Crossword clues for asperity
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Asperity \As*per"i*ty\, n.; pl. Asperities. [L. asperitas, fr. asper rough: cf. F. asp['e]rit['e].]
Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to smoothness. ``The asperities of dry bodies.''
--Boyle.Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity.
Roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness.
-
Moral roughness; roughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to mildness. ``Asperity of character.''
--Landor.It is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received.
--Johnson. -
Sharpness; disagreeableness; difficulty.
The acclivities and asperities of duty.
--Barrow.Syn: Acrimony; moroseness; crabbedness; harshness; sourness; tartness. See Acrimony.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1200, asprete "hardship, harshness of feelings," a figurative use, from Old French asperité "difficulty, painful situation, harsh treatment" (12c., Modern French âpreté), from Latin asperitatem (nominative asperitas) "roughness," from asper "rough, harsh," which is of unknown origin; in Latin used also of sour wine, bad weather, and hard times. Figurative meaning "harshness of feeling" in English is attested from early 15c.
Wiktionary
n. 1 roughness as of stone or weather. 2 harshness, as of temper. 3 Something that is harsh and difficult to endure. 4 (context geology English) A part of a geological fault line that does not move.
WordNet
Wikipedia
In materials science, asperity, defined as "unevenness of surface, roughness, ruggedness" ( OED, from the Latin asper — "rough"), has implications (for example) in physics and seismology. Smooth surfaces, even those polished to a mirror finish, are not truly smooth on an atomic scale. They are rough, with sharp, rough or rugged projections, termed "asperities". Surface asperities exist across multiple scales, often in a self affine or fractal geometry. The fractal dimension of these structures has been correlated with the contact mechanics and friction exhibited at an interface.
When two macroscopically smooth surfaces come into contact, initially they only touch at a few of these asperity points. These cover only a very small portion of the surface area. Friction and wear originate at these points, and thus understanding their behavior becomes important when studying materials in contact. When the surfaces are subjected to a compressive load, the asperities deform through elastic and plastic modes, increasing the contact area between the two surfaces until the contact area is sufficient to support the load.
The relationship between frictional interactions and asperity geometry is complex and poorly understood. It has been reported that an increased roughness may under certain circumstances result in weaker frictional interactions while smoother surfaces may in fact exhibit high levels of friction owing to high levels of true contact.
The Archard equation provides a simplified model of asperity deformation when materials in contact are subject to a force. Due to the ubiquitous presence of deformable asperities in self affine hierarchical structures, the true contact area at an interface exhibits a linear relationship with the applied normal load.
Asperity may refer to:
As a name
- Asperity Mountain; mountain in British Columbia, Canada
-
, a British coaster in service 1945-67
In language
- asperity a word for 'harshness of temper', or 'something difficult to endure'
- Asperity (materials science); the unevenness of a surface, in physics and in seismology
- Asperity (Geotechnical engineering); as used in Geotechnical engineering
- Cultural asperity; the resistance to change in organisations
In Geotechnical engineering the term asperity is mostly used for unevenness (roughness) of the surface of a discontinuity, grain, or particle with heights in the range from approximately 0.1 mm to many decimetre. Smaller unevenness is normally considered to be a material property (often denoted by material friction or basic material friction).
Usage examples of "asperity".
Saxon said, with vague asperity, resenting conditions she was just beginning to grasp.
From Terra to Neuhafen, to Gardenia, to Asperity, to Quintesme and the radiation labs.
Yeah, yeah, I see, Coke Rymer would say, his voice querulous, whining asperity.
Lady Sea- grave, a very dragon of propriety where her only daughter was concerned, seemed to follow her everywhere until Polly told her with asperity that she was quite capable of visiting the ladies' withdrawing room alone.
But suddenly I remembered it, the irremediable asperities of an inhuman world vanished, as if by magic.
As, in the rules of tactics, an attack in one sector compels a counter-attack in another, so as not to be hurt by the the asperities of my nature, all of them effected in their own an identical resilience, always at the same points, and to make up for this took advantage of the gaps in my line to thrust out advanced posts.
Putting aside slight asperities, we will all own that the people of the States have been and are our friends, and that as friends we cannot spare them.
A month of rigid weather is supposed to brace up the moral nature, and a month of gentleness is supposed to soften the asperities of the disposition, but February contributes to neither of these ends.
But if one goes ahead quietly and, just as the experienced beekeeper, lays hold with a firm hand, if one is not afraid and shows that one intends no wrong, the excitement and asperities subside wondrously quickly and the petty world tolerates what it contended it could never endure.
But with her son, the old lady had better success: he would listen to all she had to say, provided she could soothe his fretful temper, and refrain from irritating him by her own asperities.
That on the roughest temper throws disguise, And steals from virtue her asperities.
Without changing his clothes, and using a wooden racket, he played tennis with Demi, Urania, and Callisto on a court so rich in excrescences and asperities that his choice of groundstrokeforehand or backhandnecessarily depended on the ball's right-angled bounce.
Maisie found in this exchange of asperities a fresh incitement to the unformulated fatalism in which her sense of her own career had long since taken refuge.
The river having now no water but what the springs supply, showed us only a swift current, clear and shallow, fretting over the asperities of the rocky bottom, and we were left to exercise our thoughts, by endeavouring to conceive the effect of a thousand streams poured from the mountains into one channel, struggling for expansion in a narrow passage, exasperated by rocks rising in their way, and at last discharging all their violence of waters by a sudden fall through the horrid chasm.
At cockail parties, soirees, premieres, and so on, she will usually be accompanied by one or other of her parents, but after a few months she will begin to arrive alone, still a rather hesitant figure, slightly ill at ease about the aggressive sexiness of her catsuits and leotards, continually on edge about her appearance, until, during her second year of social immersion, she will be widely celebrated for her aplomb, verbal asperity, and daring and expertise in bed.