Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AT'LAS, n.

1. A collection of maps in a volume; supposed to be so called from a picture of mount Atlas, supporting the heavens, prefixed to some collection. – Johnson.
2. A large square folio, resembling a volume of maps.
3. The supporters of a building.
4. A silk, satin, or stuff, manufactured in the East, with admirable ingenuity. Atlases are plain, striped, or flowered; but they have not the fine gloss and luster of some French silks. – Encyc.
5. The first verteber of the neck. – Coxe.
6. A term applied to paper, as atlas fine. – Burke.