Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CENT'NER, n. [L. centum, centinarius.]

In metallurgy and assaying, a docimastic hundred; a weight divisible first into a hundred parts, and then into smaller parts. The metallurgists use a weight divided into a hundred equal parts, each one pound; the whole they call a centner: the pound is divided into thirty-two parts or half ounces; the half ounce into two quarters, and each of these into two drams. But the assayers use different weights. With them a centner is one dram, to which the other parts are proportioned. Encyc.

CEN'TO, n. [L. cento, patched cloth, a rhapsody.]

A composition formed by verses or passages from other authors, disposed in a new order. Johnson. Encyc.

CEN'TRAL, a. [L. centralis.]

Relating to the center; placed in the center or middle; containing the center, or pertaining to the parts near the center. Central forces, in mechanics, the powers which cause a moving body to tend toward or recede from the center of motion.

CEN-TRAL'I-TY, n.

The state of being central.

CEN-TRAL-I-ZA'TION, n.

Act of centralizing.

CEN'TRAL-IZE, v.t.

To draw to a central point; to bring to a center. Calhoun.

CEN'TRAL-LY, adv.

With regard to the center; in a central manner.

CEN'TRIC, a.

Placed in the center or middle.

CEN'TRIC-AL-LY, adv.

In a central position.

CEN'TRIC-AL-NESS, n.

Situation in the center.

CEN-TRIF'U-GAL, a. [L. centrum, and fugio, to flee.]

1. Tending to recede from the center. The centrifugal force of a body, is that force by which all bodies moving round another body in a curve tend to fly off from the axis of their motion, in a tangent to the periphery of the curve. Encyc.
2. In botany, expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower. Lindley.

CEN-TRIP'E-TAL, a. [L. centrum, and peto, to move toward.]

1. Tending toward the center. Centripetal force is that force which draws or impels a body toward some point as a center; as in case of a planet revolving round the sun, the center of the system.
2. In botany, expanding first at the base of the inflorescence, and later at the summit, as a flower. Lindley. Note. – The common accentuation of centrifugal and centripetal is artificial and harsh. The accent on the first and third syllables, as in circumpolar, would be natural and easy.

CEN'TUM-VIR, n. [L. centum, a hundred, and vir, a man.]

One of a hundred and five judges, in ancient Rome, appointed to decide common causes among the people.

CEN-TUM'VI-RAL, a.

Pertaining to the centumvirs.

CEN-TUM'VI-RI, [L.]

The hundred judges in Rome.

CEN'TU-PLE, a. [Fr. from L. centuplex, centum, and plico, to fold.]

A hundred fold.

CEN'TU-PLE, v.t.

To multiply a hundred fold. Beaum.

CEN-TU'PLI-CATE, v.t. [L. centum, and plicatus, folded; Sp. centuplicar, to make a hundred fold.]

To make a hundred fold.

CEN-TU'PLI-CA-TED, pp.

Made a hundred fold.

CEN-TU'PLI-CA-TING, ppr.

Making a hundred fold.

CEN-TU'RI-AL, a. [from century.]

Relating to a century, or a hundred years; as a centurial sermon. When the third centurial jubilee of New-England shall come, who of us will then be living to participate the general joy? J. Woodbridge.

CEN-TU'RI-ATE, v.t. [L. centurio, to divide into hundreds or companies.]

To divide into hundreds. Johnson. Bailey.

CEN-TU'RI-A-TOR, or CEN'TU-RIST, n. [Fr. centuriateur, from L. centuria, a century, or from centurio, to divide into hundreds.]

A historian who distinguishes time into centuries; as in the Universal Church History of Magdeburg. Ayliffe.

CEN-TU'RI-ON, n. [L. centurio, from centum, a hundred.]

Among the Romans, a military officer who commanded a hundred men, century or company of infantry, answering to the captain in modern armies.

CEN'TU-RY, n. [L. centuria from centum, a hundred.]

1. In a general sense, a hundred; any thing consisting of a hundred parts.
2. A division of the Roman people for the purpose of electing magistrates and enacting laws, the people voting by centuries; also, a company consisting of a hundred men.
3. A period of a hundred years. This is the most common signification of the word; and as we begin our modern computation of time from the incarnation of Christ, the word is generally applied to some term of a hundred years subsequent to that event; as, the first or second century, or the tenth century. If we intend to apply the word to a different era, we use an explanatory adjunct; as, the third century before the Christian era, or after the reign of Cyrus.
4. The Centuries of Magdeburg, a title given to an ecclesiastical history, arranged in 13 centuries, compiled by a great number of Protestants at Magdeburg.