Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make (a steam-engine) operate on the compound principle, whereby the steam expands first in a small cylinder and does work in propelling the piston, and thence exhausts into a larger low-pressure cylinder, where it expands still further until released at the exhaust when the traverse is completed.
  • noun In India and the East generally, a walled inclosure or courtyard containing a residence with the necessary outhouses, servants' quarters, etc.
  • Composed of two or more elements, parts, or ingredients; not simple.
  • In botany, made up of several similar parts aggregated into a common whole.
  • In arithmetic, a quantity which consists of more than one denomination, as 5 pounds, 6 shillings, and 9 pence, or 4 miles, 3 furlongs, and 10 yards; hence, the operations of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing such quantities are termed compound addition, compound subtraction, compound multiplication, and compound division.
  • noun Something produced by combining two or more ingredients, parts, or elements; a combination of parts or principles forming a whole.
  • noun Specifically In grammar, a compound word (which see, under I.).
  • noun In chem., a compound body.
  • To put together or mix (two or more elements or ingredients): as, to compound drugs.
  • To join or couple together; combine: as, to compound words.
  • To form by uniting or mixing two or more elements or materials.
  • To make; constitute; form; establish.
  • To put together in due order, as words or sentences; compose.
  • To settle amicably; adjust by agreement, as a difference or controversy; compose.
  • To settle by agreement for a reduced amount or upon different terms, as a debt or dues of any kind: as, to compound tithes. See II., 3.
  • To agree, for a consideration, not to prosecute or punish a wrong-doer for: as, to compound a crime or felony.
  • To agree upon concession; come to terms of agreement by abating something of the first demand, or by granting something on both sides; make a compromise: used absolutely, or with for (formerly also on) before the thing accepted or remitted, and with before the person with whom the agreement is made.
  • To make a bargain, in general; agree.
  • To settle with a creditor by agreement, and discharge a debt on the payment of a less sum in full; or to make an agreement to pay a debt by means or in a manner different from that stipulated or required by law.
  • To settle with one who has committed a crime, agreeing for a consideration not to prosecute him. See I., 8.
  • To give out; fail: said of a horse in racing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form or make by combining different elements, ingredients, or parts.
  • transitive verb To put together, as elements, ingredients, or parts, in order to form a whole; to combine, mix, or unite.
  • transitive verb To modify or change by combination with some other thing or part; to mingle with something else.
  • transitive verb obsolete To compose; to constitute.
  • transitive verb To settle amicably; to adjust by agreement; to compromise; to discharge from obligation upon terms different from those which were stipulated.
  • transitive verb to accept of a consideration for forbearing to prosecute, such compounding being an indictable offense. See Theftbote.
  • intransitive verb To effect a composition; to come to terms of agreement; to agree; to settle by a compromise; -- usually followed by with before the person participating, and for before the thing compounded or the consideration.
  • noun In the East Indies, an inclosure containing a house, outbuildings, etc.
  • adjective Composed of two or more elements, ingredients, parts; produced by the union of several ingredients, parts, or things; composite.
  • adjective (Arith.) the addition, subtraction, etc., of compound numbers.
  • adjective (Crystallog.) a twin crystal, or one seeming to be made up of two or more crystals combined according to regular laws of composition.
  • adjective (Mech.) a form of steam engine in which the steam that has been used in a high-pressure cylinder is made to do further service in a larger low-pressure cylinder, sometimes in several larger cylinders, successively.
  • adjective (Chem.) See under Ether.
  • adjective (Bot.) a flower head resembling a single flower, but really composed of several florets inclosed in a common calyxlike involucre, as the sunflower or dandelion.
  • adjective (Math.) See Fraction.
  • adjective See Fracture.
  • adjective [Eng.] a householder who compounds or arranges with his landlord that his rates shall be included in his rents.
  • adjective See Interest.
  • adjective (Law) See Larceny.
  • adjective (Bot.) a leaf having two or more separate blades or leaflets on a common leafstalk.
  • adjective See Microscope.
  • adjective See Motion.
  • adjective (Math.) one constructed according to a varying scale of denomination; as, 3 cwt., 1 qr., 5 lb.; -- called also denominate number.
  • adjective (Arch.) a clustered column.
  • adjective (Alg.) a quantity composed of two or more simple quantities or terms, connected by the sign + (plus) or - (minus). Thus, a + b - c, and bb - b, are compound quantities.
  • adjective (Chem.) See Radical.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre ("to put together"), from Latin componere, from Latin com- ("together") + ponere ("to put").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre ("to put together"), from Latin componere, from Latin com- ("together") + ponere ("to put"). As a noun "things which have been put together". Possibly from Malay kampong, kampung ("group of buildings, village"), via Dutch or Portuguese .

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Examples

Comments

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  • A mansion.

    May 2, 2011

  • I didn't know, and I couldn't understand what Obama was referring to (in yesterday's "we killed Bin Laden" speech).

    May 2, 2011

  • "Compound" always reminds me of the Kennedy Compound.

    May 2, 2011

  • I saw the picture of the building. Didn't look like a mansion at all to me, unless you define mansion as just "large building," but in that case, the Empire State Building is a mansion. Is it not. Therefore... *needs fuflun*

    May 2, 2011

  • In this case, the best definition is CD 15:

    A building or buildings, especially a residence or group of residences, set off and enclosed by a barrier.

    May 2, 2011

  • So Pro, you were confounded by compound?

    May 2, 2011