Chapter Lumbar to Lung-grown of L by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Luna cornea

(Old Chem.), horn silver, or fused silver chloride, a tough, brown, translucent mass; — so called from its resemblance to horn. — Luna moth (Zoöl.), a very large and beautiful American moth Its wings are delicate light green, with a stripe of purple along the front edge of the anterior wings, the other margins being edged with pale yellow. Each wing has a lunate spot surrounded by rings of light yellow, blue, and black. The caterpillar commonly feeds on the hickory, sassafras, and maple.

Lunacy
(Lu"na*cy) n.; pl. Lunacies [See Lunatic.]

1. Insanity or madness; properly, the kind of insanity which is broken by intervals of reason, — formerly supposed to be influenced by the changes of the moon; any form of unsoundness of mind, except idiocy; mental derangement or alienation. Brande. Burrill.

Your kindred shuns your house
As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.

Shak.

2. A morbid suspension of good sense or judgment, as through fanaticism. Dr. H. More.

Syn. — Derangement; craziness; mania. See Insanity.

Lunar
(Lu"nar) a. [L. lunaris, fr. luna the moon. See Luna, and cf. Lunary.]

1. Of or pertaining to the moon; as, lunar observations.

2. Resembling the moon; orbed. Dryden.

3. Measured by the revolutions of the moon; as, a lunar month.

4. Influenced by the moon, as in growth, character, or properties; as, lunar herbs. Bacon.

Lunar caustic (Med. Chem.), silver nitrate prepared to be used as a cautery; — so named because silver was called luna by the ancient alchemists. — Lunar cycle. Same as Metonic cycle. See under Cycle. — Lunar distance, the angular distance of the moon from the sun, a star, or a planet, employed for determining longitude by the lunar method. - - Lunar method, the method of finding a ship's longitude by comparing the local time of taking (by means of a sextant or circle) a given lunar distance, with the Greenwich time corresponding to the same distance as ascertained from a nautical almanac, the difference of these times being the longitude. — Lunar month. See Month. — Lunar observation, an observation of a lunar distance by means of a sextant or circle, with the altitudes of the bodies, and the time, for the purpose of computing the longitude. — Lunar tables. (a) (Astron.) Tables of the moon's motions, arranged for computing the moon's true place at any time past or future. (b) (Navigation) Tables for correcting an observed lunar distance on account of refraction and parallax. — Lunar year, the period of twelve lunar months, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 34.38 seconds.

Lunar
(Lu"nar), n.

1. (Astron.) A lunar distance.

2. (Anat.) The middle bone of the proximal series of the carpus; — called also semilunar, and intermedium.

Lunarian
(Lu*na"ri*an) n. [See Lunar, Luna.] An inhabitant of the moon.

Lunary
(Lu"na*ry) a. [Cf. F. lunaire. See Lunar.] Lunar. [Obs.] Fuller.

Lunary
(Lu"na*ry), n. [Cf. F. lunaire.] (Bot.) (a) The herb moonwort or "honesty". (b) A low fleshy fern (Botrychium Lunaria) with lunate segments of the leaf or frond.

Lunate
(Lu"nate Lu"na*ted) a. [L. lunatus crescent-shaped, p. p. of lunare to bend like a crescent, fr. luna the moon.] Crescent-shaped; as, a lunate leaf; a lunate beak; a lunated cross. Gray.