2. Plain; unadorned; as, simple dress. ``Simple truth.''
--Spenser. ``His simple story.'' --Burns.
3. Mere; not other than; being only.
A medicine . . . whose simple touch Is powerful to
araise King Pepin. --Shak.
4. Not given to artifice, stratagem, or duplicity;
undesigning; sincere; true.
Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I
stand here, and I trust them. --Marston.
Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue? --Byron.
To be simple is to be great. --Emerson.
5. Artless in manner; unaffected; unconstrained; natural;
inartificial;; straightforward.
In simple manners all the secret lies. --Young.
6. Direct; clear; intelligible; not abstruse or enigmatical;
as, a simple statement; simple language.
7. Weak in intellect; not wise or sagacious; of but moderate
understanding or attainments; hence, foolish; silly. ``You
have simple wits.'' --Shak.
The simple believeth every word; but the prudent man
looketh well to his going. --Prov. xiv.
15.
8. Not luxurious; without much variety; plain; as, a simple
diet; a simple way of living.
Thy simple fare and all thy plain delights.
--Cowper.
9. Humble; lowly; undistinguished.
A simple husbandman in garments gray. --Spenser.
Clergy and laity, male and female, gentle and simple
made the fuel of the same fire. --Fuller.
10. (BOt.) Without subdivisions; entire; as, a simple stem; a
simple leaf.
11. (Chem.) Not capable of being decomposed into anything
more simple or ultimate by any means at present known;
elementary; thus, atoms are regarded as simple bodies.
Cf. {Ultimate}, a.
Note: A simple body is one that has not as yet been
decomposed. There are indications that many of our
simple elements are still compound bodies, though their
actual decomposition into anything simpler may never be
accomplished.
As simpling on the flowery hills she [Circe] strayed.
--Garth.
2. (Med.) A medicinal plant; -- so called because each
vegetable was supposed to possess its particular virtue,
and therefore to constitute a simple remedy.
What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked
simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
--Sir W.
Temple.
3. (Weaving)
(a) A drawloom.
(b) A part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a
drawloom.
4. (R. C. Ch.) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
Note: The time of oscillation of a pendulum is independent of
the arc of vibration, provided this arc be small.
{Ballistic pendulum}. See under {Ballistic}.
{Compensation pendulum}, a clock pendulum in which the effect
of changes of temperature of the length of the rod is so
counteracted, usually by the opposite expansion of
differene metals, that the distance of the center of
oscillation from the center of suspension remains
invariable; as, the mercurial compensation pendulum, in
which the expansion of the rod is compensated by the
opposite expansion of mercury in a jar constituting the
bob; the gridiron pendulum, in which compensation is
effected by the opposite expansion of sets of rodsof
different metals.
{Compound pendulum}, an ordinary pendulum; -- so called, as
being made up of different parts, and contrasted with
simple pendulum.
{Conical} or {Revolving}, {pendulum}, a weight connected by a
rod with a fixed point; and revolving in a horizontal
cyrcle about the vertical from that point.
{Pendulum bob}, the weight at the lower end of a pendulum.
{Pendulum level}, a plumb level. See under {Level}.
{Pendulum wheel}, the balance of a watch.
{Simple} or {Theoretical}, {pendulum}, an imaginary pendulum
having no dimensions except length, and no weight except
at the center of oscillation; in other words, a material
point suspended by an ideal line.