fiat (fiat)

and a. [L. fiat, let it be done, 3d pers. sing. subj. pres. of fier i, be done, be. come, come into existence, used as pa . of ja cere, make, do: see fact. In the first sense there is often an allusion to Gen. i. 3 (Vulgate): "Dixitque Deus: Fiat lux. Et fact a est lux." ("And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.")] I. n. 1. A command that some thing be done; specifically, an absolute and efficient command proceeding from, or as if from, divine or creative power. So that we, except God say Another fiat , shall have no more day. Donne, The Storm. Why did the fiat of a God give birth To yon fair Sun, and his attendant Earth? Cowper, Tirocinium, 1. 35. 2197 fibrillar fiber without transverse striations, in distinction from striated fibers, which compose the voluntary muscles and the heart.- Sharpey's fibers, or perforating rods of Sharpey, very fine proce es pa ing through and seeming to rivet together several concentric lam inæ of bone ti ue; perforating fibers.- Smooth fiber, the non-striated fiber of muscles. - Striated fiber, in an at., a muscular fiber. See non - striated fiber. - Vegetable fibers, the narrow elongated cells which characterize the woody and Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii. bast ti ues of plants, giving them strength, toughne , Destroy his fib or sophistry - in vain; The creature's at his dirty work again. Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 91. She was for the fib , but not the lie; at a word, she could be disdainful of subterfuges. G. Meredith, The Egoist, xxix. fibl (fib), v.; pret. and pp. fibbed , ppr. fibbing . [ fib1 , n.] 1. in trans . To say what is not true; lie, especially in a mild or comparatively in no- way. IMG:content-1263.png:[ocr errors] rapid blows. [Slang.] fibber (fiber), n. One who tells fibs or lies. Your royal grandsire (trust me, I'm no fibber ) Was vastly fond of Colley Cibber. fiber1, fibre (fiber), n. [= G. Dan. Sw. fiber , fibre = Pr. fibra = Sp. hebra , fibra = Pg. It. fibra , fibra , a fiber, filament (of plant or animal), akin to fimbriæ , fibers, threads, fringe (> ult. E. fringe ), and perhaps to filum , a thread, > ult. E. files and filament .] 1. A thread or fila- ment; any fine thread-like part of a substance, as a single natural filament of wool, cotton, silk, or asbestos, one of the slender terminal roots of a plant, a drawn-out thread of gla , etc. Invet'rate habits choke th' unfruitful heart, Their fibres penetrate its tenderest part. Cowper, Retirement, 1. 42. Old Yew which graspest at the stones That name the under-lying dead, Thy fibres net the dreamle head, Thy roots are wrapt about the bones. Tennyson, In Memoriam, ii. 2. In a collective sense, a filamentous substance; a conglomeration of thread-like ti ue, such as exists in animals and plants general ly; more generally, any animal, vegetable, or even mineral substance the constituent parts of which may be separated into or used to form threads for textile fabrics or the like: as, mus cular or vegetable fiber; the fiber of wool; silk, cotton, or jute fiber; asbestos fiber.-3. Figuratively, sinew; strength: as, a man of fiber. Yet had no fibres in him, nor no force. 4. Material; stuff; quality; character. Chapman, Our friend Mr. Tulliver had a good-natured fibre in him. George Eliot, Mill on the Flo , i. 8. The stuff of which poets are made, whether finer or not, is of very different fiber from that which is used in the tough fabric of martyrs. Lowell , Study Windows, p. 295. But how are ordinary men, of no specially elevated moral fibre , to be carried up to the turning-point where and elasticity. Bast or liber fibers, which are found chiefly in the bark, are distinguished from wood fibers by being usually longer, thicker-walled, and tougher. The cells are spindle-shaped with pointed ends, and cohere firmly to each other by the extremities, forming most of the textile fibers in common use. The length of the individual cells varies greatly, from le than a millimeter in many plants to an inch or two in hemp or flax, and from 3 to 6 or 8 or china-gra fiber. (See cut under inches or more in ramie china gra which are found investing seeds are in reality hairs, and not proper fiber.-Vulcanized fiber, paper, paper-pulp, or other preparation of vegetable fiber saturated and coated with a metallic chlorid, as tin, calcium, magnesium, or aluminium chlorid, with the effect of giving to the material toughne and strength. E. H. Knight.