n. [ F. almageste, LL. almageste, Ar. al-majistī, fr. Gr. &unr_; (sc. &unr_;), the greatest composition. ] The celebrated work of Ptolemy of Alexandria, which contains nearly all that is known of the astronomical observations and theories of the ancients. The name was extended to other similar works. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ L. (usually in pl.); pref. ambi-, amb- + agere to drive: cf. F. ambage. ] A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. [ 1913 Webster ]

After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. sing. & pl. [ L., fr. compingere. See Compact, v. t. ] A system or structure of many parts united. [ 1913 Webster ]

A regular compages of pipes and vessels. Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) a sum of money paid in compensation for an injury or wrong.
Syn. -- amends, indemnity, indemnification, restitution, redress. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. A family of languages, mostly of the isolating type, although some are agglutinative, spoken in the great area extending from northern India in the west to Formosa in the east and from Central Asia in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Zool.) A shrike or butcher bird; -- written also matagasse. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. nonagesimus the ninetieth. See Nonagenarian. ] (Astron.) Of or pertaining to the ninetieth degree or to a nonagesimal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Astron.) The middle or highest point of the part of the ecliptic which is at any given moment above the horizon. It is the ninetieth degree of the ecliptic, reckoned from the points in which it is intersected by the horizon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl.; sing. Osage (Ethnol.) A tribe of southern Sioux Indians, now living in the Indian Territory. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fr. quadragesimus the fortieth, fr. quadraginta forty; akin to quattuor four. See Four. ] (Eccl.) The forty days of fast preceding Easter; Lent. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quadragesima Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, about forty days before Easter. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. quadragésimal. ] Belonging to Lent; used in Lent; Lenten. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. Offerings formerly made to the mother church of a diocese on Mid-Lent Sunday. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L., fr. quinquagesimus the fiftieth, akin to quinquaginta fifty, quinque five. See Five. ] Fiftieth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday which is the fiftieth day before Easter, both days being included in the reckoning; -- called also Shrove Sunday. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., fr. L. septuagesimus the seventieth, fr. septuaginta seventy. ] (Eccl.) The third Sunday before Lent; -- so called because it is about seventy days before Easter. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Consisting of seventy days, years, etc.; reckoned by seventies. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our abridged and septuagesimal age. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fem. of sexagesimus sixtieth, fr. sexaginta sixty. ] (Eccl.) The second Sunday before Lent; -- so called as being about the sixtieth day before Easter. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. sexagésimal. ] Pertaining to, or founded on, the number sixty. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sexagesimal fractions or
Sexagesimal numbers (Arith. & Alg.), those fractions whose denominators are some power of sixty; as, 1/60, 1/3600, 1/216000; -- called also astronomical fractions, because formerly there were no others used in astronomical calculations. --
Sexagesimal arithmetic, or
Sexagenary arithmetic, the method of computing by the sexagenary scale, or by sixties. --
Sexagesimal scale (Math.), the sexagenary scale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A sexagesimal fraction. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. plural in termination, but singular in signification. [ Plural of wage; cf. F. gages, pl., wages, hire. See Wage, n. ] 1. A compensation given to a hired person for services; price paid for labor; recompense; hire. See Wage, n., 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

The wages of sin is death. Rom. vi. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Economics) The share of the annual product or national dividend which goes as a reward to labor, as distinct from the remuneration received by capital in its various forms. This economic or technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence or management, which are earned by skill in directing the work of others. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Wages fund (Polit. Econ.), the aggregate capital existing at any time in any country, which theoretically is unconditionally destined to be paid out in wages. It was formerly held, by Mill and other political economists, that the average rate of wages in any country at any time depended upon the relation of the wages fund to the number of laborers. This theory has been greatly modified by the discovery of other conditions affecting wages, which it does not take into account. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See under Wage, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. a telephone book or part of a book in which the telephone numbers and often advertisements of business enterprises are listed in numerous sections, organized by the category of the business, the categories themselves being arranged alphabetically; a classified telephone directory. So called because for many years the listing thus organized was printed on yellow paper, to distinguish it from the white pages containing the names of individuals, listed alphabetically by last name. The yellow pages are usually bound together with the white pages in the telephone book distributed by the telephone company to its subscribers. The name was adopted by companies not affiliated with the telephone company, for the classified business directories that they sell. [ PJC ]