Word Meanings - RETORTION - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Retaliation. Wharton. (more info) 1. Act of retorting or throwing back; reflection or turning back. It was, however, necessary to possess some single term expressive of this intellectual retortion. Sir W. Hamilton.

Related words: (words related to RETORTION)

• POSSESSIVE
  Of or pertaining to possession; having or indicating possession. Possessive case , the genitive case; the case of nouns and pronouns which expresses ownership, origin, or some possessive relation of one thing to another; as, Homer's admirers; the
• SINGLE-BREASTED
  Lapping over the breast only far enough to permit of buttoning, and having buttons on one edge only; as, a single-breasted coast.
• TURNSTONE
  Any species of limicoline birds of the genera Strepsilas and Arenaria, allied to the plovers, especially the common American and European species . They are so called from their habit of turning up small stones in search of mollusks and
• TURNINGNESS
  The quality of turning; instability; tergiversation. Sir P. Sidney.
• TURNING
  The pieces, or chips, detached in the process of turning from the material turned. (more info) 1. The act of one who, or that which, turns; also, a winding; a bending course; a fiexure; a meander. Through paths and turnings often trod
• NECESSARY
  1. Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be avoided; inevitable. Death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. Shak. 2. Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with, without preventing the attainment of a desired result;
• TURN-SICK
  Giddy. Bacon.
• TURNVEREIN
  A company or association of gymnasts and athletes.
• TURNHALLE
  A building used as a school of gymnastics.
• INTELLECTUALIST
  1. One who overrates the importance of the understanding. Bacon. 2. One who accepts the doctrine of intellectualism.
• TURNSPIT
  A small breed of dogs having a long body and short crooked legs. These dogs were formerly much used for turning a spit on which meat was roasting. (more info) 1. One who turns a spit; hence, a person engaged in some menial office. His lordship
• TURNSOLE
  + sole the sun, L. sol. See Turn, Solar, a., and cf. A plant of the genus Heliotropium; heliotrope; -- so named because its flowers are supposed to turn toward the sun. The sunflower. A kind of spurge . The euphorbiaceous plant Chrozophora
• POSSESSIONER
  1. A possessor; a property holder. "Possessioners of riches." E. Hall. Having been of old freemen and possessioners. Sir P. Sidney. 2. An invidious name for a member of any religious community endowed with property in lands, buildings, etc.,
• TURN-BUCKLE
  A loop or sleeve with a screw thread at one end and a swivel at the other, -- used for tightening a rod, stay, etc. A gravitating catch, as for fastening a shutter, the end of a chain, or a hasp.
• THROW
  Pain; especially, pain of travail; throe. Spenser. Dryden.
• THROWING
  a. & n. from Throw, v. Throwing engine, Throwing mill, Throwing table, or Throwing wheel , a machine on which earthenware is first rudely shaped by the hand of the potter from a mass of clay revolving rapidly on a disk or table carried
• SINGLE-ACTING
  Having simplicity of action; especially , acting or exerting force during strokes in one direction only; -- said of a reciprocating engine, pump, etc.
• TURNCOAT
  One who forsakes his party or his principles; a renegade; an apostate. He is a turncoat, he was not true to his profession. Bunyan.
• TURNBULL'S BLUE
  The double cyanide of ferrous and ferric iron, a dark blue amorphous substance having a coppery luster, used in dyeing, calico printing, etc. Cf. Prussian blue, under Prussian.
• SINGLE-HANDED
  Having but one hand, or one workman; also, alone; unassisted.
• RE-TURN
  To turn again.
• SUPERREFLECTION
  The reflection of a reflected image or sound. Bacon.
• NOCTURNAL
  1. Of, pertaining to, done or occuring in, the night; as, nocturnal darkness, cries, expedition, etc.; -- opposed to Ant: diurnal. Dryden. 2. Having a habit of seeking food or moving about at night; as, nocturnal birds and insects.
• SATURNISM
  Plumbum. Quain.
• DIUTURNAL
  Of long continuance; lasting. Milton.
• OVERTURN
  1. To turn or throw from a basis, foundation, or position; to overset; as, to overturn a carriage or a building. 2. To subvert; to destroy; to overthrow. 3. To overpower; to conquer. Milton. Syn. -- To demolish; overthrow. See Demolish.
• LECTURN
  A choir desk, or reading desk, in some churches, from which the lections, or Scripture lessons, are chanted or read; hence, a reading desk. . Fairholt.
• MISTHROW
  To throw wrongly.
• DISPOSSESS
  To put out of possession; to deprive of the actual occupancy of, particularly of land or real estate; to disseize; to eject; -- usually followed by of before the thing taken away; as, to dispossess a king of his crown. Usurp the land, and dispossess