Also stilus. [a. L. stylus, incorrect form of stilus: see STYLE sb.]

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  1.  = STYLE sb. 1.

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1807.  J. Landseer, Lect. Engraving, iii. 119. Lines drawn with a stylus or steel point (commonly called an etching needle) on copper.

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1821.  Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc. ii. 101. The early Babylonians had a practice of tracing out various figures, with a stylus or point.

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1834.  Lytton, Pompeii, III. i. A stilus and tablets of no ordinary size.

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1881.  A. Watt, Mech. Industr., 126. The next operation [in etching] is to employ the stylus, or point.

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1882.  Chamb. Jrnl., 4 Feb., 81. The pencil outlines are then cut sharply on the friable surface with a stylus.

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1884.  J. Payn, Some Lit. Recoll. (1885), 75. This delicate microscopic writing, looking as if it were done with a stylus.

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  2.  The tracing-point applied to the record of a phonograph.

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1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2518/2. (Telephone), The other arm terminates in a stylus which normally rests upon an ink-ribbon over the bed of the receiving-table.

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1879.  G. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 295. The membrane carries a stylus, which also participates in the motion, and records it upon the blackened paper.

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1892.  W. Gillett, Phonograph, 13, note. In some of Mr. Edison’s recent instruments … two styluses are used.

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  3.  The gnomon of a sun-dial; = STYLE sb. 7.

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1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 18. A species of sun-dial, having a stilus or gnomon erected perpendicularly upon an horizontal plane.

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  4.  A pointer or finger; = STYLE sb. 6.

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1884.  Manch. Exam., 16 Sept., 6/2. A curious Kalender, with an astronomical volvelle of which the stylus had been preserved.

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  5.  Bot. = STYLE sb. 8.

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  Used as mod.L. in Ray, Meth. Plant. Emend. (1703), 202.

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1728.  J. Douglass, in Phil. Trans., XXXV. 569–70. They … fall to picking out the Filamenta Styli, or Chives, and together with them, a pretty long Portion of the Stylus itself, or String to which they are joined.

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1771.  Encycl. Brit., III. 457/1. Both have one stylus, and one long seed.

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1856.  Henslow, Dict. Bot. Terms, Stylus. The style. Also the Ostiolum of certain Fungi.

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  6.  Zool. A style or stylet.

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1856–8.  W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 53. Trichodina.—Body oval, with vibratile cilia, without cirri or styli.

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1887.  Sollas, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 416/2. (Sponges) By the suppression of one of the rays of an oxea, an acuate spicule or stylus results.

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1887.  S. O. Ridley, in Challenger Rep., XX. 84. Spicules.—Megasclera; long but very slender styli.

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