ABACUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Abacus

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/ˈæbəkəs/ Listen

noun

Abacus n. (pl. E. abacuses; L. abaci)

A table or tray strewn with sand, anciently used for drawing, calculating, etc. (Obs.)

A calculating table or frame; an instrument for performing arithmetical calculations by balls sliding on wires, or counters in grooves, the lowest line representing units, the second line, tens, etc. It is still employed in China.

(Arch.)

(a)

The uppermost member or division of the capital of a column, immediately under the architrave. See Column.

(b)

A tablet, panel, or compartment in ornamented or mosaic work.

A board, tray, or table, divided into perforated compartments, for holding cups, bottles, or the like; a kind of cupboard, buffet, or sideboard.

Abacus harmonicus (Mus.), an ancient diagram showing the structure and disposition of the keys of an instrument.

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Etymology of 'Abacus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Abacus" Quotes from Famous Books

... windows, and one of them has angle shafts, with carved caps and mouldings. The present large north window has remains of its original features, but its tracery is of late work. There is a transition attached shaft with carved cap and square abacus in the low pointed recess. There is only a shaft on one side of the recess, and the pointed arch of this recess, as well as the tomb alongside, below the large window, are of later work.[232] On the west side of the north wall there has been a round arched doorway, and traces ...

— Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys • Dugald Butler and Herbert Story

... methodical folk. They paid no heed to our hurry, and instead of shouldering the baggage they proceeded to weigh it, each manload by itself, on a steelyard of wood six feet long; the results they then worked out conscientiously on an abacus. After which I paid accordingly. Truly an equitable adjustment between man and man, at which I lost only the time it ...

— Noto, An Unexplored Corner of Japan • Percival Lowell

... the Corinthian capital. The stones of the cornice, hitherto called X and Y, receive, now that they form the capital, each a separate name; the sloping stone is called the Bell of the capital, and that laid above it, the Abacus. Abacus means a board or tile: I wish there were an English word for it, but I fear there is no substitution possible, the term having been long fixed, and the reader will find it convenient to familiarise himself ...

— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin

... Abacus, n. [abkoes] Abaco; tabla aritmtica; el tablero que corona el capitel de una columna. Bilangan ng insk; ang pinakaputong na tabl sa itaas dulo ...

— Dictionary English-Spanish-Tagalog • Sofronio G. Calderon