| bleaching powder | A mixture of varying proportions of complexes of chlorine with calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide. Contains 24-37% available chlorine. Decomposes in moist conditions to liberate chlorine. Strong irritant due to chlorine vapors. Used for disinfecting drinking water, sewage etc.; in the bleaching of wood pulp, linen, cotton, straw, oils, soaps, and laundry; as an oxidiser; in destroying caterpillars; and as a decontaminant for mustard gas and similar substances. Synonym: bleaching powder. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| goa powder | A bitter powder (also called araroba) found in the interspaces of the wood of a Brazilian tree (Andira araroba) and used as a medicine. It is the material from which chrysarobin is obtained. Origin: So called from Goa, on the Malabar coast, whither it was shipped from Portugal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| powder | 1. The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust. "Grind their bones to powder small." (Shak) 2. An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder. See Gunpowder. Atlas powder, Baking powder, etc. See Atlas, Baking, etc. Powder down, a boy formerly employed on war vessels to carry powder; a powder boy. Powder post. See Dry rot, under Dry. Powder puff. See Puff. Origin: OE. Poudre, pouldre, F. Poudre, OF. Also poldre, puldre, L. Pulvis, pulveris: cf. Pollen fine flour, mill dust, E. Pollen. Cf. Polverine, Pulverize. 1. To be reduced to powder; to become like powder; as, some salts powder easily. 2. To use powder on the hair or skin; as, she paints and powders. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| powder-posted | Affected with dry rot; reduced to dust by rot. See Dry rot, under Dry. (01 Mar 1998) |
| dover's powder | <alchemy> A powder of ipecac and opium, compounded, in the United States, with sugar of milk, but in England (as formerly in the United States) with sulphate of potash, and in France (as in Dr. Dover's original prescription) with nitrate and sulphate of potash and licorice. It is an anodyne diaphoretic. Origin: From Dr. Dover, an English physician. (04 Mar 1998) |
| james's powder | <medicine> Antimonial powder, first prepared by Dr. James, ar English physician. Synonym: fever powder. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| conservation of natural resources | The protection, preservation, restoration, and rational use of all resources in the total environment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| natural | 1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural colour. "With strong natural sense, and rare force of will." (Macaulay) 2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death. "What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behavior of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day?" (Addison) 3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology. "I call that natural religion which men might know . By the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation." (Bp. Wilkins) 4. Conformed to truth or reality; as: Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or exaggerated; said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc. Resembling the object imitated; true to nature; according to the life; said of anything copied or imitated; as, a portrait is natural. 5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings. "To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . He wants the natural touch." (Shak) 6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. "Natural friends." 7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child. 8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. Ii. 14) 9. <mathematics> Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; said or certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc, those taken in arcs whose radii are 1. 10. Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music. Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major. Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key. Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See Fat, Gas. Etc. Natural Harmony, a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology. "It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc, and in its grand divisions." (Gray) Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; distinguished from revealed religion. See Quotation under Natural. Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs. See Neutral vowel. Synonym: See Native. Origin: OE. Naturel, F. Naturel, fr. L. Naturalis, fr. Natura. See Nature. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| natural antibody | Antibody demonstrable in the serum or plasma of various persons or animals not known to have been stimulated by specific antigen, either artificially or as the result of naturally occurring contact. Synonym: natural antibody. (05 Mar 2000) |
| natural childbirth | Psychophysical relaxation techniques that are used to facilitate childbirth. (12 Dec 1998) |
| natural classification | <zoology> Classification based on inferences concerning the phylogenetic relationships of animals. (09 Jan 1998) |
| natural dentition | See: dentition. (05 Mar 2000) |
| natural disasters | Sudden calamitous events producing great material damage, loss, and distress. They are the result of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| natural dyes | Dye's obtained from animals or plants; examples include carmine, obtained from cochineal in the dried female insect Dactylopius cacti of Central America, and haematoxylin, extracted from the bark of the logwood tree Haematoxylon campechianum in the Caribbean area. (05 Mar 2000) |
| natural focus of infection | An ecosystem in which an infectious agent normally persists in nature; e.g., yellow fever virus in a jungle monkey-Haemagogus mosquito ecosystem. (05 Mar 2000) |