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oval |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Oval \O"val\, a. [F. ovale, fr L. ovum egg. Cf {Egg}, {Ovum}.] 1. Of or pertaining to eggs; done in the egg, or inception; as oval conceptions. [Obs.] 2. Having the figure of an egg; oblong and curvilinear, with one end broader than the other or with both ends of about the same breadth; in popular usage, elliptical. 3. (Bot.) Broadly elliptical. {Oval chuck} (Mech.), a lathe chuck so constructed that work attached to it and cut by the turning tool in the usual manner, becomes of an oval form From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Oval \O"val\, n. A body or figure in the shape of an egg, or popularly, of an ellipse. {Cassinian oval} (Geom.), the locus of a point the product of whose distances from two fixed points is constant; -- so called from Cassini, who first investigated the curve. Thus in the diagram, if P moves so that P A.P B is constant, the point P describes a Cassinian oval. The locus may consist of a single closed line as shown by the dotted line or of two equal ovals about the points A and B. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: oval adj : rounded like an egg [syn: {egg-shaped}, {elliptic}, {elliptical}, {ovate}, {oviform}, {ovoid}, {prolate}] n : a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it "the sums of the distances from the foci to any point on an ellipse is constant" [syn: {ellipse}]
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