The Collaborative International Dictionary
Parallel \Par"al*lel\, n.
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A line which, throughout its whole extent, is equidistant from another line; a parallel line, a parallel plane, etc.
Who made the spider parallels design, Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line ?
--Pope. -
Direction conformable to that of another line,
Lines that from their parallel decline.
--Garth. -
Conformity continued through many particulars or in all essential points; resemblance; similarity.
Twixt earthly females and the moon All parallels exactly run.
--Swift. A comparison made; elaborate tracing of similarity; as, Johnson's parallel between Dryden and Pope.
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Anything equal to, or resembling, another in all essential particulars; a counterpart.
None but thyself can be thy parallel.
--Pope. (Geog.) One of the imaginary circles on the surface of the earth, parallel to the equator, marking the latitude; also, the corresponding line on a globe or map; as, the counry was divided into North and South at the 38th parallel.
(Mil.) One of a series of long trenches constructed before a besieged fortress, by the besieging force, as a cover for troops supporting the attacking batteries. They are roughly parallel to the line of outer defenses of the fortress.
(Print.) A character consisting of two parallel vertical lines (thus, ||) used in the text to direct attention to a similarly marked note in the margin or at the foot of a page.
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(Elec.) That arrangement of an electrical system in which all positive poles, electrodes, terminals, etc., are joined to one conductor, and all negative poles, etc., to another conductor; -- called also multiple. Opposed to series. Note: Parts of a system so arranged are said to be in parallel or in multiple. Limiting parallels. See under Limit, v. t. Parallel of altitude (Astron.), one of the small circles of the sphere, parallel to the horizon; an almucantar. Parallel of declination (Astron.), one of the small circles of the sphere, parallel to the equator. Parallel of latitude.
(Geog.) See def. 6. above.
(Astron.) One of the small circles of the sphere, parallel to the ecliptic.
Wiktionary
adv. 1 At the same time. together, or cotemporally. 2 (context electricity English) Electrical components connected side by side, instead of in series.
Usage examples of "in parallel".
Erected on a low, reedy mud flat called Mud Island a few miles below Philadelphia, the fort was surrounded by dikes and fortified with batteries that, wrote a defender, were nothing more than old spars and timber laid up in parallel lines and filled between with mud and dirt.
He claimed that his method of literary composition was to hook his gonads in parallel with his thalamus and disconnect his cerebrum entirely.
There, with a pen and a seal, she testified, in parallel English and Chinese documents that Linda May Greer, consular officer of the United States of America, had witnessed the sealing of two caskets and certified their contents.
Looking for, and dealing with, errors requires a separate process running in parallel with the one that has erred.
It's actually three separate streams, each runnel six to eight feet wide, traveling in parallel paths and occasionally overlapping in a braided flow before separating again.
It was raining when we reached Cresson, a wind-driven rain that had forced the agent at the newsstand to close himself in, and that beat back from the rails in parallel lines of white spray.
Our observer could not help being impressed by how far the two engines were from working in parallel.
If we were in parallel universes, there would have been another Vidiian ship.