ATLAS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Atlas

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/ˈætləs/ Listen

noun

Atlas n. (pl. atlases)

One who sustains a great burden.

(Anat.) The first vertebra of the neck, articulating immediately with the skull, thus sustaining the globe of the head, whence the name.

A collection of maps in a volume; Note: supposed to be so called from a picture of Atlas supporting the world, prefixed to some collections. This name is said to have been first used by Mercator, the celebrated geographer, in the 16th century.

A volume of plates illustrating any subject.

A work in which subjects are exhibited in a tabular from or arrangement; as, an historical atlas.

A large, square folio, resembling a volume of maps; called also atlas folio.

A drawing paper of large size. See under Paper, n.

Atlas powder, see Atlas powder in the vocabulary; a blasting compound containing nitroglycerin.

Atlas n. (pl. atlases) A rich kind of satin manufactured in India.

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Etymology of 'Atlas'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Atlas" Quotes from Famous Books

... turn over the leaves of an atlas, while M. Renault attempted to continue narrating to the colonel the history of the Restoration, and of the monarchy of 1830. But Fougas's ...

— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... the beautiful empress, and made himself Emperor. She sent across the seas to Africa, to Genseric the Vandal, the cruel tyrant and persecutor. He must come and be her champion, as Attila had been Honoria's. And he came, with Vandals, Moors, naked Ausurians from the Atlas. The wretched Romans, in their terror, tore Maximus in pieces; but it was too late. Eudoxia met Genseric at the gates in royal robes and jewels. He stript her of her jewels on the spot, and sacked Rome; and that was ...

— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley

... shepherd were building. But this time Volodya and Lentilov took no notice whatever of the coloured paper, and did not once go into the stable. They sat in the window and began whispering to one another; then they opened an atlas and looked carefully at ...

— The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... community will hardly profit so much as the managers of the Atlas Steamship Company seem to expect by the information contained in their letter which you print this morning. It was, indeed, unlikely that the courteous reply of the Assistant Secretary of State at Washington to the enquiry addressed to him ...

— Letters To "The Times" Upon War And Neutrality (1881-1920) • Thomas Erskine Holland

... thou lackest not, but yet forbear Thy further trouble! If thy heart be fain, Bethink thee that thy toil avails me not. Nay, rest thee well, aloof from danger's brink! I will not ease my woe by base relief In knowing others too involved therein. Away the thought! for deeply do I rue My brother Atlas' doom. Far off he stands In sunset land, and on his shoulder bears The pillar'd mountain-mass whose base is earth, Whose top is heaven, and its ponderous load Too great for any grasp. With pity too I saw Earth's child, the monstrous thing of war, That in Cilicia's hollow places ...

— Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays • AEschylus

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