LATERAL • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Lateral

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/lˈætərəl/ Listen

adjective

Lateral adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to the sides; as, the lateral walls of a house; the lateral branches of a tree.

2.

(Anat.) Lying at, or extending toward, the side; away from the mesial plane; external; opposed to mesial.

3.

Directed to the side; as, a lateral view of a thing.

Lateral cleavage (Crystallog.), cleavage parallel to the lateral planes.

Lateral equation (Math.), an equation of the first degree. (Obs.)

Lateral line (Anat.), in fishes, a line of sensory organs along either side of the body, often marked by a distinct line of color.

Lateral pressure or Lateral stress (Mech.), a pressure or stress at right angles to the length, as of a beam or bridge; distinguished from longitudinal pressure or stress.

Lateral strength (Mech.), strength which resists a tendency to fracture arising from lateral pressure.

Lateral system (Bridge Building), the system of horizontal braces (as between two vertical trusses) by which lateral stiffness is secured.

noun

lateral pass, lateral n. (Football)

1.

A short pass to a receiver who is upfield from the passer, i.e. is behind the passer relative to the direction of the passer's goal.

2.

A part or extension of something that points sideways, as a drift in a mine that goes to the side from the main one.

verb

lateral v. t. & v. i. (Football) To pass the footbal to a receiver who is behind the passer; to make a lateral pass; as, the ball was lateraled to the fullback, who ran it for a touchdown.

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Etymology of 'Lateral'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lateral" Quotes from Famous Books

... insignificant, and with no future but my courage and my faculties? I did not then think of the consequences of the Restoration either for me or for others. On Sunday morning, from the private chapel where I sat with Monsieur and Madame de Chessel and the Abbe de Quelus, I cast an eager glance at another lateral chapel occupied by the duchess and her daughter, the count and his children. The large straw hat which hid my idol from me did not tremble, and this unconsciousness of my presence seemed to bind me to her ...

— The Lily of the Valley • Honore de Balzac

... with sulphur and with the pitch that is extracted from evergreen firs. [20] From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance ...

— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... bodily wretchedness. The train was somewhat belated, and as it drew nearer Buffalo they knew the conductor to have abandoned himself to that blackest of the arts, making time. The long irregular jolt of the ordinary progress was reduced to an incessant shudder and a quick lateral motion. The air within the cars was deadly; if a window was raised, a storm of dust and cinders blew in and quick gusts caught away the breath. So they sat with closed windows, sweltering and stifling, and all the faces on ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... out of the glen, passed around the brow of a grassy hill, whence he could look across a lateral valley to the Falconer farm-house. Pausing here, he plainly descried a stately "chair" leaning on its thills, in the shade of the weeping-willow, three horses hitched side by side to the lane-fence, and a faint glimmer of color between the mounds of box which almost hid the porch. It ...

— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor

... while it should last. The wall of the cavern at this point was so broken and fissured that it was not unscalable; and a little way off to the right he marked, at some height above the water, what looked like the entrance to a lateral gallery. ...

— In the Morning of Time • Charles G. D. Roberts

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