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Brewer's: Absent

Ab′sent “Out of mind as soon as out of sight.” Generally misquoted “Out of sight, out of mind.” —Lord Brooke. The absent are always wrong.The translation of the French proverb, Les…

The Devil's Dictionary: Absent

by Ambrose Bierce ABSCOND ABSENTEE ABSENT -adj. Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction; vilifed; hopelessly in the wrong; superseded in the consideration and affection of another.…

Brewer's: The Absent Man

The character of Bruyère's Absent Man, translated in the Spectator and exhibited on the stage, is a caricature of Comte de Brancas. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham…

prefect

(Encyclopedia) prefect or praefectpraefectboth: prēˈfĕkt [key], in ancient Rome, various military and civil officers. Under the empire some prefects were very important. The Praetorian prefects (…

Dalton's law

(Encyclopedia) Dalton's law [for John Dalton], physical law that states that the total pressure exerted by a homogeneous mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of the…

apostrophe, figure of speech

(Encyclopedia) apostrophe, figure of speech in which an absent person, a personified inanimate being, or an abstraction is addressed as though present. The term is derived from a Greek word meaning “…

Delisle, Guillaume

(Encyclopedia) Delisle, GuillaumeDelisle, Guillaumegēyōmˈ dəlēlˈ [key], 1675–1726, French geographer and cartographer. His most important work is a world map (1700), as accurate as the data available…

broom rape

(Encyclopedia) broom rape, common name for plants of the Orobanchaceae, the broom rape family. They are parasitic on the roots of other plants; they have small leaves and little or no green color. In…

dentition

(Encyclopedia) dentition, kind, number, and arrangement of the teeth of humans and other animals. During the course of evolution, teeth were derived from bony body scales similar to the placoid…