Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CENT-EN'NIAL, a. [L. centum, a hundred, and annus, a year.]

1. Consisting of a hundred years, or completing that term. – Mason.
2. Pertaining to a hundred years.
3. Happening every hundred years.

CEN'TER, n. [Gr. κεντρον, a point, goad, or spur, from κεντεω, to prick; L. centrum; Fr. centre; Sp. centro; Port. and It. id.]

1. A point equally distant from the extremities of a line, figure or body; the middle point or place.
2. The middle or central object. In an army, the body of troops occupying the place in the line between the wings. In a fleet, the division between the van and rear of the line of battle, and between the weather division and lee, in the order of sailing. – Mar. Dict.
3. A single body or house. These institutions collected all authority into on center, kings, nobles and people. J. Adams. Center of gravity, in mechanics, the point about which all the parts of a body exactly balance each other. Center of motion, the point which remains at rest, while all the other parts of a body move round it. – Encyc.

CENTER, v.i.

1. To be collected to a point. Our hopes must center on ourselves alone. – Dryden.
2. To be collected to a point; to rest on.
3. To be placed in the middle. – Milton.

CEN'TER, v.t.

1. To place on a center; to fix on a central point. – Milton.
2. To collect to a point. Thy joys are centered all in me alone. – Prior.

CEN'TER-ED, pp.

Collected to a point or center; fixed on a central point.

CEN'TER-ING, ppr.

Placing on the center; collecting to a point.

CENT-ES'I-MAL, a. [L. centesimus, from centum, a hundred.]

The hundredth. As a noun, the next step of progression after decimal in the arithmetic of fractions. – Johnson.

CENT-ES-I-MA'TION, n. [L. centesimus, supra.]

A military punishment for desertion, mutiny, or the like, where one person in a hundred is selected for execution. – Encyc.

CEN'TESM, n. [L. centesimus.]

The hundredth part of an integer or thing. [Not used.] – Bailey.

CEN-TI-CIP'IT-OUS, a.

Having a hundred parts.

CEN-TIF'I-DOUS, a.

Divided into a hundred parts.

CEN-TI-FO'LI-OUS, a. [L. centum, a hundred, and folium, a leaf.]

Having a hundred leaves. – Bailey. Johnson.

CEN'TI-GRADE, a. [L. centum, a hundred, and gradus, a degree.]

Consisting of a hundred degrees; graduated into a hundred divisions or equal parts; as, a centigrade thermometer. – Medical Repository.

CEN'TI-GRAM, n. [L. centum, and gram.]

In French measure, the hundredth part of a gram. [See Gram.]

CEN-TIL'IT-ER, n. [L. centum, and Fr. litre, or litron.]

The hundredth part of a liter, a little more than 6/10 of a cubic inch.

CEN-TIL'O-QUY, n. [L. centum and loquor.]

A hundred-fold discourse. – Burton.

CEN-TIM'E-TER, n. [L. centum, a hundred, and Gr. μετρον, measure.]

In French measure, the hundredth part of a meter, rather more than 39/100 of an inch, English measure. – Christ. Obs. x. 192.

CEN'TI-NO-DY, n.

Knotgrass. [Not used.]

CEN'TI-PED, n. [L. centipeda; centum, a hundred, and pes, a foot.]

An insect having a hundred feet, but the term is applied to insects that have many feet, though not a hundred. Insects of this kind are called generically Scolopendra. In warm climates, some of them grow to the length of six inches or more, and their bite is poisonous. – Encyc.

CEN'TI-PEE, n. [For Centiped, is not used.]

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.