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shipping

(Encyclopedia)shipping, transportation of passengers and goods on waterways. From prehistoric times shipping has had a major influence on human social development. Water routes, unlike roads, did not need building,...

saint, in Christianity

(Encyclopedia)saint [O.Fr., from Latin sanctus=holy], in Christianity, a person who is recognized as worthy of veneration. Accounts of saints' lives have been favorite reading material for many, and at times thei...

St. John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke

(Encyclopedia)St. John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke sĭn jŭn, bŏlˈĭngbro͝ok [key], 1678–1751, English statesman. He retired from politics in 1735 and spent most his remaining years on his estates in France...

laissez-faire

(Encyclopedia)laissez-faire lĕsˌā fârˈ [key] [Fr.,=leave alone], in economics and politics, doctrine that an economic system functions best when there is no interference by government. It is based on the belie...

comet

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Comet: Whatever the direction of a comet's flight, its “tail” always points away from the sun. The tail disappears when the comet is far from the sun. comet [Gr.,=longhaired], a small cele...

tariff

(Encyclopedia)tariff, tax on imported and, more rarely, exported goods. It is also called a customs duty. Tariffs may be distinguished from other taxes in that their predominant purpose is not financial but economi...

common law

(Encyclopedia)common law, system of law that prevails in England and in countries colonized by England. The name is derived from the medieval theory that the law administered by the king's courts represented the co...

Abu Ghraib

(Encyclopedia)Abu Ghraib or Abu Ghurayb äˈbo͞o grĕb [key], infamous prison located in the town of Abu Ghraib, c.20 mi (32 km) W of Baghdad, Iraq. Built by British contractors in the 1960s, it occupies c.280 acr...

glacier

(Encyclopedia)glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

catalyst

(Encyclopedia)catalyst, substance that can cause a change in the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being consumed in the reaction; the changing of the reaction rate by use of a catalyst is called catalysis...