Emily Dickinson Lexicon

U-RA'NI-A, n.

In mythology, the muse of astronomy.

U'RAN-ITE, n.

An ore or phosphate of uranium, called also uran-glimmer, and uran-mica. Streak paler than the color; color emerald-green, grass-green, leek-green, golden-yellow and lemon-yellow; transparent or subtranslucent. It contains phosphoric acid, oxyd of uranium, oxyd of copper, lime, and silicic acid. It occurs crystalized in rectangular prisms, in imperfect octahedrons, &c. Its structure is lamellar, and it yields to the knife. Cyc. Phillips. Uranite is found in primitive earths, in three states, crystalized, compact, and pulverulent. Lavoisier. Dict. Nat. Hist.

U-RAN-IT'IC, a.

Pertaining to uranite, or resembling it.

U-RA'NI-UM, n. [Gr. ουρανος, heaven, or a planet so called.]

A metal discovered in 1789 by Klaproth, in the mineral called pechblend. It is occasaonally found native in uran-ocher and uran-mica; but more generally it is obtained from pechblend, in which it exists with iron, copper, lead, and sometimes with arsenic, cobalt and zink. Uranium is of a reddish-brown color, has a metallic luster, and is commonly obtained in a crystalline form. It suffers no change from exposure to the air at common temperatures, but when heated in open vessels it absorbs, oxygen and is converted into a protoxyd. Henry.

U-RAN-O'CHER, n.

Pechblend, an ore of uranium, containing the metal in an oxydized state. It is brown, grayish, black, and brownish black; occurring massive, globular reniform, disseminated, and pulverulent. Cyc. Ure. Phillips.

U-RAN-OL'O-GY, n. [Gr. ουρανος, heaven, and λογος, discourse.]

A discourse or treatise on the heavens. Mitchill.

U-RAN-OS'CO-PY, n. [Gr. ουρανος, heaven, and σκοπεω, to view.]

Contemplation of the heavenly bodies.

U'RA-NUS, n. [L.]

The planet formerly called Herschel, but which is now called Uranus.

UR'BAN, or UR'BANE, a. [L. urbanus, from urbs, a city.]

Civil; courteous in manners; polite.

UR-BAN'I-TY, n. [Fr. urbanité; L. urbanitas, from urbs, a city.]

1. That civility or courtesy of manners which is acquired by associating with well bred people; politeness; polished manners. Dryden. Brown.
2. Facetiousness. L'Estrange.

UR'BAN-IZE, v.t.

To render civil and courteous; to polish. Howell.

UR'CE-O-LATE, a. [L. urceolus, urceus, a pitcher.]

In botany, shaped like a pitcher; swelling out like a pitcher, as respects the body, and contracted at the orifice; as a calyx or coral. Martyn. Lee.

UR'CHIN, n. [Arm. heureuchin; L. erinaceus.]

1. A name given to the hedgehog.
2. A name of slight anger given to a child; as, the little urchin cried.

URE, n.

Use; practice. [Obsolete, but retained in inure.]

U'RE-A, n.

An animal substance obtained from urine. It is crystalline, transparent, and colorless, and of a pearly luster. It has the form of a tetrahedral prism. It is composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, and is a salifiable base.

U-RE'TER, n. [Gr. ουρητηρ, from ουρεω. See Urine.]

The excretory duct of the kidney, a tube conveying the urine from the kidney to the bladder. There are two ureters, one on each side. Coxe. Quincy.

U-RE'THRA, n. [Gr. ουρηθρα, from ουρεω. See Urine.]

The canal by which the urine is conducted from the bladder and discharged. Coxe.

U-RE'THRAL, a.

Pertaining to the urethra.

URGE, v.i.

To press forward; as, he strives to urge upward.

URGE, v.t. [L. urgeo. This belongs probably to the family of Gr. ειργω, and L. arceo.]

1. To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to apply force to, in almost any manner. And great Achilles urge the Trojan fate. Dryden.
2. To press the mind or will; to press by motives, arguments, persuasion or importunity. My brother / Did urge me in his act. Shak.
3. To provoke; to exasperate. Urge not my father's anger. Shak.
4. To follow close; to impel. Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave. Pope.
5. To labor vehemently; to press with eagerness. Through the thick deserts headlong urg'd his flight. Pope.
6. To press; as, to urge an argument; to urge a petition; to urge the necessity of a case.
7. To importune; to solicit earnestly. He urged his son to withdraw.
8. To apply forcibly; as, to urge an ore with intense heat.

URG'ED, pp.

Pressed; impelled; importuned.

URG'EN-CY, n.

1. Pressure; importunity; earnest solicitation; as, the urgency of a request.
2. Pressure of necessity; as, the urgency of want or distress; the urgency of the occasion.

URG'ENT, a.

1. Pressing with importunity. Exod. xii.
2. Pressing with necessity; violent; vehement; as, an urgent case or occasion.

URG'ENT-LY, adv.

With pressing importunity; violently; vehemently; forcibly.

URG'ER, n.

One who urges; one who importunes.