reptant 
Creeping or crawling; repent; reptatory; rep- 
tile ; specifically, of or pertaining to the Sep- 
tan tia. 
Beptantiat (rep-tan'shi-a), n. pi. [NL., neut. 
pi. of L. reptan(t-)s, ppr. of reptare, crawl: see 
reptant.'] 1. In Illiger's classification (1811), 
the tenth order and also the thirtieth family of 
mammals, composed of the monotremes toge- 
ther with a certain tortoise (Pamphractus). 
2. In Molluxca, those azygobranchiate gastro- 
pods which are adapted for creeping or crawl- 
ing by the formation of the foot as a creeping- 
disk. All ordinary gastropods are Reptantia, the term 
being used in distinction from Natantia (which latter is a 
name of the lleteropoda). The ReplanKa were divided into 
Holochlaiiujda,Piieumonochlamyda,im<lSiphonochlamyda. 
reptation (rep-ta'shon), n. [= F. rrptation, < 
L. reptati(n-), a creeping, crawling, < reptare, 
pp. reptutus, creep, crawl: see reptant.'] 1. The 
act of creeping or crawling on the belly, as a 
reptile does. Owen. 2. In mutJi., the motion 
of one plane figure around another, so as con- 
stantly to be tangent to the latter while pre- 
serving parallelism between different positions 
of its own lines; especially, such a motion of 
one figure round another precisely like it so 
that the longest diameter of one shall come 
into line with the shortest of the other. This 
motion was applied by John Bernoulli in 1705 to the rec- 
tification of curves. Let AB be a curve whose length IB 
required ; let this be reversed 
about its normal, giving the 
curve ABC, and let this be re- 
versed about the line between 
Its extremities, giving the spin- 
dle-shaped figure ABCD; let 
DEFO be a similar and equal 
figure turned through a right 
angle then, if the first has a 
reptatory motion about the sec- 
ond, its center will describe a 
four-humped or quadrigibbous 
figure OPQRSTU V, with humps at P, R, T, V. Let this be 
placed in contact with a similar and equal figure so that 
a maximum and minimum diameter shall coincide, and 
receive a reptatory motion, then its center will describe 
an octogibbuus or eight-humped figure. By a similar pro- 
cess, this will describe a sixteen-humped figure, etc. Each 
of these figures will have double the periphery of the pre- 
ceding, and they will rapidly approximate toward circles. 
Hence, by finding the diameters of each, we approximate 
to the length of the original curve. 
Reptatores (rep-ta-to'rez), . pi. [NL., < L. 
creeping birds 
and nuthatches. [Not in use.] 
reptatorial (rep-ta-to'ri-al), a. [< reptatory + 
-ial.] In ornitli., creeping, as a bird; belong- 
ing to the Reptatores. 
reptatory (rep'ta-to-ri), a. [= F. rcptatoire, < 
NL. "rcptatorius, < L. reptare, pp.reptattty, creep: 
see reptant."} 1. In zool. , creeping or crawling ; 
reptant; reptile; repent. 2. Of the nature of 
reptation in mathematics. 
reptile (rep'til or -til), a. and n. [< F. rep- 
tile = Sp. Pg. reptil = It. rettile, < L. reptilis, 
creeping, crawling; as a noun, LL. reptile, neut. 
(sc. animal), a creeping animal, a reptile ; < re- 
pere, pp. rcptus, creep: see repent 1 *, andcf. ser- 
pent.'] I. a. 1. Creeping or crawling ; repent; 
reptant ; reptatory ; of or pertaining to the Rep- 
tilia, \n any sense. 2. Groveling; low; mean: 
as, a reptile race. 
Man is a very worm by birth, 
Vile, reptile, weak, and vain. 
Pope, To Mr. John Moore. 
f here is a false, reptile prudence, the result not of cau- 
tion, but of fear. Bmlte. (Webster.) 
Dislodge their reptile souls 
From the bodies and forms of men. Coleridye. 
II. . 1. A creeping animal; an animal 
that goes on its belly, or moves with small, 
short legs. 
Eve's tempter thus the Rabbins have express'd, 
A cherub's face, a reptile all the rest. 
Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 331. 
An inadvertent step may crush the snail 
That crawls at ev'ning in the public path ; 
But he that has humanity, forewam'd, 
Will step aside and let the reptile live. 
Cowper, Task, vi. 567. 
Specifically 2. An oviparous quadruped; a 
four-footed egg-laying animal : applied about 
the middle of the eighteenth century to the 
animals then technically called Amphibia, as 
frogs, toads, newts, lizards, crocodiles, and 
turtles; any amphibian. 3. By restriction, 
upon the recognition of the divisions Amphibia 
and Reptilia. a scaly or pholidote reptile, as dis- 
tinguished from a naked reptile ; any snake, 
lizard, crocodile, or turtle ; a member of the 
Keptiliit proper; a saurian. 4. A groveling, 
abject, or mean person : used in contempt. 
5093 
It would be the highest folly and arrogance in the rep- 
tile Man to imagine that he, by any of his endeavours, could 
add to the glory of God. Warburton, Works, IX. vil. 
Reptilia 1 (rep-til'i-a), n. pi. [NL., pi. of LL. 
reptile, a reptile: see reptile.'] In zool. : (nf) 
InLinnaaus's system of classification (1766), the 
first order of the third class Amphibia, includ- 
ing turtles, lizards, and frogs. See Amphibia, 
2 (a). [Disused.] (6) A class of cold-blooded 
oviparous or ovoviviparous vertebrated ani- 
mals whose skin is covered with scales or scutes ; 
the reptiles proper. There are two pairs or one pair 
of limbs, or none. The skull is monocondylian. The 
mandible articulates with the skull bya free or fixed quad- 
rate bone. The heart has two auricles, generally not two 
completed ventricles ; the ventricle gives rise to two arte- 
rial trunks, and the venous and arterial circulation are 
more or less mixed. Respiration is pulmonary, never 
branchial. No diaphragm is completed. There is a com- 
mon cloaca of the digestive and nrogenital systems, and 
usually two penes, sometimes one, seldom none. There are 
an amnion and an allantois. ReptUia thus defined were for- 
merly associated with batrachians in & cl&ss Amphibia ; but 
they are more nearly related to birds, and when brigaded 
therewith form their part of a superclass Sauropsida. The 
only living representatives of Reptilia are turtles or tor- 
toises, crocodiles or alligators, lizards or saurians, and 
snakes or serpents, respectively constituting the four or- 
ders Chelonia, Crocodilia, Lacertilia, and Ophidia; and one 
living lizard, known as Hatteria, Sphenodon, or Rhyncho. 
cephalits, forming by itself an order Rhynchocephalia. In 
former times there were other orders of strange and huge 
reptiles, as the Ichthyopterygia or fchthyogauria, the ich- 
thyosaurs; Anomodontia ; Dinosauria, by some ranked as 
a subclass and divided into several orders ; Ornithosauria 
or Pterosauria, the pterodactyls ; and PlesiosauriaorSau- 
ropteryyia, the plesiosaurg. See the technical names, and 
cuts under Crocodilia, Ichthyosauria, Ortiithoscelida, Plesio- 
saurus, Pleurospondylia, pterodactyl, and Python. 
reptilia a , >i. Latin plural of reptilium. 
reptilian (rep-til'i-an), a. and n. [< LL. rep- 
tile, a reptile, + -Mm.] I. a. Of or pertaining 
to the Septilia, in any sense ; resembling or 
like a reptile. 
It is an accepted doctrine that birds are organized on a 
type closely allied to the reptilian type, but superior to it. 
H. Spencer, Prin. of Biol., 43. 
He had an agreeable confidence that his faults were all 
of a generous kind impetuous, warm-blooded, leonine ; 
never crawling, crafty, reptilian. 
George Eliot, Adam Bede, xii. 
Reptilian age, the Mesozoic age, era, or period, during 
which reptiles attained great development, as in the 
Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous. 
II. w. Any member of the Reptilia; a rep- 
tile. 
reptiliferous (rep-ti-lif'e-rus), a. [< LL. rep- 
tile, a reptile, + L. fcrfe = E. ftMrl.] Produ- 
cing reptiles; containing the remains of rep- 
tiles, as beds of rock. Nature, XXXIII. 311. 
reptiliform (rep'til-i-form), a. [< LL. reptile, 
reptile, + forma, form.] Having the form or 
structure of a reptile; related to reptiles; be- 
longing to the ReptUia; saurian. Also, rarely, 
reptiloid. 
reptilious (rep-til'i-us), a. [< LL. reptile, a 
reptile, + -i-ous.~\ Resembling or like a reptile. 
[Rare.] 
The advantage taken . . . made her feel abject, reptili- 
ous; she was lost, carried away on the flood of the cata- 
ract. O. Meredith, The Egoist, xxi. 
reptilium (rep-til'i-um), n. ; pi. reptiliums, rep- 
tilia (-umz, -a). [NL., < LL. reptile, a reptile: 
see reptile.'] A reptile-house, or other place 
where reptiles are confined and kept alive ; a 
herpetological vivarium. 
A special reptile-house, or reptilium, was built in 1882 
and 1883 by the Zoological Society of London. 
Smithsonian Report, 1883, p. 728. 
reptilivorous (rep-ti-liv'o-rus), a. [< LL. rep- 
tile, a reptile, + L. vorare, devour.] Devouring 
or habitually feeding upon reptiles, as a bird ; 
saurophagous. 
A broad triangular head and short tall, which sufficiently 
marks out the tribe of viperine poisonous snakes to rep- 
tilieormis birds and mammals. 
A. S. Wallace, Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XL. 305. 
reptiloid (rep'ti-loid), a. [< LL. reptile, a rep- 
tile, + Gr. <fof, form.] Eeptiliform. [Bare.] 
The thrushes . . . are farthest removed in structure 
from the early reptiloid forms [of birds). 
Pop. Sci. Mo., XXXIII. 75. 
Reptonize (rep'ton-iz), v. t. pret. and pp. Eep- 
tonizcd, ppr. Beptoiiizing. [< Bepton (see def.) 
+ -ize.~\ To lay out, as a garden, after the man- 
ner of or according to the rules of Humphry 
Repton (1752-1818), the author of works on the 
theory and practice of landscape-gardening. 
Jackson assists me in Reptonizing the garden. 
Southey, Letters (1807), II. 4. (Dames.) 
republic (re-pub'lik), . [Early mod. E. also re- 
publick, republique (= D. roraMM = G. Dan. 
Sw. republik) ; < OF. republique, F. republique 
= Sp. republica = Pg. repiMicu = It. repiiblirn. 
republican 
repubblica, < L. res publica, prop, two words, 
but commonly written as one, rcsjmblica (abl. 
re publica, republicd), the commonwealth, the 
state, < res, a thing, + publica, fern, of publican, 
public: see real 1 and public."] If. The com- 
monwealth ; the state. 
That by their deeds will make it known 
Whose dignity they do sustain; 
And life, state, glory, all they gain, 
fc Count the republic's, not their own. 
B. Jonson, Catiline, il. (cho.). 
2. A commonwealth ; a government in which 
the executive power is vested in a person or 
persons chosen directly or indirectly by the 
body of citizens entitled to vote. It is distin- 
guished from a monarchy on the one hand, and generally 
from a pure democracy on the other. In the latter case 
the mass of citizens meet and choose the executive, as is 
still the case in certain Swiss cantons. In a republic the 
executive is usually chosen Indirectly, either by an elec- 
toral college as in the United States, or by the National 
Assembly as in France. Republics are oligarchic, as for- 
merly Venice and Genoa, military, as ancient Rome, 
strongly centralized, as France, federal, as Switzerland, 
or, like the United States, may combine a strong central 
government with large individual powers for the several 
states in their particular affairs. See democracy. 
We may define a republic to be ... a government 
which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from 
the great body of the people, and is administered by per- 
sons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited 
period, or during good behaviour. 
Madison, The Federalist, No. 39. 
The constitution and the government [of the United 
States] . . . rest, throughout, on the principle of the 
concurrent majority ; and ... it is, of course, a Repub- 
lic, a constitutional democracy, in contradistinction to 
an absolute democracy ; and . . . the theory which re- 
gards it as a government of the mere numerical majority 
rests on a gross and groundless misconception. 
Calhmm, Works, I. 185. 
Cisalpine, Cispadane, Helvetic Republic. See the 
adjectives. Grand Army of the Republic, a secret 
society composed of veterans who served in the army or 
navy of the United States during the civil war. Its ob- 
jects are preservation of fraternal feeling, strengthening 
of loyal sentiment, and aid to needy families of veterans. 
Its first " post " was organized at Decatur, Illinois, in 1866 ; 
its members are known as "comrades," and its annual 
meetings are "encampments." Abbreviated G. A. R. 
Republic of letters, the collective body of literary and 
learned men. 
republican (re-pub'li-kan), a. and n. [= F. 
republicain ='Sp. Pg. fepublicano = It. repub- 
blicano (cf. D. republiekcinsch = G. republika- 
nisch = Dan. Sw. republikansk, a.; D. repub- 
liekein = G. Dan. Sw. republikaner, n.), < NL. 
republican 113, < L. res publica, republic: see re- 
public.] I. a. 1. Of the nature of or pertaining 
to a republic or commonwealth: as, a republi- 
can constitution or government. 2. Consonant 
to the principles of a republic : as, republican 
sentiments or opinions; republican manners. 
3. [cap.] Of or pertaining to or favoring the 
Republican party: as, a Republican senator. 
See below. 4. In ornitli., living in community ; 
nesting or breeding in common : as, the repub- 
lican or sociable grosbeak, Pltitetferus sochis; 
the republican swallow, formerly called Bi- 
rundo respublicana. See cuts under hive-nest. 
Liberal-Republican party, in If. S. hist., a political 
party which arose in Missouri in 1870-1 through a fusion 
of Liberal Republicans and Democrats, and as a national 
party nominated Horace Greeley as a candidate for the 
Presidency In 1872. It opposed the southern policy of 
the Republican party, and advocated universal amnesty, 
civil-service reform, and universal suffrage. Its can- 
didate was indorsed by the Democratic convention, but 
was defeated, and the party soon disappeared. Re- 
publican calendar. See calendar. Republican era, 
the era adopted by the French soon after the proclama- 
tion of the republic, and used for a number of years. It 
was September 2-2d, 1792, "the first day of the Republic." 
Republican party, (a) Any party which advocates 
a republic, either existing or desired : as, the Republican 
party of France, composed chiefly of Opportunists, Radi- 
cals, and Conservative Republicans ; the Republican party 
in Italy in which Mazzini was a leader, (b) In U. S. 
hist. : (1) The usual name of the Democrat!* party (in full 
Democratic-Republican party) during the years following 
1792-3: it replaced the name Anti-Federal, and was re- 
placed by the name Democratic. See Democratic party, 
under democratic. (2) A party formed in 1854, having as 
its original purpose opposition to the extension of slavery 
into the Territories. It was composed of Free-Boilers, of 
antislavery Whigs, and of some Democrats (who unitedly 
formed the group known as Anti-Nebraska men), and 
was joined by the Abolitionists, and eventually by many 
Know-nothings. During the period of the civil war 
many war Democrats acted with it. It first nominated a 
candidate for President in 1856. It controlled the execu- 
tive from 1861 to 1885 and again in 1889 (Presidents Lin- 
coln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfleld, Arthur, and Har- 
rison), and both houses of Congress from 11-61 to 1875 and 
again in 1880. It favors generally a broad construction 
of the Constitution, liberal expenditures, extension of the 
powers of the national government, and a high protective 
tariff. Among the measures with which it has been iden- 
tified in whole or in part are the suppression of the re- 
bellion, the abolition of slavery, reconstruction, and the 
resumption of specie payments. Republican swallow, 
the cliff- or eaves-swallow. See def. 4, and cut under 
eaves-swallow. 
