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Physical geography   /fˈɪzɪkəl dʒiˈɑgrəfi/   Listen
noun
geography  n.  (pl. geographies)  
1.
The science which treats of the world and its inhabitants; a description of the earth, or a portion of the earth, including its structure, features, products, political divisions, and the people by whom it is inhabited. It also includes the responses and adaptations of people to topography, climate, soil and vegetation
2.
A treatise on this science.
Astronomical geography, or Mathematical geography, treats of the earth as a planet, of its shape, its size, its lines of latitude and longitude, its zones, and the phenomena due to to the earth's diurnal and annual motions.
Physical geography treats of the conformation of the earth's surface, of the distribution of land and water, of minerals, plants, animals, etc., and applies the principles of physics to the explanation of the diversities of climate, productions, etc.
Political geography treats of the different countries into which earth is divided with regard to political and social and institutions and conditions.


adjective
Physical  adj.  
1.
Of or pertaining to nature (as including all created existences); in accordance with the laws of nature; also, of or relating to natural or material things, or to the bodily structure, as opposed to things mental, moral, spiritual, or imaginary; material; natural; as, armies and navies are the physical force of a nation; the body is the physical part of man. "Labor, in the physical world, is... employed in putting objects in motion." "A society sunk in ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force."
2.
Of or pertaining to physics, or natural philosophy; treating of, or relating to, the causes and connections of natural phenomena; as, physical science; physical laws. "Physical philosophy."
3.
Perceptible through a bodily or material organization; cognizable by the senses; external; as, the physical, opposed to chemical, characters of a mineral.
4.
Of or pertaining to physic, or the art of medicine; medicinal; curative; healing; also, cathartic; purgative. (Obs.) "Physical herbs." "Is Brutus sick? and is it physical To walk unbraced, and suck up the humors Of the dank morning?"
Physical astronomy, that part of astronomy which treats of the causes of the celestial motions; specifically, that which treats of the motions resulting from universal gravitation.
Physical education, training of the bodily organs and powers with a view to the promotion of health and vigor.
Physical examination (Med.), an examination of the bodily condition of a person.
Physical geography. See under Geography.
Physical point, an indefinitely small portion of matter; a point conceived as being without extension, yet having physical properties, as weight, inertia, momentum, etc.; a material point.
Physical signs (Med.), the objective signs of the bodily state afforded by a physical examination.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Physical geography" Quotes from Famous Books



... to roar and roll just beyond the horizon. It is only within a few decades that the geographies have abandoned the pleasing fiction of the maelstrom, and a few centuries ago the sudden downpour of the waters at the "end of the world" was a thoroughly accepted tenet of physical geography. Yet men, adventurous and inquisitive, kept ever pushing forward into the unknown, until now there remain no strange seas and few uncharted and unlighted. The mariner of these days has literally plain sailing in comparison with his forbears ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot
... complacency of youth, a German history of the English drama, in six volumes. I lost courage long before the author reached the age of Elizabeth, but I still recall the subject of the opening chapter: it was devoted to the physical geography of Great Britain. Writing, as the good German professor did, in the triumphant hour of Taine's theory as to the significance of place, period, and environment in determining the character of any literary production, what could be more logical than to begin at the beginning? Have ...
— The American Mind - The E. T. Earl Lectures • Bliss Perry
... observer, and has perceived, for the first time since the invention of gunpowder, that a cannon ball, if it strikes a man, will kill him. To a thorough grasp of this remarkable discovery, he adds a highly evolved faculty for physical geography and for the calculation of times and distances. He has prodigious powers of work, and a clear, realistic knowledge of human nature in public affairs, having seen it exhaustively tested in that department during ...
— The Man of Destiny • George Bernard Shaw
... a time when the enterprising burglar got his knowledge of the domestic and physical geography of a house from the servants. Now he reforms, with the great advantage that he can lay his plan of campaign from personal observation. It is a much more admirable method, and tends to avert suspicion from ...
— The Crimson Blind • Fred M. White
... group of hills, still within the limits of the ancient city, and here we dined in a cafe (kapheterion) kept by one Lycurgus, not on black broth, but on roast lamb, omelette, figs, oranges, and wine. Truly, if national character depended wholly on physical geography, we should be inclined to look in the valley of the Eurotas for the rich and luxurious Athens, and seek its stern and simple rival among the bleak hills and sterile plains of Attica. We had a short ride that afternoon up the valley of the Eurotas, with a keen north wind in our faces, and were ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. • Various


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