from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Temperature \Tem"per*a*ture\, n. [F. temp['e]rature, L.
temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.]
1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality.
[1913 Webster]
The best composition and temperature is, to have
openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit,
dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to
feign, if there be no remedy. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
Memory depends upon the consistence and the
temperature of the brain. --I. Watts.
[1913 Webster]
2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold,
especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by
the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as,
the temperature of the air; high temperature; low
temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling.
Note: The temperature of a liquid or a solid body as measured
by a thermometer is a measure of the average kinetic
energy of the consituent atoms or molecules of the
body. For other states of matter such as plasma,
electromagnetic radiation, or subatomic particles, an
analogous measure of the average kinetic energy may be
expressed as a temperature, although it could never be
measured by a traditional thermometer, let alone by
sensing with the skin.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
4. Mixture; compound. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Made a temperature of brass and iron together.
--Holland.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Physiol. & Med.) The degree of heat of the body of a
living being, esp. of the human body; also (Colloq.),
loosely, the excess of this over the normal (of the human
body 98[deg]-99.5[deg] F., in the mouth of an adult about
98.4[deg]).
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Absolute temperature}. (Physics) See under {Absolute}.
{Animal temperature} (Physiol.), the nearly constant
temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded
(homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source
of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the
food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during
respiration. See {Homoiothermal}.
{Temperature sense} (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving
cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of
temperature in external objects. --H. N. Martin.
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Absolute \Ab"so*lute\, a. [L. absolutus, p. p. of absolvere: cf.
F. absolu. See {Absolve}.]
1. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled;
unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority,
monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command;
absolute power; an absolute monarch.
[1913 Webster]
2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as,
absolute perfection; absolute beauty.
[1913 Webster]
So absolute she seems,
And in herself complete. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without
comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to
{relative} and {comparative}; as, absolute motion;
absolute time or space.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man
in a state of nature as contradistinguished from
relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him
in his social relations.
[1913 Webster]
4. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other
being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In this sense God is called the Absolute by the Theist.
The term is also applied by the Pantheist to the
universe, or the total of all existence, as only
capable of relations in its parts to each other and to
the whole, and as dependent for its existence and its
phenomena on its mutually depending forces and their
laws.
[1913 Webster]
5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone;
unconditioned; non-relative.
[1913 Webster]
Note: It is in dispute among philosopher whether the term, in
this sense, is not applied to a mere logical fiction or
abstraction, or whether the absolute, as thus defined,
can be known, as a reality, by the human intellect.
[1913 Webster]
To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word
and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.
--Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
6. Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
I am absolute 't was very Cloten. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
7. Authoritative; peremptory. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head,
With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed. --Mrs.
Browning.
[1913 Webster]
8. (Chem.) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
[1913 Webster]
9. (Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of
the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See
{Ablative absolute}, under {Ablative}.
[1913 Webster]
{Absolute curvature} (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of
double curvature, which is measured in the osculating
plane of the curve.
{Absolute equation} (Astron.), the sum of the optic and
eccentric equations.
{Absolute space} (Physics), space considered without relation
to material limits or objects.
{Absolute terms}. (Alg.), such as are known, or which do not
contain the unknown quantity. --Davies & Peck.
{Absolute temperature} (Physics), the temperature as measured
on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic
principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
{Absolute zero} (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in
the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to
-273[deg] centigrade or -459.4[deg] Fahrenheit.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited;
unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic;
autocratic.
[1913 Webster]