake to frame a government." It was proposed to open Congress with prayer. Objections were made on account of the religious differences of the ...
— Five Sermons • H.B. Whipple

... roar of the British lion, would not have made William II draw back. The memory of Agadir still rankled in the proud Germanic soul. The Emperor would have risked losing all prestige in the eyes of a certain element among his subjects if at the bidding of the Anglo-Saxon he had refused to go further, and had thus played into the hands of those who charged him with conducting a policy of mere bluff and intimidation. "Germany barks but does not bite" was a current saying abroad, ...
— World's War Events, Vol. I • Various

... was writing a letter when his brother entered. He pushed aside his writing materials, however, and raised his head with a sigh of relief. In Jasper's presence there was always one element of comfort. He need cover over no anxieties; his old face looked almost sharp as he wheeled his chair ...
— How It All Came Round • L. T. Meade

... always stir a row," declared His Excellency, with just as much emphasis. "Fools who are led by rascals! Rascals who would wreck an express train for the chance to pick pocketbooks off corpses! There's been that element behind every piece of political hellishness and every strike we've had in this country in the last two years since the Russian bear stood up and began to dance to that devil's tune! On the eve of the assembling of this legislature, Morrison, you're probably hearing ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day

... fond of each other, but Mrs. Carling was the elder by twenty years, and in her love was an element of maternal solicitude to which her sister, while giving love for love in fullest measure, did not fully respond. The elder would have liked to share every thought, but she was neither so strong nor so clever as the girl to whom she had been almost as a mother, and who, though perfectly ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... chased them. She began herself to experience an inexplicable feeling of relief, as though at the overcoming of an enemy, when a great spire of smoke betokened the final uprooting and burning of a clump of bush. For fire was the ultimate element used to transform the pest from a malignant into a beneficent factor, and, as aromatic ash, it became of service to the land it had ruined so long. Almost, the process seemed an exposition of Job's words: "When thou hast tried me with fire, I ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley

... like an obedient familiar in the employ of some great enchanter. Indeed, the Baron's power over this innocent girl was curiously like enchantment, or mesmeric influence. It was so masterful that the sexual element was almost eliminated. It was that of Prospero over the gentle Ariel. And yet it was probably only that of the cosmopolite over the recluse, of the experienced ...
— The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid • Thomas Hardy

... of all good arts derive their food, and the growth of their organs, but continence, and self-denial, and labor, and vigilance, and frugality, and whatever else there is in which the mind shows itself above the appetite, are nowhere more in their proper element than in the provision and distribution of the public wealth. It is therefore not without reason that the science of speculative and practical finance, which must take to its aid so many auxiliary branches of knowledge, stands high in the estimation not only of the ordinary sort, but ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... in these pursuits and pleasures, he remained indifferent to the care and the spiritual welfare of his flock, whom as Christ's vicar he had undertaken to feed. The frivolous tone of morals that ruled at the Papal see was looked upon as an element of the new culture. As regards the Christian faith, a blasphemous saying is reported of Leo, how profitable had been the fable of Christ. He had no scruples in procuring money for the new church, which, as he said, ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin

... so by fits and starts; but the habit will never be so confirmed as to be regarded as an essential element ...
— The Young Woman's Guide • William A. Alcott

... much of the fall and winter season. Perhaps the most dangerous of these "blows" come out of the mountain to the north and northwest of the gulf. Thus, in addition to the uncertainty of an opportunity to set gear when once upon the fishing grounds, the winter fishing here is not without its element of serious danger. While the ice crop in northern New England never fails, yet, perhaps because of the strong tidal currents of these waters, the principal harbors rarely are closed by ice, or, if closed, for but a ...
— Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine • Walter H. Rich

... with a rolling eye upon door step, anxious to officiate as the "Good Samaritan," but afraid to exercise his benevolence. After this there would surely, we thought, be something like the church we were seeking. But not so; a swampy wide road and more of the irrepressible mill element constituted the ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... into rushes, under our feet. On the sloping face of the white rock, and where the water ran down, was a small indent or smooth chip exactly the size of a person's mouth, so that we instinctively put our lips to it, and drank of the pure and gushing element. I firmly believe this chip out of the rock has been formed by successive generations of the native population, for ages placing their mouths to and drinking at this spot; but whether in connection with any sacrificial ceremonies or no, deponent knoweth, and sayeth ...
— Australia Twice Traversed, The Romance of Exploration • Ernest Giles



Words linked to "Element" :   atomic number 102, Ge, darmstadtium, hassium, situation, ununbium, Xe, atomic number 53, picture element, element 109, factor, iodin, boron, fire, P, identity element, argon, element 115, phosphorus, element of a cylinder, surroundings, Pu, atomic number 6, b, astatine, bohrium, metal, be-all and end-all, division, radon, nonmetal, retrofit, Uuq, plutonium, unnilquadium, landside, mt, atomic number 109, substance, car part, germanium, point, hahnium, surround, atomic number 54, improver, atomic number 115, atomic number 35, cl, Uuh, lawrencium, element 110, input, atomic number 34, atomic number 10, xenon, earth, heating element, ar, sulphur, atomic number 5, auto part, bromine, transuranic element, atomic number 94, atomic number 116, element 116, element 112, state of affairs, atomic number 106, atomic number 52, element 111, atomic number 113, environment, transactinide, making, atomic number 104, atomic number 36, metallic element, pixel, nobelium, part, atomic number 108, i, atomic number 101, roentgenium, chlorine, pel, Hs, as, silicon, atomic number 105, nitrogen, ether, selenium, F, straight line, atomic number 14, md, seaborgium, atomic number 111, trace element, appurtenance, atomic number 86, h, oxygen, chemical element, element 108, hardware, ne, section, c, element 106, Uub, atomic number 85, atomic number 114, atomic number 16, environs, mendelevium, constituent, logic element, s, actinium, dubnium, kr, mv, allotrope, sensing element, neon, db, component, atomic number 15, atomic number 32, crystal, audio, Rg, sulfur, Lr, element of a cone, water, element 105, se, Sg, element 107, he, atomic number 1, carbon, be all and end all, atomic number 18, no, element 113, N, ununpentium, atomic number 107, elementary, element 104, at, rutherfordium, atomic number 2, ingredient, te, ac, hydrogen, supplement, element 114, atomic number 33, ununquadium, krypton, Uut, spare, fluorine, threshold element, Unq, inert gas, atomic number 110, plot element, iodine, atomic number 9, atomic number 7, atom, argonon, si, O, meitnerium, spare part, atomic number 17, Bh, atomic number 8, ds, arsenic



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com