Word Finder - description

definition

A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.

definition

The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.

definition

A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

example

The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.

definition

A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.

example

The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.

definition

The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.

definition

A descriptive linguistic survey.

He called the station and reported the description of the vehicle.

Angry was a good description, she noted.

Howie obtained a full description of the man and his vehicle and the license plate number.

Thankful for the change of subject, Cynthia launched into a description of her latest conquests with the cat, again tucking that nagging doubt to the back of her mind.

If we had a better description of them it might pinpoint the age of the victim.

She launched into an explanation of the truckload of supplies and a description of her new room.

This description is doubtless exaggerated.

The description under "huckleberries" was basically the same as for blueberries.

Connor's description of being in the holding cell 'losing his mind and living a nightmare' accurately described his feelings.

Wolfe Creek Pass at 10,850 feet was unlike anything Dean had ever seen and easy wasn't the description that came to his mind.

Could you get a description?

Jackson put out the word on the vehicle description and plate number.

I'm sure the last thing he wants to do right now is give you a blow-by-blow description of his date.

He was a big black guy—that was the only description.

Are you going to release the description?

Byrne's description was far too common to stand out but no one recalled a man hurriedly leaving the city in the middle of the night, Tuesday-Wednesday.

Proceeding south from the Trigno, already mentioned as constituting the limit of Central Italy, there are (1) the Biferno and (2) the Fortore, both rising in the mountains of Samnium, and flowing into the Adriatic west of Monte Gargano; (3) the Cervaro, south of the great promontory; and (4) the Ofanto, the Aufidus of Horace, whose description of it is characteristic of almost all the rivers of Southern Italy, of which it may be taken as the typical representative.

In fact, tortured would be a better description.

I will spare my readers a description of this other than to say it is exactly what it sounds like.

A friend, certainly, but their relationship was also romantic so best friend didn't seem like a good description.

Julie doesn't fit that description.

Amid boxes, lamps, and glassware of every description sat the old man, atop a trunk, snuggled between the two maiden ladies from Indiana.

There was no mistaking the description.

Everything you needed was right here, shops and businesses of every description.

Not even close to the same description.

The description given by Procopius does not indicate clearly where this church was situated.

Coal of a very fair description was discovered in the basin of the Irwin river, in Western Australia, as far back as the year 1846.

His French poems met with little success, but a description in Latin verse of a tournament (carrousel, circus regius), given by Louis XIV.

We have no information regarding Jerusalem during the period of the captivity, but fortunately Nehemiah, who was permitted to return and rebuild the defences about 445 B.C., has given a fairly clear description of the line of the wall which enables us to obtain a good idea of the extent of the city at this period.

The ceremony of hoisting a flag and taking possession of the country in the name of the government of the Netherlands was actually performed, but the description of the wildness of the country, and of the fabulous giants by which Tasman's sailors believed it to be inhabited, deterred the Dutch from occupying the island, and by the international principle of " non-user " it passed from their hands.

The 4th tablet contains a description of the formidable Khumbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest.

But the description changes; there is much less merino, and more of the coarser and longer cross-bred.

Invulnerable in exact anatomical description and comparison, he failed in all his philosophical generalizations, even in those strictly within the domain of anatomy.

From the remains of fortifications there he argues that the Hyksos were uncivilized desert people, skilled in the use of the bow, and must thus have destroyed by their archery the Egyptian armies trained to fight hand-tohand; further;, that their hordes were centered in Syria, but were driven thence by a superior force in the East to take refuge in the islands and became a sea-power--whence the strange description "Hellenic" in Manetho, which most editors have corrected to CtXAoi, "others."

The best collection of Henry's portraits was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1909, and the catalogue of that exhibition contains the best description of them; several are reproduced in Pollard's Henry VIII.

He was, however, quick to pick up on Martha's description of the cigarette package.

In the case of the original Repsold plan without clockwork the description is not quite exact, because both the process of following the object and correcting the aim are simultaneously performed; whilst, if the clockwork runs uniformly and the friction-disk is set to the proper distance from the apex of the cone, the star will appear almost perfectly at rest, and the observer has only to apply delicate corrections by differential gear - a condition which is exactly analogous to that of training a modern gun-sight upon a fixed object.

Of the Dutch discoverers, Pelsaert was the only one who made any detailed observations of the character of the country inland, and it may here be remarked that his journal contains the first notice and description of the kangaroo that has come down to us.

Meanwhile, Captain Beechey visited the islands in the "Blossom," assigned names to some of them, and published a description of their features.

It is cut in the volcanic plateau, and its ragged broken walls, which are inclined at very steep angles, are of a richness of colouring that almost defies description, a colouring that is produced by the action of the thermal springs, at the base of the canyon, upon the mineral pigments in the lava.

In addition to these affronts upon the state religion, he insulted the intelligence of the community by horseplay of the wildest description and by childish practical joking.

Seneca has given us a description of the application of hot water for securing the necessary temperature.

When the Committee of Public Safety made an appeal to the savants to assist in producing the materiel required for the defence of the republic, he applied himself wholly to these operations, and, distinguished himself by his indefatigable activity therein; he wrote at this time his Description de fart de fabriquer les canons, and his Avis aux ouvriers fer sur la fabrication de l'acier.

The teaching, which follows the so-called " Heuristic " method, and the equipment of schools of every description, are admirable.

The car casting system deserves description chiefly because it shows how, when the scale of operations is as enormous as it is in the Bessemer process, even a slight simplification and a slight heatsaving may be of great economic importance.

As the general level of the plain rises gradually, though almost imperceptibly, to the foot of the Apennines, these channels by degrees assume the character of ravines of a formidable description.

The history of furs can be read in Marco Polo, as he grows eloquent with the description of the rich skins of the khan of Tatary; in the early fathers of the church, who lament their introduction into Rome and Byzantium as an evidence of barbaric and debasing luxury; in the political history of Russia, stretching out a powerful arm over Siberia to secure her rich treasures; in the story of the French occupation of Canada, and the ascent of the St Lawrence to Lake Superior, and the subsequent contest to retain possession against England; in the history of early settlements of New England, New York and Virginia; in Irving's Astoria; in the records of the Hudson's Bay Company; and in the annals of the fairs held at Nizhniy Novgorod and Leipzig.

William Bedwell, the Arabic scholar, was vicar of Tottenham, and published in 1632 a Briefe Description of the Towne of Tottenham, in which he printed for the first time the burlesque poem, the Turnament of Tottenham.

For a description of the natural features of the country see Palestine; for its history see Jews and Judah.

The same description applies more or less to the north-east, but in the south of Hainaut and the greater part of Brabant the general level of the country is about 300 ft.