The Collaborative International Dictionary
Electric \E*lec"tric\ ([-e]*l[e^]k"tr[i^]k), Electrical \E*lec"tric*al\ ([-e]*l[e^]k"tr[i^]*kal), a. [L. electrum amber, a mixed metal, Gr. 'h`lektron; akin to 'hle`ktwr the beaming sun, cf. Skr. arc to beam, shine: cf. F. ['e]lectrique. The name came from the production of electricity by the friction of amber.]
Pertaining to electricity; consisting of, containing, derived from, or produced by, electricity; as, electric power or virtue; an electric jar; electric effects; an electric spark; an electric charge; an electric current; an electrical engineer.
Capable of occasioning the phenomena of electricity; as, an electric or electrical machine or substance; an electric generator.
Electrifying; thrilling; magnetic. ``Electric Pindar.''
--Mrs. Browning.-
powered by electricity; as, electrical appliances; an electric toothbrush; an electric automobile.
Electric atmosphere, or Electric aura. See under Aura.
Electrical battery. See Battery.
Electrical brush. See under Brush.
Electric cable. See Telegraph cable, under Telegraph.
Electric candle. See under Candle.
Electric cat (Zo["o]l.), one of three or more large species of African catfish of the genus Malapterurus (esp. M. electricus of the Nile). They have a large electrical organ and are able to give powerful shocks; -- called also sheathfish.
Electric clock. See under Clock, and see Electro-chronograph.
Electric current, a current or stream of electricity traversing a closed circuit formed of conducting substances, or passing by means of conductors from one body to another which is in a different electrical state.
Electric eel, or Electrical eel (Zo["o]l.), a South American eel-like fresh-water fish of the genus Gymnotus ( G. electricus), from two to five feet in length, capable of giving a violent electric shock. See Gymnotus.
Electrical fish (Zo["o]l.), any fish which has an electrical organ by means of which it can give an electrical shock. The best known kinds are the torpedo, the gymnotus, or electrical eel, and the electric cat. See Torpedo, and Gymnotus.
Electric fluid, the supposed matter of electricity; lightning. [archaic]
Electrical image (Elec.), a collection of electrical points regarded as forming, by an analogy with optical phenomena, an image of certain other electrical points, and used in the solution of electrical problems.
--Sir W. Thomson.Electric machine, or Electrical machine, an apparatus for generating, collecting, or exciting, electricity, as by friction.
Electric motor. See Electro-motor, 2.
Electric osmose. (Physics) See under Osmose.
Electric pen, a hand pen for making perforated stencils for multiplying writings. It has a puncturing needle driven at great speed by a very small magneto-electric engine on the penhandle.
Electric railway, a railway in which the machinery for moving the cars is driven by an electric current.
Electric ray (Zo["o]l.), the torpedo.
Electric telegraph. See Telegraph.
Usage examples of "electric atmosphere".
He was quite staggered by the strange appearance of his friends, the tense electric atmosphere which they had brought into the house with them, and the unnatural way in which they stood about—.
I felt my nerves tightening in that electric atmosphere so that I wanted to shout out that I'd got what Sansevino wanted -- anything to break the tension which was growing all the time.
He wandered away from the tense, electric atmosphere surrounding the circular table in the middle of the War Command Centre, and listened with half an ear to the flow of decoded reports issuing from the teams of operators.
There was anxiety and haste in all his movements, and the electric atmosphere of his demeanor was transmitted to the rest of us.
Smithback loved the electric atmosphere of a big press conference, called hastily after some dreadful event, packed with city officials and police brass laboring under the misapprehension that they could spin the unruly fourth estate of New York.
A man was about to be killed, to be murdered, but some indefinable factor in that electric atmosphere prevented any protest, any interruption, from anyone inside that house.
This Korean matched up with what he had always heard about Koreans, and anyway Bond wanted to do something violent to the heavy, electric atmosphere of the house.
I suppose I was enamoured from the start, and she sensed the electric atmosphere in my office.