Our Mutual Friend
a novel by Charles Dickens, published in nineteen installments during 1864-65. This is one of Dickens' most entertaining stories, although, so far as plot goes, one of the most improbable. The story is based on the assumption by two simple old people of characters wholly foreign to their true nature in order that they may teach to a warmhearted but ambitious girl the fact that wealth brings oftentimes temptations and evils in its train. Many interesting personalities appear in the course of the story. Jenny Wren, the doll's dressmaker; Silas Wegg, who "dropped into poetry"; Pleasant Rider-hood, always twisting up her hair; the Golden Dustman; Lizzie Hexam, and the Veneerings are people whom everyone wishes to know.
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Ouse
a river of England, York co., formed by the junction of the Swale and Ure, and after a S. E. course of 60 miles, unites with the Trent to form the estuary of the Humber. It is navigable for large vessels 45 miles, or to York. OUSE (GREAT) rises near Brackley, Northampton county, and after a N. E. course of 160 miles, two-thirds of which is navigable, enters the Wash at Lynn Regis. OUSE (LITTLE) or BRANDON RIVER, falls into the Great Ouse, at the junction of the river Stoke, and the New Bedford and Wisbeach canal.
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Outcrop
in mining and geology, a term used by miners, but now adopted by shed geologists, for the exposure of any porgeneral of tion of a stratum which comes out upon Rome in the surface, or for the part of the stratum thus exposed.
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Outing Cloth
a general name for soft, loosely woven cotton textiles finished with a nap. Outing cloth is often striped, checked, or figured in the loom. It is used for men's shirts, women's and children's undergarments and dressing sacques, and for a variety of domestic purposes. Outing cloth is known by many names. Outing flannel, flannelette, tennis flannel, domett, and guinea cloth are some of them.
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Outlawry
the act of outlawing; the state of being being outlawed; the putting a man out of the protection of the law, or the process by which a man is deprived of that protection, as a punishment for contempt in refusing to appear when called into court. Formerly any one might kill an outlawed person without incurring any penalty, but now the wanton killing of an outlaw is considered as murder. In England criminal " ( the outlawry has been in abeyance since " Folle 1859; civil outlawry was abolished in ( 1873), 1879. In the U. S. civil outlawry is unknown, and criminal outlawry has been obsolete since the Revolution.
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Outrigger
in its proper sense, a beam or spar fastened horizontally to the crosstrees or otherwise, for the purpose of extending further from the mast or topmast the backstay or other rope by which that mast or topmast is supported. The power of the stay is thus increased. The term is also applied to a contrivance used in very narrow racing boats, by which the oar is given the requisite amount of play outboard.
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Outworks
all works of a fortress which are situated without the principal line of fortification.
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Oval
an egg-shaped curve or curve resembling the longitudinal section of an egg.
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Ovarian Cysts
in pathology, one of the three kinds of tumors occasionally arising in the ovary. It consists in the conversion of the gland, or parts of it, into cysts. Ovarian cysts tend to grow to a great size. They are often fatal within four years unless healed by a successful operation.
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Ovariotomy
the operation of removing the ovary, or a tumor in the ovary; a surgical operation first performed in 1809, and long considered exceedingly dangerous, but latterly performed with great and increasing success, especially since the adoption of the antiseptic treatment inaugurated by Lister.
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Ovary
in botany, a hollow case placed at the base of the pistil, and containing one or more cells inclosing ovules. Its normal state is to be superior to the calyx; but in some cases it is adherent to the tube of the calyx, when it is called inferior. It may also be parietal. In physiology, the organ in which the ova or germs of the future offspring are formed and temporarily contained.
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Oven
a close chamber in which substances are baked, heated, or dried; a chamber in a stove or range in which food is baked.
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Oven Birds
birds belonging to the family Certhidæ, or creepers, found in South America; typical genus, Furnarius. They are all of small size, and feed upon seeds, fruits, and insects. Their popular name is derived from the form of their nest, which is dome-shaped, and built of tough clay or mud with a winding entrance.
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Oven-Bird
a brownish, olive-green, woodland bird about six inches long. It belongs to the warbler family. It breeds in the eastern part of North America , and winters on the Gulf and southward. A bulky nest of coarse material is built on the ground with an entrance at one side. The female lays four or five white eggs spotted with cinnamon. The call or song of the oven bird is written by John Burroughs as "teacher, teacher, TEACHER, TEACHER, TEACHER."
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Ovens River
a river in the N. E. of Victoria, Australia; a tributary of the Murray. The district is an important gold mining and agricultural one.
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Overbanking
When the balance vibrates excessively and causes the ruby pin to push past the lever, it is known as overbanking.
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Overcoil
The last coil of a Breguet hairspring, where it is bent over the body of the spring towards the center, is called the overcoil.
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Overijssel
or OVERYSSEL, a province of the Netherlands; area, 1,283 square miles. It is watered by the Ijssel, which separates it from Gelderland, and by the Vecht and its affluents. Except a strip along the Ijssel, presenting good arable and meadow land, the surface is mostly a sandy flat relieved by hillocks, and the principal industry is stock raising and dairy farming. Chief towns, Zwolle, Deventer, Almelo, and Kampen. Pop. (1917) 431,757.
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Overlap
a term of geology. When the upper beds of a conformable series of strata extend beyond the bottom beds of the same series, ies, the former are said to overlap the latter.
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