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Draper, Charles Stark ... driving and coaching
Draper, Charles Stark
American aeronautical engineer, educator, and science administrator. Draper's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a centre for the design of navigational and guidance systems for ships, airplanes, ...
Draper, Henry
American physician and amateur astronomer who made the first photograph of the spectrum of a star (Vega), in 1872. He was also the first to photograph a nebula, the Orion ...
Draper, Ruth
American monologuist and monodramatist whose art was acclaimed throughout the United States and Europe.
drapery
depiction in drawing, painting, and sculpture of the folds of clothing. Techniques of rendering drapery clearly distinguish not only artistic periods and styles but the work of individual artists. The ...
Drava River
a major right-bank tributary of the Danube River, in south-central Europe. It rises in the Carnic Alps near Dobbiaco (Toblach), Italy, and flows eastward through the Austrian Bundeslander (federal states) ...
Draves, Victoria
American diver who was the first woman to win Olympic gold medals in both springboard and platform diving, accomplishing this feat at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.
Dravidian languages
family of 23 languages spoken by more than 165,000,000 people in South Asia. In terms of population figures the major languages of the family may be listed in the following ...
dravite
a brown, magnesium-rich variety of tourmaline. See tourmaline.
dravya
a fundamental concept of Jainism, a religion of India that is the oldest Indian school of philosophy to separate matter and soul completely. The Jains recognize the existence of five ...
drawbridge
major type of movable bridge (q.v.) originating in medieval Europe.
drawing
in yarn manufacture, process of attenuating the loose assemblage of fibres called sliver (q.v.) by passing it through a series of rollers, thus straightening the individual fibres and making them ...
drawing
the art or technique of producing images on a surface, usually paper, by means of marks, usually of ink, graphite, chalk, charcoal, or crayon.
drawing and quartering
part of the grisly penalty anciently ordained in England (1283) for the crime of treason. Until 1867, when it was abolished, the full punishment for a traitor could include several ...
drawn thread work
in fabric, a method of producing a design by drawing threads out of the body of a piece of material, usually linen, and working stitches on the mesh thus created. ...
dray
the heaviest type of dead-axle wagon used in conjunction with a team of draft animals. Drays were either of the two- or four-wheeled type and were employed most often in ...
Drayton, Michael
poet, the first to write English odes in the manner of Horace.
dread
a fundamental category of existentialism. According to the 19th-century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, dread, or angst, is a desire for what one fears and is central to his conception of original ...
Dreadnought
British battleship launched in 1906 that established the pattern of the turbine-powered, "all-big-gun" warship, a type that dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.
dream
a hallucinatory experience that occurs during sleep.
dream allegory
allegorical tale presented in the narrative framework of a dream. Especially popular in the Middle Ages, the device made more acceptable the fantastic and sometimes bizarre world of personifications and ...
Dream of the Red Chamber
novel written by Cao Zhan in the 18th century; it is generally considered to be the greatest of all Chinese novels.
Dream of the Rood, The
Old English lyric, the earliest dream poem and one of the finest religious poems in the English language, once, but no longer, attributed to Caedmon or Cynewulf. In a dream ...
Dreaming, the
mythological period of time that had a beginning but no foreseeable end, during which the natural environment was shaped and humanized by the actions of mythic beings. Many of these ...
Drebbel, Cornelis
Dutch inventor who built the first navigable submarine.
Dred Scott decision
(March 6, 1857), ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that made slavery legal in all the territories, thereby adding fuel to the sectional controversy and pushing the nation along the ...
dredge
large floating device for underwater excavation. Dredging has four principal objectives: (1) to develop and maintain greater depths than naturally exist for canals, rivers, and harbours; (2) to obtain fill ...
Drees, Willem
statesman and socialist leader who was the prime minister of The Netherlands from 1948 to 1958. His four successive governments augmented his country's comprehensive welfare state, continued the postwar abandonment ...
Dreikaiserbund
an alliance in the latter part of the 19th century of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, devised by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. It aimed at neutralizing the rivalry between Germany's ...
Dreikurs, Rudolf
Austrian-born American psychiatrist and educator who developed the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler's system of individual psychology into a pragmatic method for understanding the purposes of reprehensible behaviour in children and ...
Dreiser, Theodore
novelist who was the outstanding American practitioner of naturalism. He was the leading figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the ...
Drenthe
provincie, northeastern Netherlands. It extends westward from the German border, between the provinces of Groningen and Friesland (north and northwest) and Overijssel (south). Drained by many shallow streams and short ...
Dresden
city, capital of Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. Dresden is the traditional capital of Saxony and the third largest city in eastern Germany after Berlin and Leipzig. ...
Dresden Codex
one of several pre-Columbian Mayan hieroglyphic writings to survive the book burnings by the Spanish clergy. It contains astronomical calculations-eclipse-prediction tables, the synodical period of Venus-of exceptional accuracy. The Maya's ...
Dresden, Battle of
(Aug. 26-27, 1813), Napoleon's last major victory in Germany. It was fought on the outskirts of the Saxon capital of Dresden, between Napoleon's 120,000 troops and 170,000 Austrians, Prussians, and ...
Dresdner Bank AG
commercial bank based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with operations in more than 70 countries.
dress
covering, or clothing and accessories, for the human body. The variety of dress is immense, varying with different sexes, cultures, geographic areas, and historic eras.
dressage
systematic and progressive training of riding horses to execute precisely any of a wide range of maneuvers, from the simplest riding gaits to the most intricate and difficult airs and ...
dresser
a cupboard used for the display of fine tableware, such as silver, pewter, or earthenware. Dressers were widely used in England beginning in Tudor times, when they were no more ...
Dresser, Christopher
British designer, one of the first professional industrial designers and a leader in the 19th-century vogue for Japanese-influenced design.
dressing table
a table used for the toilet. The term originally was applied in the 17th century to small tables with two or three drawers. It soon became common practice to conceal ...
Dressler, Marie
Canadian-born comedienne and singer who achieved her greatest success toward the end of her life.
Dreux
town, Eure-et-Loir departement, Centre region, north-central France. It lies along the Blaise River, northwest of Chartres. Known to the Romans as Drocae, it was held by the Durocasses, a Gallic ...
Drew University
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Madison, New Jersey, U.S., affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The school was founded in 1867 as Drew Theological Seminary. A College of ...
Drew, Charles Richard
black American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion.
Drew, Daniel
American railway financier of the 19th-century "robber baron" era.
Drew, John, Jr.
American actor noted for his roles in Shakespearean comedy, society drama, and light comedies.
Drew, John, Sr.
theatrical manager and leading American actor of Irish romantic comedy. One of his best roles was as Gerald Pepper in Samuel Lover's White House of the Peppers.
Drew, Louisa Lane
noted American actress and manager of Mrs. John Drew's Arch Street Theatre company in Philadelphia, which was one of the finest in American theatre history.
Drexel University
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. It consists of the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business and Administration, Engineering, and Information Science and Technology, as well ...
Drexel, Anthony Joseph
American banker and philanthropist who founded the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia.
Drexel, Katharine, Saint
American founder of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People (now Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament), a congregation of missionary nuns dedicated to the welfare of American Indians ...
Dreyer, Carl Theodor
motion-picture director whose most famous films were explorations of religious experience, executed in the Danish "static" style.
Dreyer, Johan Ludvig Emil
Danish astronomer who compiled the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, published in 1888, and its supplements, published in 1895 and 1908. This work, together with the ...
Dreyfus, Alfred
French army officer whose trial for treason began a 12-year controversy, known as the Dreyfus Affair, that deeply marked the political and social history of the French Third Republic.
Dreyfuss, Henry
U.S. industrial designer noted for the number and variety of his pioneering designs for modern products.
Dreyfuss, Richard
American film actor known for his portrayals of ordinary men driven to emotional extremes.
Dreyschock, Alexander
Bohemian pianist and composer, often compared to Liszt for technical prowess.
Dreyse rifle
rifle named for its inventor, Nikolaus von Dreyse. It had a long, sharp firing pin designed to pierce the charge of propelling powder and strike the detonating material (usually mercury ...
Dreyse, Nikolaus von
German firearms inventor and manufacturer.
Driesch, Hans Adolf Eduard
German experimental embryologist and philosopher who was the last great spokesman for vitalism, the theory that life cannot be explained as physical or chemical phenomena.
Drieu La Rochelle, Pierre
French writer of novels, short stories, and political essays whose life and works illustrate the malaise common among European youth after World War I.
Drifters, the
American rhythm-and-blues vocal group that produced a series of chart-topping hits from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s. The Drifters were actually two groups-one built around lead singer Clyde McPhatter, ...
drill
preparation of soldiers for performance of their duties in peace and war through the practice and rehearsal of prescribed movements. In a practical sense, drill consolidates soldiers into battle formations ...
drill
large short-tailed monkey found from southeastern Nigeria to western Cameroon and on Bioko Island. As a result of hunting and deforestation, the drill is now highly endangered. The drill, like ...
drill
cylindrical end-cutting tool used to originate or enlarge circular holes in solid material.
drill press
device for producing holes in hard substances. The drill is held in a rotating spindle and is fed into the workpiece, which is usually clamped in a vise resting on ...
drilling machinery
equipment used to drill holes in the ground for such activities as prospecting, well sinking (petroleum, natural gas, water, and salt), and scientific explorations. Drilling holes in rock to receive ...
drilling mud
mixture of clay, usually bentonite, and water used primarily in oil, gas, and water-drilling operations to carry rock cuttings to the surface and also to lubricate and cool the drilling ...
Drina River
river, central Balkans, southeastern Europe. It originates with the confluence of the Tara and Piva rivers and follows a northerly course 215 miles (346 km) to enter the Sava. Its ...
Drinfeld, Vladimir Gershonovich
Soviet mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his work in algebraic geometry and mathematical physics.
drinking horn
ceremonial vessel usually made from the horn of an ox or a buffalo or the tusk of an elephant, with mounts of metal. The earliest drinking horns date from around ...
drinking song
song on a convivial theme composed usually for singing in accompaniment to drinking. The form became a standard element in certain types of 19th-century opera and operetta, frequently involving not ...
Drinkwater, John
English poet, playwright, and critic, remembered as a typical man of letters of the Georgian age of the 1910s and 1920s. He was a successful promoter of repertory theatre in ...
drive
in psychology, an urgent basic need pressing for satisfaction, usually rooted in some physiological tension, deficiency, or imbalance (e.g., hunger and thirst) and impelling the organism to action. Some researchers ...
driver ant
African member of the insect subfamily Dorylinae (family Formicidae; order Hymenoptera) characterized by a nomadic existence alternating with quiet, egg-laying periods. These ferocious ant colonies, when in the nomadic stage, ...
driving and coaching
art or sport of controlling and directing draft animals from a coach or other conveyance to which they are harnessed. The animal most commonly employed is the horse, but the ...