RHABDOL'OGY, noun [Gr. a staff or want, and discourse.]

The act or art of computing or numbering by Napier's rods or Napier's bones.

RHAB'DOMANCY, noun [Gr. a rod, and divination.]

Divination by a rod or wand.

RHAPSOD'IC,

RHAPSOD'ICAL, adjective [from rhapsody.] Pertaining to or consisting of rhapsody; unconnected.

RHAPSOD'ICAL, a. [from rhapsody.] Pertaining to or consisting of rhapsody; unconnected.

RHAP'SODIST, noun [from rhapsody.]

1. One that writes or speaks without regular dependence of one part of his discourse on another.

2. One who recites or signs rhapsodies for a livelihood; or one who makes and repeats verses extempore.

3. Anciently, one whose profession was to recite the verses of Homer and other poets.

RHAP'SODY, noun [Gr. to sew or unite, and a song.]

Originally, a discourse in verse, sung or rehearsed by a rhapsodist; or a collection of verses, particularly those of Homer. In modern usage, a collection of passages thoughts or authorities, composing a new piece, but without necessary dependence or natural connection.

RHE'NISH, adjective Pertaining to the river Rhine, or to Rheims in France; as Rhemish wine; as a noun, the wine produced on the hills about Rheims, which is remarkable as a solvent of iron.

RHE'TIAN, adjective Pertaining to the ancient Rhaeti, or to Rhaetia, their country; as the rhetian Alps, now the country of Tyrol and the Grisons.

RHET'IZITE, noun A mineral occurring in masses or in radiated concretions, and of a white color.

RHE'TOR, noun [Latin from Gr. an orator or speaker.]

A rhetorician. [Little used.]

RHET'ORIC, noun [Gr. from to speak, to flow. Eng. to read. The primary sense is to drive or send. See Read.]

1. The art of speaking with propriety, elegance and force.

2. The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms. We speak of the rhetoric of the tongue, and the rhetoric of the heart or eyes.

Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes.

RHETOR'ICAL, adjective

1. Pertaining to rhetoric; as the rhetorical art.

2. Containing the rules of rhetoric; as a rhetorical treatise.

3. Oratorial; as a rhetorical flourish.

RHETOR'ICALLY, adverb In the manner of rhetoric; according to the rules of rhetoric; as, to treat a subject rhetorically; a discourse rhetorically delivered.

RHETOR'ICATE, verb intransitive To play the orator. [Not in use.]

RHETORICA'TION, noun Rhetorical amplification. [Not in use.]

RHETORI'CIAN, noun

1. One who teaches the art of rhetoric, or the principles and rules of correct and elegant speaking.

The ancient sophists and rhetoricians, who had young auditors, lived till they were a hundred years old.

2. One well versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric.

3. An orator. [Less proper.]

RHETORI'CIAN, adjective [See the noun.] Suiting a master of rhetoric. [Not in use.]

RHET'ORIZE, verb intransitive To play the orator.

RHET'ORIZE, verb transitive To represent by a figure of oratory.

RHEUM, noun [Gr. from to flow.]

1. An increased and often inflammatory action of the vessels of an organ; but generally applied to the inflammatory action of the mucous glands, attended with increased discharge and an altered state of their excreted fluids.

2. A thin serous fluid, secreted by the mucous glands, etc.; as in catarrh.

RHEUMAT'IC, adjective [Latin rheumaticus; Gr. from rheum, which see.]

Pertaining to rheumatism, or partaking of its nature, as rheumatic pains or affections.

RHEU'MATISM, noun [Latin rheumatismus; Gr. from a watery humor, from to flow; the ancients supposing the disease to proceed from a defluxion of humors.]

A painful disease affecting muscles and joints of the human body, chiefly the larger joints, as the hips, knees, shoulders, etc.

RHEU'MY, adjective [from rheum.]

1. Full of rheum or watery matter; consisting of rheum or partaking of its nature.

2. Affected with rheum.

3. Abounding with sharp moisture; causing rheum.

RHIME. [See Rhyme.]

RHI'NO, noun A cant word for gold and silver, or money.

RHINOCE'RIAL, adjective [from rhinoceros.]

Pertaining to the rhinoceros; resembling the rhinoceros.

RHINOC'EROS, noun [Latin rhinoceros; Gr. nose-horn.]

A genus of quadrupeds of two species, one of which, the unicorn, as a single horn growing almost erect from the nose. This animal when full grown, is said to be 12 feet in length. There is another species with two horns, the bicornis. They are natives of Asia and Africa.

RHO'DIAN, adjective Pertaining to Rhodes, an isle of the Mediterranean; as rhodian laws.

RHO'DIUM, noun A metal recently discovered among grains of crude platinum.

RHODODEN'DRON, noun [Gr. a rose and a tree.]

The dwarf rosebay.

RHO'DONITE, noun A mineral of a red, reddish, or yellowish white color, and splintery fracture, occurring compact or fibrous in the Hartz at Strahlberg, etc.

RHOE'TIZITE,

RHOMB, noun [Latin rhombus; Gr from to turn or whirl round, to wander, to roam or rove; literally, a deviating square.]

In geometry, an oblique angled parallelogram, or a quadrilateral figure whose sides are equal and parallel, but the angles unequal, two of the angles being obtuse and two acute. It consists of two equal and right cones united at the base.

RHOMB, n. [L. rhombus; Gr from to turn or whirl round, to wander, to roam or rove; literally, a deviating square.]

RHOMB'IC, adjective Having the figure of a rhomb.

RHOM'BO, noun A fish of turbot kind.

RHOM'BOID, noun [Gr. rhomb, and form.]

1. In geometry, a figure having some resemblance to a rhomb; or a quadrilateral figure whose opposite sides and angles are equal, but which is neither equilateral nor equiangular.

2. adjective In anatomy, the rhomboid muscle is a thin, broad and obliquely square fleshy muscle, between the basis of the scapula and the spina dorsi.

RHOMBOID'AL, adjective Having the shape of a rhomboid, or a shape approaching it.

RHU'BARB, noun

A plant of the genus Rheum, of several species; as the rhapontic, or common rhubarb; the palmated, or true Chinese rhubarb; the compact or Tartarian; the undulated or wave-leafed Chinese rhubarb; and the rubes, or currant rhubarb of mount Libanus. The root is medicinal and much used as a moderate cathartic.

RHUB'ARBARINE, noun A vegetable substance obtained from rhubarb.

RHUMB, noun [from rhomb.] In navigation, a vertical circle of any given place, or the intersection of such a circle with the horizon; in which last sense, rhumb is the same as a point of the compass.

RHYME,

RHY'MELESS, adjective Destitute of rhyme; not having consonance of sound.

RHY'MER,

RHY'MIC, adjective Pertaining to rhyme.

RHY'MIC, a. Pertaining to rhyme.

RHY'MIST,

RHY'MSTER, noun One who makes rhymes; a versifier; a poor poet.

RHYTHM,

RHYTH'MICAL, adjective [Gr., Latin rhythmicus.]

Having proportion of sound, or one sound proportioned to another; harmonical.

Duly regulated by cadences, accents and quantities.

RHYTH'MUS, noun [Gr.]

1. In music, variety in the movement as to quickness or slowness, or length and shortness of the notes; or rather the proportion which the parts of the motion have to each other.

2. Meter; verse; number.