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reststrahlen ... revolver

reststrahlen: (German: "residual radiation"), light that is selectively reflected from the surface of a transparent solid when the frequency of the light is nearly equal to the frequency of vibration of ...
Resumption Act of 1875: in U.S. history, culmination of the struggle between "soft money" forces, who advocated continued use of Civil War greenbacks, and their "hard money" opponents, who wished to redeem the paper ...
resurrection: the rising from the dead of a divine or human being who still retains his own personhood, or individuality, though the body may or may not be changed. The belief ...
Reszke, Jean de: Polish operatic tenor, celebrated for his beautiful voice, phrasing, and enunciation as well as his charm and striking presence.
retable: ornamental panel behind an altar and, in the more limited sense, the shelf behind an altar on which are placed the crucifix, candlesticks, and other liturgical objects. The panel is ...
retailing: the selling of merchandise and certain services to the consumer. It ordinarily involves the selling of individual units or small lots to large numbers of customers by a business set ...
retaining wall: freestanding wall that either resists some weight on one side or prevents the erosion of an embankment. It may also be "battered," that is, inclined toward the load it is ...
Retalhuleu: city, southwestern Guatemala. It is situated on the Pacific piedmont at an elevation of 784 feet (239 m) above sea level. Retalhuleu is a commercial and manufacturing centre for a ...
Rethel, Alfred: German artist who painted historical and biblical subjects on a heroic scale that was rare in the Germany of his time. Rethel is best remembered for his vitriolic series of ...
Rethimnon: town and capital of the nomos (department) of Rethimni, north-central Crete, Greece. A town and port on Almirou Bay, Rethimnon trades in wheat, almonds, olive oil, and wine. It lies ...
Reti, Richard: Hungarian chess master, writer, and theoretician who was one of the chief exponents of the Hypermodern school of chess.
reticella: (Italian: "little net"), Renaissance fabric, akin to lace, with an open, gridlike pattern. The grid base for the pattern is formed either by threads remaining after warps and wefts have ...
reticular fibre: in anatomy, fine fibrous connective tissue occurring in networks to make up the supporting tissue of many organs. The reticular fibres are composed of randomly oriented collagenous fibrils lying in ...
reticulated work: type of facing used on ancient Roman concrete or mortared rubblework walls. It appeared during the late Roman Republic and became widespread by the reign of Augustus. It succeeded the ...
reticuloendothelial system: class of cells that occur in widely separated parts of the human body and that take up particular substances. These cells are part of the body's defense mechanisms.
reticulum cell sarcoma of bone: uncommon malignant tumour of bone marrow that may occur at any age and in any bone, affecting males twice as frequently as females. Symptoms include mild pain and swelling. The ...
Retief, Piet: one of the Boer leaders of the Great Trek, the migration of independence-minded Boers from British rule in Cape Colony to uncolonized lands in the interior of South Africa.
retina: layer of nervous tissue, covering the back two-thirds of the eyeball, in which stimulation by light occurs, initiating the sensation of vision. The rest of the eyeball serves essentially as ...
retinitis pigmentosa: hereditary eye disease in which progressive degeneration of the retinal pigments leads to impairment of vision and, ultimately, to blindness. In the course of the disease the light-sensitive structures called ...
retinospora: a condition common in horticultural varieties of conifers, especially arborvitae, junipers, cypresses, and false cypresses, in which needlelike, spreading juvenile leaves persist on adult trees that normally have small, scalelike ...
Retiro Park: the main park of Madrid, Spain. Originally called the Parque del Buen Retiro, or "pleasant retreat," and today covering approximately 350 acres (142 hectares), it was planned in the 1550s ...
retort: vessel used for distillation of substances that are placed inside and subjected to heat. The simple form of retort, used in some laboratories, is a glass or metal bulb having ...
retraining program: occupational training program designed to aid workers in obtaining new employment. Formal retraining programs were first developed in Europe around the end of World War II as part of the ...
retriever: any of several sporting dogs bred and trained to retrieve game. Retrievers are characterized by water-resistant coats, a keen sense of smell, and "soft" mouths that do not damage game.
retroflex: in phonetics, a consonant sound produced with the tip of the tongue curled back toward the hard palate. In Russian the sounds sh, zh (like the English s sound in ...
retrograde motion: in astronomy, actual or apparent motion of a body in a direction opposite to that of the (direct) motions of most members of the solar system or of other astronomical ...
retrolental fibroplasia: disease of the retinal blood vessels in the eyes of premature infants, resulting from administration of excessive amounts of oxygen in the attempt to prevent respiratory disease. Until the role ...
retrovirus: any of a group of viruses that, unlike most other viruses and all cellular organisms, carry their genetic blueprint in the form of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Retroviruses are responsible for ...
Rett syndrome: rare progressive neurological disorder that causes mental retardation, compulsive hand movements, reduced muscle tone, difficulties in walking, autism, decreased body weight, failure of the head to grow with age, and ...
retting: process employing the action of bacteria and moisture on plants to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissues and gummy substances surrounding bast-fibre bundles, thus facilitating separation of ...
Retton, Mary Lou: gymnast who was the first American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. At the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Retton achieved perfect scores in ...
Retz, Jean-Francois-Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de: one of the leaders of the aristocratic rebellion known as the Fronde (1648-53), whose memoirs remain a classic of 17th-century French literature.
Retzius, Magnus Gustaf: Swedish anatomist and anthropologist best-known for his studies of the histology of the nervous system.
Reuben: one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times comprised the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named after the oldest of ...
Reubeni, David: Jewish adventurer whose grandiose plans inspired the messianic visions of the martyr Solomon Molcho (q.v.; d. 1532). Reubeni claimed to be a prince descended from the tribe of Reuben (hence ...
Reuchlin, Johannes: German humanist, political counselor, and classics scholar whose defense of Hebrew literature helped awaken liberal intellectual forces in the years immediately preceding the Reformation.
Reumert, Poul: Danish stage and film star, regarded for more than 50 years as one of the most important character actors in Denmark.
Reunion: island of the Mascarene Islands and a French overseas departement in the western Indian Ocean. It is located about 420 miles (680 km) east of Madagascar and ...
Reus: city, Tarragona provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It lies on a coastal plain just west-northwest of Tarragona city. Reus was first mentioned in the ...
Reuss: two former German principalities, merged into Thuringia in 1920. In their final years they comprised two blocks, separated by part of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The southern and larger block, or Oberland, with ...
Reuter, Ernst: leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. While mayor of post-World War II West Berlin, his leadership helped that city survive the Soviet blockade.
Reuter, Fritz: German novelist who helped to initiate the development of regional dialect literature in Germany. His best works, which mirrored the provincial life of Mecklenburg, are written in Plattdeutsch, a north ...
Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron von: German-born founder of one of the first news agencies, which still bears his name. Of Jewish parentage, he became a Christian in 1844 and adopted the name of Reuter.
Reuters: British news agency that was founded in 1851 and became one of the leading news wire services in the world. It was established by Paul Julius Reuter, a bank clerk ...
Reuther, Walter: American labour leader who was president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and was active in national and international affairs.
Reutlingen: city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies on the Echaz River below the Achalm mountain in the Swabian Alps (Schwabische Alb), south of Stuttgart. Founded by ...
Reuveran Stage: major division of geologic time and deposits in The Netherlands. The Reuveran Stage, named for a clay deposit of the same name, is Pliocene in age (between 1,600,000 and 5,300,000 ...
Revda: city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), western Russia, in the mid-Urals on the Revda River, at the confluence of the Chusovaya River. Founded in 1734, when a metallurgical factory was built, it ...
Reve, Gerard: Dutch writer noted for his virtuoso style and sardonic humour. His subject matter was occasionally controversial, treating such topics as homosexuality and sadism.
revelation: in religion, disclosure of divine or sacred reality or purpose to man. Revelation in this sense is an essential aspect of all religions, although the specific forms it takes in ...
revelation: in religion, the disclosure of divine or sacred reality or purpose to mankind. In the religious view, such disclosure may come through mystical insights, historical events, or spiritual experiences that ...
Revelation to John: last book of the New Testament. It is the only book of the New Testament classified as apocalyptic literature rather than didactic or historical, indicating thereby its extensive use of ...
Revell, Viljo: Finnish architect, one of the foremost exponents of Functionalism in Finnish architecture.
Revels, Hiram R: American clergyman and educator who became the first black citizen to be elected to the U.S. Senate (1870-71), during Reconstruction.
Revels, Master of the: English court official, who, from Tudor times up until the Licensing Act of 1737, supervised the production and financing of often elaborate court entertainments. He later was the official issuer ...
Revelstoke: city, southeastern British Columbia, Canada. It lies along the Columbia River between the Monashee and Selkirk mountains, 392 miles (631 km) northeast of Vancouver. Originally called Second Crossing, the site ...
revenge tragedy: drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras and found ...
Reventlow, Christian Ditlev Frederik, Count: (Lensgreve) Danish state official whose agrarian reforms led to the abolition of serfdom in Denmark.
revenue bond: bond issued by a municipality, state, or public agency authorized to build, acquire, or improve a revenue-producing property such as a mass transit system, an electric generating plant, an airport, ...
revenue sharing: a government unit's apportioning of part of its tax income to other units of government. For example, provinces or states may share revenue with local governments, or national governments may ...
reverberatory furnace: in copper, tin, and nickel production, a furnace used for smelting or refining in which the fuel is not in direct contact with the ore but heats it by a ...
Reverdy, Pierre: French poet and moralist who first reflected Cubist and then Surrealist influence.
Revere: city, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along Massachusetts Bay just northeast of Boston. First known as Rumney Marsh, it was settled in 1626 and was part of Boston from ...
Revere, Paul: folk hero of the American Revolution whose dramatic horseback ride on the night of April 18, 1775, warning Boston-area residents that the British were coming, was immortalized in a ballad ...
reverend: the ordinary English prefix of written address to the names of ministers of most Christian denominations. In the 15th century it was used as a general term of respectful address, ...
reversibility: in thermodynamics, a characteristic of certain processes (changes of a system from an initial state to a final state spontaneously or as a result of interactions with other systems) that ...
reversion: in Anglo-American law, interest held by a prior owner in property given to another, which, upon the happening of some future event, will return to that prior owner. A reversion ...
Revillagigedo Islands: archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 300 miles (500 km) south-southwest of the tip of the Baja California peninsula and 370 miles (595 km) west-southwest of Cape Corrientes on the ...
revisionism: in Marxist thought, originally the late 19th-century effort of Eduard Bernstein to revise Marxist doctrine. Rejecting the labour theory of value, economic determinism, and the significance of the class struggle, ...
Revius, Jacobus: Dutch Calvinist poet long esteemed only as a theologian but later acknowledged as the greatest Christian lyricist of his period.
revivalism: generally, renewed religious fervour within a Christian group, church, or community, but primarily a movement in some Protestant churches to revitalize the spiritual ardour of their members and win new ...
revolution: in social and political science, a major, sudden, and hence typically violent alteration in government and in related associations and structures. The term is used by analogy in such expressions ...
Revolution Peak: mountain in the northwestern Pamirs range in Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous oblast (province), Tajikistan. At 22,880 feet (6,974 m), it is the highest point in the eastern part of the Yazgulem Range. ...
Revolution, The: weekly American women's rights newspaper, first published on January 8, 1868, under the proprietorship of Susan B. Anthony and edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury.
Revolutionary Tribunal: court that was instituted in Paris by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It became one of the most powerful engines of the ...
revolver: pistol (q.v.) whose multi-shot action depends on a revolving cylinder. Some early versions, known as "pepperboxes," had several barrels, but as early as the 17th century pistols were manufactured with ...