dotl (dot)

[ dot dot, "a little bundle of spoiled wool, thread silk or such like, which is good for nothing" (Sewel), = East Fries. dotte, dot, a clump, Fries. dodd, a clump, = Sw. dial. dott, a little heap, clump. Hence dottle; also ( Long stood Sir Bedivere Revolving many memories, till the hull Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn. Tennyson, Morte d'Arthur. Specifically- (a) A small spot introduced in the variegation of cloth: as, polka dots in women's dre -fabrics. (b) In writing and printing, a minute round spot serving -(1) as a customary distinction, as the dot over the body of i and jand formerly of y, or (2) as a special diacritic, as the dots of a, a, a, etc., in the notation of pronuncia. tion used in this dictionary, or the vowel-signs or points in Hebrew and Arabic, or (3) as a mark of punctuation, as the period, which consists of one dot, and the colon, which consists of two dots. The dot on the letter [i] came into fashion in the 14th century. Encyc. Brit ., XVIII. 161. (c) In musical notation : (1) A point placed after a note or rest, to indicate that the duration of the note or rest is to be increased one half. A double dot further increases the duration by one half the value of the single dot: (2) A point placed over or under a note, to indicate that the note is to be performed somewhat staccato (which see); but in old music, when several dots are placed over a long note, they indicate that it is to be subdivided into as many short notes: (3) When placed in the spaces of a staff with a heavy or double bar, dots indicate the beginning or end of a repeat (which see). (d) In embroidery, and in weaving imitating embroidery, a simple, small, round spot, especially when solid or opaque, on a thin and translucent ground. There are several kinds, distinguished chiefly by their size, as point de pois, point d'or, etc. (e) In plastering: (1) pl. Nails so driven into a wall that their heads are left projecting a certain distance, thus forming a gage to show how thick the plaster should be laid on. (2) A patch of plaster put on to regulate the floating rule in making screeds and bays. dot1 (dot), v.; pret. and pp. dotted, ppr. dotting. [ Some few places, which are here, and in other parts of the chart, distinguished by a dotted line. Cook , Voyages, II. ii. 7. 2. To mark or diversify with small detached objects: as, a landscape dotted with cottages or clumps of trees. Dotting the fields of corn and vine, Like ghosts, the huge gnarl'd olives shine. 3. To place so as to appear like dots. All about were dotted leafy trees. M. Arnold. William Morris , Earthly Paradise, I. 233. Dotted line, a line of dots on a surface made for some specific purpose, as in a map, diagram, or drawing to mark an indefinite boundary, route, or outline, in printing to mark an omi ion or to guide the eye from one point to another, etc.- Dotted manner (F. manière criblée ), a system of engraving in dots, peculiar to the fifteenth century. When on metal plates the larger dots were probably punched out of the metal and the smaller indented, but not to complete perforation. The work was either in relief or in intaglio, according to circumstances. When on wood the circular spots were cut out so as to reduce the surface of the blocks. Dotted metal plates were intended to serve as ornaments for book-covers and -corners, or for pieces of furniture, and their indented dots were filled with enamel. Before the enamel was put in the goldsmith was accustomed to rub off impre ions upon paper with a burnisher; and these impre ions are known as prints in the dotted manner. - Dotted note or rest, in musical notation , a note or rest with a dot after it. See dot1, n. (c) (1). - Dotted stitch. Same as dot - stitch . II. in trans. To make dots or spots. To dot and carry, or carry one, etc., in performing addition, as in school, to set down the units of an added column and carry the tens to the next column. [In the extract used as a complex noun for the action.] The metre, too, was regular As schoolboy's dot and carry . Lowell , Origin of Didactic Poetry. 1740 It is either formally settled by a written instrument, or secured by expre ing the marriage contract as under the dotal rule. The dos or dotal estate is something very different from our "dower." It has become the dot of French law, and is the favourite form of settling the property of married women all over the Continent of Europe. It is a contribution by the wife's family, or by the wife herself, intended to a ist the husband in bearing the expenses of the conjugal household. Only the revenue belonged to the husband, and many minute rules prevented him from spending it on objects foreign to the purpose of the settlement. The corpus or capital of the settled property was, among the Romans (as now in France), incapable of alienation, unle with the permi ion of a court of justice. Maine , Early Hist. of Institutions, p. 319. ..