||Ec*bal"li*um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?;. See Ecbole.] (Bot.) A genus of cucurbitaceous plants consisting of the single species Ecballium agreste (or Elaterium), the squirting cucumber. Its fruit, when ripe, bursts and violently ejects its seeds, together with a mucilaginous juice, from which elaterium, a powerful cathartic medicine, is prepared.
||Ec"ba*sis (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?; a going out, issue, or event; &?; out + &?; to go.] (Rhet.) A figure in which the orator treats of things according to their events consequences.
Ec*bat"ic (?), a. [See Ecbasis.] (Gram.) Denoting a mere result or consequence, as distinguished from telic, which denotes intention or purpose; thus the phrase &?; &?;, if rendered "so that it was fulfilled," is ecbatic; if rendered "in order that it might be." etc., is telic.
||Ec"bo*le (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; a throwing out, a digression, fr. &?; to throw out; &?; out of + &?; to throw.] (Rhet.) A digression in which a person is introduced speaking his own words.
Ec*bol"ic (?), n. [See Ecbole.] (Med.) A drug, as ergot, which by exciting uterine contractions promotes the expulsion of the contents of the uterus.
Ec"bo*line (?; 104), n. [Gr. &?; a throwing out; &?; out + &?; to throw.] (Chem.) An alkaloid constituting the active principle of ergot; -- so named from its power of producing abortion.
Ec`ca*le*o"bi*on (?), n. [Gr. &?; to call out (&?; out of + &?; to call) + &?; life.] A contrivance for hatching eggs by artificial heat.
||Ec"ce ho"mo (?). [L., behold the man. See John xix. 5.] (Paint.) A picture which represents the Savior as given up to the people by Pilate, and wearing a crown of thorns.
Ec*cen"tric (?), a. [F. excentrique, formerly also spelled eccentrique, fr. LL. eccentros out of the center, eccentric, Gr. &?;; &?; out of + &?; center. See Ex-, and Center, and cf. Excentral.] 1. Deviating or departing from the center, or from the line of a circle; as, an eccentric or elliptical orbit; pertaining to deviation from the center or from true circular motion.
2. Not having the same center; -- said of circles, ellipses, spheres, etc., which, though coinciding, either in whole or in part, as to area or volume, have not the same center; -- opposed to concentric.