Definition for VAC'U-UM

VAC'U-UM, n. [L.]

Space empty or devoid of all matter or body. Whether there is such a thing as an absolute vacuum in nature, is a question which has been much controverted. The Peripatetics assert that nature abhors a vacuum. Torricellian vacuum, the vacuum produced by sufficiently filling a tube with mercury, and allowing it to descend till it is counterbalanced by the weight of the atmosphere, as in the barometer invented by Torricelli.

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