Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

golf

(Encyclopedia)golf, game of hitting a small hard ball with specially made clubs over an outdoor course sometimes (particularly if it is near the coast) called a links. The object is to deposit the ball in a specifi...

rummy

(Encyclopedia)rummy, card game played by two to six players with a standard deck. The cards usually rank from king down through ace. Seven cards are dealt to each player in the three- or four-hand game, one card is...

Low, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Low, Sir David lō [key], 1891–1963, British cartoonist, b. New Zealand. In 1919 Low went to England, where he worked on the London Star (1919–27). Thereafter he successively joined the staff of t...

Child, Lydia Maria

(Encyclopedia)Child, Lydia Maria, 1802–80, American author and abolitionist, b. Lydia Maria Francis, Medford, Mass. She edited (1826–34) the Juvenile Miscellany, a children's periodical. She and her husband (Da...

legion

(Encyclopedia)legion, large unit of the Roman army. It came into prominence c.400 b.c. It originally consisted of 3,000 to 4,000 men drawn into eight ranks: the first six ranks, called hoplites, were heavily armed,...

Guadalupe Hidalgo

(Encyclopedia)Guadalupe Hidalgo gwäᵺälo͞oˈpā ēdälˈgō, wä– [key], shrine, central Mexico, in the Federal District. The basilica of Guadalupe containing the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe (feast: Dec. ...

Garamond, Claude

(Encyclopedia)Garamond, Claude klōd gärämôNˈ [key], 1480–1561, Parisian designer and maker of printing types. According to tradition he learned his art from Geofroy Tory. Types designed by Garamond were used...

international date line

(Encyclopedia)international date line, imaginary line on the earth's surface, generally following the 180° meridian of longitude, where, by international agreement, travelers change dates. Traveling eastward acros...

billiards

(Encyclopedia)billiards, any one of a number of games played with a tapered, leather-tipped stick called a cue and various numbers of balls on a rectangular, cloth-covered slate table with raised and cushioned edge...

photometry

(Encyclopedia)photometry fōtŏmˈətrē [key], branch of physics dealing with the measurement of the intensity of a source of light, such as an electric lamp, and with the intensity of light such a source may cast...

Browse by Subject