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gravure printing ... Great Northern Expedition
gravure printing
photomechanical intaglio process in which the image to be printed consists of depressions or recesses on the surface of the printing plate. The process is the reverse of relief printing, ...
gray
unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, defined in the 1980s by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. One gray is equal approximately to the absorbed dose delivered ...
gray birch
(Betula populifolia), slender ornamental tree of the family Betulaceae, found in clusters on moist sites in northeastern North America. Rarely 12 m (40 feet) tall, it is covered almost to ...
gray fox
(Urocyon cinereoargenteus), grizzled, gray-furred New World fox of the family Canidae. It is found in forested, rocky, and brush-covered country from Canada to northern South America. Distinguished by the reddish ...
gray seal
(Halichoerus grypus), seal of the family Phocidae, found in North Atlantic waters along the coast of Newfoundland, the British Isles, and in the Baltic region. It is spotted gray and ...
gray whale
a slender baleen whale having a profusion of external parasites that give it the appearance of a barnacle-encrusted rock.
Gray, Asa
American botanist whose extensive studies of North American flora did more than the work of any other botanist to unify the taxonomic knowledge of plants of this region. His most ...
Gray, Elisha
U.S. inventor and contestant with Alexander Graham Bell in a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone.
Gray, Harold
U.S. cartoonist and creator of "Little Orphan Annie," one of the most popular comic strips of all time.
Gray, Horace
justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1881-1902.
Gray, Robert
captain of the first U.S. ship to circumnavigate the globe and explorer of the Columbia River.
Gray, Simon
British dramatist whose plays, often set in academia, are noted for their challenging storylines, witty, literary dialogue, and complex characterizations.
Gray, Sir James
English zoologist who played a leading part in changing the main objective of 20th-century zoological research from evolutionary comparative anatomy to the functional analysis of living cells and living animals, ...
Gray, Thomas
English poet whose "An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard" is one of the best known of English lyric poems. Although his literary output was slight, he was the ...
Gray, Walter de
English churchman who rose to high ecclesiastical office through service to King John.
grayback
any of several North American fishes including the alewife (q.v.), cisco (see whitefish), and Menominee whitefish.
graybird
any of numerous cuckoo-shrikes of the genus Coracina. See cuckoo-shrike.
Grayling
city, seat (1879) of Crawford county, north-central Michigan, U.S., on the Middle Branch of the Au Sable River, one of the most celebrated trout streams in the Midwest, 52 miles ...
grayling
(Thymallus), any of several troutlike game fishes, family Salmonidae, found in cold, clear streams of Eurasia and northern North America. Graylings are handsome, silvery-purple fishes, which reach a length of ...
graysby
species of sea bass (q.v.).
graywacke
a sedimentary rock composed of sand-sized grains (0.063-2 mm [0.0025-0.078 inch]) with a fine-grained clay matrix. The sand-sized grains are frequently composed of rock fragments of wide-ranging mineralogies (e.g., those ...
Graz
city, southeastern Austria. The country's second largest city, it lies on the Mur River between the Styrian Alps and a wide, fertile valley, the Grazerfeld, about 95 miles (155 km) ...
Graziani, Rodolfo, marquess di Neghelli
Italian field marshal, administrator, and adherent of Benito Mussolini.
Graziano, Rocky
American boxer and world middleweight champion (1947-48).
Grazzini, Anton Francesco
Italian poet, playwright, and storyteller who was active in the linguistic and literary controversies of his day.
grease
thick, oily lubricant consisting of inedible lard, the rendered fat of waste animal parts, or a petroleum-derived or synthetic oil containing a thickening agent.
greasewood
(species Sarcobatus vermiculatus), North American weedy shrub of the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). Greasewood is a characteristic plant of strongly alkaline and saline soils in the desert plains of western North ...
Great Abaco
island, The Bahamas, located about 55 miles (86 km) north of the capital city, Nassau, on New Providence island. It is separated from Little Abaco to the northwest by a ...
Great Alfold
a flat, fertile lowland, southeastern Hungary, also extending into eastern Croatia, northern Serbia and Montenegro, and western Romania. Its area is 40,000 square miles (100,000 square km), about half in ...
Great American Desert
a vast, vaguely defined arid and semiarid region of North America that embraces the Great Plains (q.v.).
Great Appalachian Valley
longitudinal chain of valley lowlands of the Appalachian mountain system of North America. Extending from Canada on the northeast to Alabama, U.S., on the southwest, it includes the St. Lawrence ...
Great Artesian Basin
one of the largest areas of artesian water in the world, underlying about one-fifth of Australia. It includes most of the Darling and Lake Eyre catchments and extends northward to ...
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc.
German-owned food distribution company that operates supermarket chains in the United States and Canada. Headquarters are in Montvale, New Jersey.
Great Attractor
proposed concentration of mass that influences the movement of many galaxies, including the Milky Way. In 1986 a group of astronomers observing the motions of the Milky Way and neighbouring ...
great auk
(species Pinguinus impennis), flightless seabird extinct since 1844. Great auks belonged to the family Alcidae (order Charadriiformes). They bred in colonies on rocky islands off North Atlantic coasts (St. Kilda, ...
Great Australian Bight
wide embayment of the Indian Ocean, indenting Australia's southern coast. By definition of the International Hydrographic Bureau it extends eastward from West Cape Howe, Western Australia, to South West Cape, ...
Great Awakening
religious revival in the British American colonies mainly between about 1720 and the '40s. It was a part of the religious ferment that swept western Europe in the latter part ...
Great Bahama Bank
large shoal off The Bahamas, separated from Little Bahama Bank (north) by Northwest Providence Channel. Its shallow waters extend southeast from Miami, across the Straits of Florida, in a broad ...
Great Bahama Canyon
submarine canyon in the Atlantic Ocean off the Bahamas, one of the greatest yet discovered. It lies northeast of the Great Bahama Bank, between Great Abaco and Eleuthera islands. Two ...
Great Barrier Island
island marking the northeastern corner of Hauraki Gulf, eastern North Island, New Zealand. Separated from the Coromandel Peninsula (south) by Colville Channel, it is the largest island off North Island, ...
Great Barrier Reef
complex of coral reefs, shoals, and islets in the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Australia. It extends in roughly a northwest-southeast direction for more than 1,250 miles (2,000 ...
Great Barrington
town (township), Berkshire county, southwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Housatonic River, in the Berkshire Hills, 19 miles (31 km) south of Pittsfield, and includes the communities of Great ...
Great Basin
distinctive natural feature of western North America that is equally divided into rugged, north-south-trending mountain blocks and broad intervening valleys. It covers an arid expanse of about 190,000 square miles ...
Great Basin Indian
member of any of the aboriginal North American peoples inhabiting the Great Basin and adjacent areas of the United States.
Great Basin National Park
scenic region in eastern Nevada, U.S., just west of Baker and about 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Ely. The area, previously part of Humboldt National Forest, was made into ...
Great Bear Lake
lake, in northern Fort Smith region and southeastern Inuvik region, Northwest Territories, Canada, lying astride the Arctic Circle. It was discovered before 1800 by North West Company traders and later ...
Great Belt
strait between the Danish islands of Funen and Langeland (west) and Zealand (Sjaelland) and Lolland (east). It is about 40 miles (64 km) long and connects the Baltic Sea with ...
Great Bend
city, seat (1872) of Barton county, central Kansas, U.S. Great Bend lies on the Arkansas River where the High Plains begin to shade into tallgrass prairie. Situated in the alleged ...
Great Britain
first Atlantic ocean liner that was built of iron and had screw propulsion. It was the world's largest ship at the time of its launching (1843) and was 322 feet ...
Great Britain
island lying off the western coast of Europe and consisting of England, Scotland, and Wales (qq.v.). The term is often used as a synonym for the United Kingdom (q.v.), which ...
Great Chain of Being
conception of the nature of the universe that had a pervasive influence on Western thought, particularly through the ancient Greek Neoplatonists and derivative philosophies during the European Renaissance and the ...
great circle route
the shortest course between two points on the surface of a sphere. It lies in a plane that intersects the sphere's centre and was known by mathematicians before the time ...
Great Dane
breed of working dog developed at least 400 years ago in Germany, where it was used for boar hunting. The Great Dane is typically a swift, alert dog noted for ...
Great Depression
worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, sparking fundamental changes ...
Great Dionysia
ancient dramatic festival in which tragedy, comedy, and satyric drama originated; it was held in Athens in March in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine. Tragedy of some form, ...
Great Dismal Swamp
marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, U.S., between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is densely forested and contains scattered natural ...
Great Dividing Range
main watershed of eastern Australia; it comprises a series of plateaus and mountain ranges roughly paralleling the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria for 2,300 miles (3,700 km). ...
Great Drought
climatic interval of the Holocene Epoch (the Holocene began about 10,000 years ago and continues to the present). The Great Drought, dated by tree-ring studies, affected much of what is ...
Great Dyke
narrow series of long, low ridges and hills in Zimbabwe, trending for about 320 miles (515 km). Consisting of four igneous complexes, they increase in height northward to about 1,500 ...
Great Eastern
steamship considered to be the prototype of the modern ocean liner. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell for the Eastern Navigation Company to carry cargo and passengers ...
Great Escarpment
plateau edge of southern Africa that separates the region's highland interior plateau from the fairly narrow coastal strip. It lies predominantly within the Republic of South Africa and Lesotho but ...
Great Falls
city, seat (1887) of Cascade county, west-central Montana, U.S. It lies along the Missouri River, near the falls (96 feet [29 metres] high) for which it was named. In 1805 ...
Great Fire of London
(September 2-5, 1666), the worst fire in London's history. It destroyed a large part of the City of London, including most of the civic buildings, old St. Paul's Cathedral, 87 ...
Great Fish River
river in the Cape Midlands, Eastern province, southern South Africa. The Great Fish River has a length of 430 miles (692 km) and a drainage area of 11,900 square miles ...
great hall
main apartment in a medieval manor house, monastery, or college, in which meals were taken. In large manor houses it also served other purposes: justice was administered there, entertainments given, ...
Great Karoo
plateau basin in Western Cape province, South Africa, lying between the Great Escarpment (north) and the Swartberg (south). It represents the effect of headwater erosion by rivers flowing southwest and ...
Great Kei River
river, Eastern province, South Africa. Formed southeast of Queenstown by the junction of the White Kei (Wit Kei) and the Black Kei (Swart Kei) rivers, it flows approximately 140 miles ...
Great Lake
largest natural freshwater lake in Australia, lying on Tasmania's Central Plateau at an elevation of 3,398 feet (1,036 m). It has an area of 61 square miles (158 square km), ...
Great Lakes
chain of deep, freshwater lakes in east-central North America comprising Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. They are one of the great natural features of the continent and of ...
Great Leap Forward
the campaign undertaken by the Chinese Communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China's industrial and agricultural problems. The ...
Great Malvern
town, Malvern Hills district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, England. Great Malvern was formerly the largest of several villages and hamlets on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills ...
Great Migration
in U.S. history, the widespread migration of African Americans in the 20th century from rural communities in the South to large cities in the North and West. At the turn ...
Great Mogul diamond
the largest diamond ever found in India. It was discovered as a 787-carat rough stone in the Golconda mines in 1650 and subsequently was cut by the Venetian lapidary Hortentio ...
Great Mother of the Gods
ancient Oriental and Greco-Roman deity, known by a variety of local names; the name Cybele or Cybebe predominates in Greek and Roman literature from about the 5th century BC onward. ...
Great Neck
village, in the town (township) of North Hempstead, Nassau county, New York, U.S. It lies along the Great Neck cape and the north shore of Long Island in an area ...
Great Northern Expedition
(1733-42), in Russian history, the continuation of an enterprise initially conceived by the emperor Peter I the Great to map the northern sea route to the East. The expedition mapped ...