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seal ... Seddon, Richard John

seal: any of 32 species of web-footed aquatic mammals that live chiefly in cold seas and whose body shape, round at the middle and tapered at the ends, is adapted to ...
seal: in documentation, an impression made by the impact of a hard engraved surface on a softer material such as wax or clay, producing a device in relief. Seals have been ...
Seale, Bobby: African-American political activist, founder, along with Huey Newton, and national chairman of the Black Panther Party. Seale was one of a generation of young African-American radicals who broke away from ...
sealing wax: substance formerly in wide use for sealing letters and attaching impressions of seals to documents. In medieval times it consisted of a mixture of beeswax, Venice turpentine, and colouring matter, ...
Sealyham terrier: breed of terrier developed during the latter half of the 19th century by Captain John Edwardes for hunting foxes, otters, and badgers on his estate, Sealyham, in Wales. A small, ...
Seamans, Robert C., Jr.: American aeronautical engineer who pioneered in the development of advanced systems of flight control, fire control, and guidance for modern aircraft.
seamount: large submarine volcanic mountain rising at least 1,000 m (3,300 feet) above the surrounding deep-sea floor; smaller submarine volcanoes are called sea knolls, and flat-topped seamounts are called guyots. Great ...
seance: (French: "sitting"), in occultism, meeting centred on a medium (q.v.), who seeks to communicate with spirits of the dead. Because strong light is said to hinder communication, a seance usually ...
seaplane: any of a class of aircraft that can land, float, and take off on water. Seaplanes with boatlike hulls are also known as flying boats, those with separate pontoons or ...
search and seizure: practices engaged in by law enforcement officers in order to gain sufficient evidence to ensure the arrest and conviction of an offender. The latitude allowed police and other law enforcement ...
search engine: computer program to find answers to queries in a collection of information, which might be a library catalog or a database but is most commonly the World Wide Web. A ...
searchlight: high-intensity electric light with a reflector shaped to concentrate the beam, used to illuminate or search for distant objects or as a beacon.
Searcy: city, seat (1837) of White county, east-central Arkansas, U.S., near the Little Red River, 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Little Rock. It originated as White Sulphur Springs, a spa ...
Searle, Ronald: British graphic satirist, best known for his cartoons of the girls at an imaginary school he called St. Trinian's.
Searles Lake: playa in San Bernardino county, southern California, U.S. Lying to the west of the southern edge of Death Valley National Park, it formed part of a Pleistocene drainage network linking ...
Sears Tower: skyscraper office building in Chicago, Illinois, among the world's tallest buildings. The Sears Tower opened to tenants in 1973, though construction was not actually completed until 1974. Built for Sears, ...
Sears, Isaac: patriot leader in New York City before the American Revolution, who earned the nickname "King Sears" by virtue of his prominent role in inciting and commanding anti-British demonstrations.
Sears, R.W.: American merchant who developed his mail-order jewelry business into the huge retail company Sears, Roebuck.
Sears, Richard Dudley: the first American men's singles champion in lawn tennis (1881) and winner of that title for each of the six following years. His record has never been equaled by any ...
Sears, Roebuck and Company: leading retailer of general merchandise, tools, home appliances, clothing, and automotive parts and services. It is a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation.
Seasat: experimental U.S. ocean surveillance satellite launched June 27, 1978. During its 99 days of operation, Seasat orbited the Earth 14 times daily and monitored nearly 96 percent of its oceanic ...
seashell: hard exoskeleton of marine mollusks such as snails, bivalves, and chitons that serves to protect and support their bodies. It is composed largely of calcium carbonate, which is formed from ...
Seaside: city, Clatsop county, northwestern Oregon, U.S., on the Pacific Coast, south of Astoria. The site became popular as a seaside resort with the construction of a lavish guesthouse in the ...
season: any of four divisions of the year according to consistent annual changes in the weather. The seasons-winter, spring, summer, and autumn-are commonly regarded in the Northern Hemisphere as beginning on ...
seasoning: in lumbering, drying lumber to prepare it for use. Unseasoned (green) wood is subject to attack by fungi and insects, and it also shrinks as it dries. Because it does ...
Seattle: chief city of Washington, U.S., on a neck of land between Elliott Bay (Puget Sound) and Lake Washington (a 24-mile [39-kilometre] stretch of freshwater), seat (1853) of King county and ...
Seattle: (b. c. 1790, Oregon region [now Seattle, Wash., U.S.]-d. June 7, 1866, Port Madison Reservation, Wash.), chief of the Duwamish, Suquamish, and other Puget Sound tribes who befriended white settlers ...
Seattle Slew: (foaled 1974), American racehorse (Thoroughbred), the first unbeaten racer ever to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
Seattle University: private, coeducational institution of higher education in Seattle, Washington, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers about 50 undergraduate degree programs and ...
seawater: water that makes up the oceans and seas, covering more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface. Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5 percent water, 2.5 percent salts, and ...
seaweed: any of certain species of red, green, and brown marine algae that generally are anchored to the sea bottom or to some solid structure by rootlike holdfasts that perform the ...
SeaWorld, Inc.: American company that manages commercial theme parks featuring marine life. The company is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. There are three parks, located in San Diego, California; Orlando, Florida; ...
sebaceous gland: small oil-producing gland present in the skin of mammals. Sebaceous glands are usually attached to hair follicles and release a fatty substance, sebum, into the follicular duct and thence to ...
Sebastian: king of Portugal from 1557, a fanatically religious ruler who lost his life in a crusade against the Muslims in Morocco. After his death, many of his subjects believed that ...
Sebastian Vizcaino Bay: bay of the Pacific Ocean, western Baja California peninsula, Mexico. The bay is approximately 80 miles (130 km) long from northwest to southeast and 60 miles (100 km) wide from ...
Sebastian, Saint: early Christian popularized by Renaissance painters and believed to have been martyred during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian.
Sebastiano Del Piombo: (c. 1485, Venice [Italy]-d. July 21, 1547, Rome, Papal States [now in Italy]), Italian painter who tried to combine the rich colours of the Venetian school with the monumental form ...
Sebek: in ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyum province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos (Greek: "He Who Belongs to Suchos"), in whom the god was believed ...
Sebeknefru: queen who ruled as king of Egypt (1760?-?1756 BC); she was the last ruler of the 12th dynasty.
Sebes: town, Alba judet (county), west-central Romania. It lies in the valley of the Sebes River, on a major Romanian highway. The site had Neolithic and Daco-Roman settlements before Sebes was ...
Sebetwane: southern African king (reigned from c. 1820) who established a large and powerful nation in what is now western Zambia after an arduous migration from his original home in what ...
seborrheic dermatitis: a type of dermatitis (q.v.).
Sebou River: important river in northern Morocco, draining part of the Atlas Mountains and Rharb plain into the Atlantic Ocean. From its source as the Guigou River in the Middle (Moyen) Atlas, ...
Sebring: city, seat (1921) of Highlands county, south-central Florida, U.S. The city encircles Lake Jackson and is situated about 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Tampa. Founded and laid out on ...
Sebuktigin: in full Abu Mansur Sebuktigin founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, which ruled much of the area of present-day Afghanistan for more than 150 years.
Secchi, Pietro Angelo: Italian Jesuit priest and astrophysicist, who made the first survey of the spectra of stars and suggested that stars be classified according to their spectral type.
secession: in U.S. history, the withdrawal of 11 slave states (states in which slaveholding was legal) from the Union during 1860-61 following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. Secession precipitated ...
second: fundamental unit of time, now defined in terms of radiation emitted from atoms of the element cesium under specified conditions. The second was formerly defined as 186,400 of the mean ...
Second Coming: in Christianity, the future return of Christ in glory, when it is understood that he will set up his kingdom, judge his enemies, and reward the faithful, living and dead. ...
Second Empire style: architectural style that was dominant internationally during the second half of the 19th century. Developing from a tendency of architects of the second quarter of the 19th century to use ...
secondary education: the second stage traditionally found in formal education, beginning about age 11 to 13 and ending usually at age 15 to 18. The dichotomy between elementary education (q.v.) and secondary ...
Secretariat: (foaled 1970), American racehorse (Thoroughbred), a record-breaking money winner who in 1973 won the U.S. Triple Crown (theKentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes); he was the first ...
Secretariat: the organ that administers and coordinates the activities of the United Nations. It is headed by the UN secretary-general. The Secretariat influences the work of the United Nations to a ...
secretary: a small writing desk fitted with drawers, one of which can be pulled out and the front lowered to provide a flat writing surface. There are many variations to this ...
secretary bird: (Sagittarius serpentarius), bird of prey (family Sagittaridae) of the dry uplands of Africa, the only living bird of prey of terrestrial habits. It is a long-legged bird, with a slender ...
secretary-general: the principal administrative officer of the United Nations. See Secretariat. For a historical list of the secretaries-general, see United Nations.
secretin: a digestive hormone secreted by the wall of the upper part of the small intestine (the duodenum). Its secretion is stimulated when acid from the stomach or digested protein bathes ...
secretion: in biology, production and release of a useful substance by a gland or cell; also, the substance produced. In addition to the enzymes and hormones that facilitate and regulate complex ...
Section d'Or: Paris-based association of Cubist painters; the group was active from 1912 to about 1914.
Secular Games: celebrations held in ancient Rome to mark the commencement of a new saeculum, or generation. The games originated with the Etruscans, who, at the end of a mean period of ...
secular institute: in the Roman Catholic church, a society whose members attempt to attain Christian perfection through the practice of poverty, chastity (celibacy), and obedience and to carry out the work of ...
secularism: any movement in society directed away from otherworldliness to life on earth. In the European Middle Ages there was a strong tendency for religious persons to despise human affairs and ...
Secunda: modern company town (built after 1974), Mpumalanga province, South Africa. It is located about 80 miles (130 km) east of Johannesburg in a region of extensive coal reserves and adequate ...
Securities and Exchange Commission: U.S. regulatory commission established by Congress in 1934 after the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency investigated the New York Stock Exchange's operations. The commission's purpose was to restore investor ...
security: in business economics, written evidence of ownership conferring the right to receive property not currently in possession of the holder. The most common types of securities are stocks and bonds, ...
Security and Co-operation in Europe, Organization for: organization of representatives of virtually all the states of Europe, as well as the United States and Canada, committed to formalizing decisions on important questions affecting the security and stability ...
security and protection system: any of various means or devices designed to guard persons and property against a broad range of hazards, including crime, fire, accidents, espionage, sabotage, subversion, and attack.
Sedaine, Michel-Jean: French dramatist who is best known as the author of a fine domestic comedy, Le Philosophe sans le savoir (1765; "The Philosopher Without Knowledge").
Sedalia: city, seat of Pettis county, west-central Missouri, U.S., 75 miles (121 km) east-southeast of Kansas City. Established in 1857 by George R. Smith and originally named Sedville for his daughter ...
Sedan: town, Ardennes departement, Champagne-Ardenne region, northeastern France. Sedan is situated 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the Belgian frontier. It lies on the right bank of the Meuse River along ...
sedan: portable, enclosed chair mounted on horizontally placed parallel poles and carried by men or animals. In Italy, France, and England, in the 17th and 18th centuries, sedans became highly luxurious ...
Sedan, Battle of: (Sept. 1, 1870), decisive defeat of the French army in the Franco-German War, which led to the fall of the Second French Empire; it was fought at the French border ...
Sedang language: North Bahnaric language of the Mon-Khmer family, which is itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. Sedang is spoken by some 110,000 people living in south-central Vietnam. The Tadrah language, ...
sedarim: the major orders, or divisions, of the Mishna, the oldest codification of Jewish oral laws. See Mishna.
sedative-hypnotic drug: chemical substance used to reduce tension and anxiety and induce calm (sedative effect) or to induce sleep (hypnotic effect). Most such drugs exert a quieting or calming effect at low ...
Seddon, Richard John: New Zealand statesman who as prime minister (1893-1906) led a Liberal Party ministry that sponsored innovating legislation for land settlement, labour protection, and old age pensions.