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speculation

(Encyclopedia)speculation, practice of engaging in business in order to make quick profits from fluctuations in prices, as opposed to the practice of investing in a productive enterprise in order to share in its ea...

Kirkcudbright, town, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Kirkcudbright kûrko͞oˈbrē [key], town (1991 pop. 3,406), Dumfries and Galloway, SW Scotland, at the head of the Dee estuary. It has granaries and creameries and is a market town and artists' colon...

naval conferences

(Encyclopedia)naval conferences, series of international assemblies, meeting to consider limitation of naval armaments, settlement of the rules of naval war, and allied issues. The London Naval Conference (1908–9...

stucco

(Encyclopedia)stucco stŭkˈō [key], in architecture, a term loosely applied to various kinds of plasterwork, both exterior and interior. It now commonly refers to a plaster or cement used for the external coating...

mine, in warfare

(Encyclopedia)mine, in warfare, term formerly applied to a system of tunnels dug under an army fortification and ending in a chamber where either explosives were placed to be detonated at a chosen moment or the sup...

Panama Papers

(Encyclopedia)Panama Papers, popular name for the some 11.5 million internal documents belonging to the Panamanian-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that revealed information about secret offshore companies and bank a...

Nehemiah, persons in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Nehemiah nēˌəmīˈə [key], in the Bible. 1 Central figure of the Book of Nehemiah: see Ezra. 2 One who returned from the Exile. 3 Worker on the wall. ...

graffito

(Encyclopedia)graffito gräf-fēˈtō [key]. 1 Method of ornamenting architectural plaster surfaces. The designs are produced by scratching a topcoat of plaster to reveal an undercoat of contrasting and deeper colo...

Harriman, Edward Henry

(Encyclopedia)Harriman, Edward Henry, 1848–1909, American railroad executive, b. Hempstead, N.Y.; father of William Averell Harriman. He became a stockbroker in New York City and soon entered the railroad field, ...

Flaubert, Gustave

(Encyclopedia)Flaubert, Gustave güstävˈ flōbĕrˈ [key], 1821–80, French novelist, regarded as one of the supreme masters of the realistic novel. He was a scrupulous, slow writer, intent on the exact word (le...