Sight"proof` (?), a. Undiscoverable to sight.
Hidden in their own sightproof bush.
Lowell.
Sight"-see`ing (?), a. Engaged in, or given to, seeing sights; eager
for novelties or curiosities.
Sight"-see`ing, n. The act of seeing sights; eagerness for novelties or
curiosities.
Sight"-se`er (?), n. One given to seeing sights or noted things, or
eager for novelties or curiosities.
Sight"-shot` (?), n. Distance to which the sight can reach or be
thrown. [R.] Cowley.
Sights"man (?), n.; pl. Sightsmen (&?;). (Mus.) One who reads or
performs music readily at first sight. [R.] Busby.
Sig"il (?), n. [L. sigillum. See Seal a stamp.] A seal; a signature.
Dryden.
Of talismans and sigils knew the power.
Pope.
||Sig`il*la"ri*a (?), n. pl. [L., from sigillum a seal. See Sigil.]
||(Rom. Antic.) Little images or figures of earthenware exposed for
||sale, or given as presents, on the last two days of the Saturnalia;
||hence, the last two, or the sixth and seventh, days of the
||Saturnalia.
||Sig`il*la"ri*a, n. [NL., fem sing. fr. L. sigillum a seal.] (Paleon.)
||A genus of fossil trees principally found in the coal formation; --
||so named from the seallike leaf scars in vertical rows on the
||surface.
Sig`il*la"rid (?), n. (Paleon.) One of an extinct family of
cryptagamous trees, including the genus Sigillaria and its allies.
Sig"il*la`ted (?), a. [L. sigillatus adorned with little images.]
Decorated by means of stamps; -- said of pottery.
Sig"il*la*tive (?), a. [L. sigillum a seal: cf. OF. sigillatif.] Fit to
seal; belonging to a seal; composed of wax. [R.]
||Si*gil"lum (?), n.; pl. Sigilla (#). [L.] (Rom. & Old Eng. Law) A
||seal.
||Sig"la (?), n. pl. [L.] The signs, abbreviations, letters, or
||characters standing for words, shorthand, etc., in ancient
||manuscripts, or on coins, medals, etc. W. Savage.
||Sig"ma (?), n.; pl. Sigmas (#). [L., from Gr. &?;&?;&?;, &?;&?;&?;.]
||The Greek letter , σ, or (English S, or s). It originally had
||the form of the English C.
Sig"mo*dont (?), n. [Gr. &?;&?;&?; sigma (&?;) + &?;&?;&?;, &?;&?;&?;,
a tooth.] (Zoöl.) Any one of a tribe (Sigmodontes) of rodents which
includes all the indigenous rats and mice of America. So called from
the form of the ridges of enamel on the crowns of the worn molars. Also
used adjectively.
{ Sig"moid (?), Sig*moid"al (?), } a. [Gr. &?;&?;&?;; &?;&?;&?; sigma +
&?;&?;&?; form, likeness: cf. F. sigmoïde.] Curved in two directions,
like the letter S, or the Greek .
Sigmoid flexure (Anat.), the last curve of the colon before it
terminates in the rectum. See Illust. under Digestive. -- Sigmoid
valves. (Anat.) See Semilunar valves, under Semilunar.
Sig*moid"al*ly, adv. In a sigmoidal manner.
<! p. 1339 !>
Sign (?), n. [F. signe, L. signum; cf. AS. segen, segn, a sign,
standard, banner, also fr. L. signum. Cf. Ensign, Resign, Seal a stamp,
Signal, Signet.] That by which anything is made known or represented;
that which furnishes evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a proof.
Specifically: (a) A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as
indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen. (b) An event
considered by the Jews as indicating the divine will, or as manifesting
an interposition of the divine power for some special end; a miracle; a
wonder.
Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of
God.
Rom. xv. 19.
It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the
voice of the latter sign.
Ex. iv. 8.
(c) Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the
memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument.
What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they
became a sign.
Num. xxvi. 10.
(d) Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or represents, an
idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture.
The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely significative; but what
they represent is as certainly delivered to us as the symbols
themselves.
Brerewood.
Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory.
Spenser.
(e) A word or a character regarded as the outward manifestation of
thought; as, words are the sign of ideas. (f) A motion, an action, or a
gesture by which a thought is expressed, or a command or a wish made
known.
They made signs to his father, how he would have him called.
Luke i. 62.
(g) Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language of a
signs such as those used by the North American Indians, or those used
by the deaf and dumb.
Educaters of the deaf distinguish between natural signs, which serve
for communicating ideas, and methodical, or systematic, signs, adapted
for the dictation, or the rendering, of written language, word by word;
and thus the signs are to be distinguished from the manual alphabet, by
which words are spelled on the fingers.
(h) A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard. Milton. (i) A
lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed upon or before a
building, room, shop, or office to advertise the business there
transacted, or the name of the person or firm carrying it on; a
publicly displayed token or notice.
The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted signs, which
gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the streets.
Macaulay.
(j) (Astron.) The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.
The signs are reckoned from the point of intersection of the ecliptic
and equator at the vernal equinox, and are named, respectively, Aries
(), Taurus (), Gemini (II), Cancer (), Leo (), Virgo (), Libra (),
Scorpio (), Sagittarius (), Capricornus (), Aquarius (), Pisces ().
These names were originally the names of the constellations occupying
severally the divisions of the zodiac, by which they are still
retained; but, in consequence of the procession of the equinoxes, the
signs have, in process of time, become separated about 30 degrees from
these constellations, and each of the latter now lies in the sign next
in advance, or to the east of the one which bears its name, as the
constellation Aries in the sign Taurus, etc.
(k) (Alg.) A character indicating the relation of quantities, or an
operation performed upon them; as, the sign + (plus); the sign --
(minus); the sign of division ÷, and the like. (l) (Med.) An objective
evidence of disease; that is, one appreciable by some one other than
the patient.
The terms symptom and and sign are often used synonymously; but they
may be discriminated. A sign differs from a symptom in that the latter
is perceived only by the patient himself. The term sign is often
further restricted to the purely local evidences of disease afforded by
direct examination of the organs involved, as distinguished from those
evidence of general disturbance afforded by observation of the
temperature, pulse, etc. In this sense it is often called physical
sign.
(m) (Mus.) Any character, as a flat, sharp, dot, etc. (n) (Theol.) That
which, being external, stands for, or signifies, something internal or
spiritual; -- a term used in the Church of England in speaking of an
ordinance considered with reference to that which it represents.
An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
Bk. of Common Prayer.
See the Table of Arbitrary Signs, p. 1924.
Sign manual. (a) (Eng. Law) The royal signature superscribed at the top
of bills of grants and letter patent, which are then sealed with the
privy signet or great seal, as the case may be, to complete their
validity. (b) The signature of one's name in one's own handwriting.
Craig. Tomlins. Wharton.
Syn. -- Token; mark; note; symptom; indication; signal; symbol; type;
omen; prognostic; presage; manifestation. See Emblem.
Sign (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Signed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Signing.]
[OE. seinen to bless, originally, to make the sign of the cross over;
in this sense fr. ASS. segnian (from segn, n.), or OF. seignier, F.
signer, to mark, to sign (in sense 3), fr. L. signare to mark, set a
mark upon, from signum. See Sign, n.] 1. To represent by a sign; to
make known in a typical or emblematic manner, in distinction from
speech; to signify.