metal

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: F. métal, L. metallum metal, mine, Gr. … mine; cf. Gr. … to search after. Cf. Mettle, Medal.

1. Chemistry An elementary substance, as sodium, calcium, or copper, whose oxide or hydroxide has basic rather than acid properties, as contrasted with the nonmetals, or metalloids. No sharp line can be drawn between the metals and nonmetals, and certain elements partake of both acid and basic qualities, as chromium, manganese, bismuth, etc.

☞ Popularly, the name is applied to certain hard, fusible metals, as gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, zinc, nickel, etc., and also to the mixed metals, or metallic alloys, as brass, bronze, steel, bell metal, etc.

2. Ore from which a metal is derived; — so called by miners. Raymond, Rossiter Worthington

3. A mine from which ores are taken. obsolete

Slaves... and persons condemned to metals.— Taylor, Jeremy

4. The substance of which anything is made; material; hence, constitutional disposition; character; temper.

Not till God make men of some other metal than earth.— William Shakespeare

5. Courage; spirit; mettle. See Mettle. William Shakespeare

☞ The allusion is to the temper of the metal of a sword blade. Walter William Skeat

6. The broken stone used in macadamizing roads and ballasting railroads.

7. The effective power or caliber of guns carried by a vessel of war.

8. Glass in a state of fusion. Knight, Edward Henry

9. pl. The rails of a railroad. British

Base metal Chemistry, any one of the metals, as iron, lead, etc., which are readily tarnished or oxidized, in contrast with the noble metals. In general, a metal of small value, as compared with gold or silver. — Fusible metal Metallurgy, a very fusible alloy, usually consisting of bismuth with lead, tin, or cadmium. — Heavy metals Chemistry, the metallic elements not included in the groups of the alkalies, alkaline earths, or the earths; specifically, the heavy metals, as gold, mercury, platinum, lead, silver, etc. — Light metals Chemistry, the metallic elements of the alkali and alkaline earth groups, as sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, etc.; also, sometimes, the metals of the earths, as aluminium. — Muntz metal, an alloy for sheathing and other purposes, consisting of about sixty per cent of copper, and forty of zinc. Sometimes a little lead is added. It is named from the inventor. — Prince's metal Old Chem., an alloy resembling brass, consisting of three parts of copper to one of zinc; — also called Prince Rupert's metal.

To cover with metal; as, to metal a ship's bottom; to metal a road.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

1.Mega-Extensive Telecommunications Applications Language. BBS language for PRODOS 8 on Apple II.

2.The syntax-definition formalism of the Mentor system. Metal specifications are compiled to specifications for a scanner/parser generator such as Lex/Yacc. "Metal: A Formalism to Specify Formalisms", G. Kahn et al, Sci Comp Prog 3:151-188 (1983).