<B>Christmas, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the yearly celebration of the birth of Christ; December 25; Yule. Christmas is marked by special church services, giving of gifts, and sending of greetings. <DD><B> 2. </B>the religious and festive season before and after Christmas Day; Yule; Yuletide. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasberry">
<B>Christmasberry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an evergreen shrub of the rose family found on the Pacific Coast of North America; toyon. <DD><B> 2. </B>the bright red berries of this shrub, often used for Christmas decoration. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasbox">
<B>Christmas box,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) <DD><B> 1. </B>(originally) a box used at Christmas for the presents of money to apprentices, servants, porters, and other helpers. <DD><B> 2. </B>a tip given at Christmas to a servant or employee, or to public servants such as a letter carrier or policeman. <DD><B> 3a. </B>a Christmas present. <DD><B> b. </B>a box of presents at Christmas. </DL>
<A NAME="christmascactus">
<B>Christmas cactus,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a South American cactus with red flowers, naturally growing on trees for support but commonly grown as a house plant. </DL>
<A NAME="christmascard">
<B>Christmas card,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an ornamental card sent by way of Christmas greeting. </DL>
<A NAME="christmascarol">
<B>Christmas carol,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a song or hymn sung in celebration of Christmas and especially of the nativity of Christ. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasclub">
<B>Christmas club,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a group of bank accounts into which depositors, wishing to accumulate savings to be used for shopping before Christmas, make weekly deposits throughout the year. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasday">
<B>Christmas Day,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> December 25. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasdisease">
<B>Christmas disease,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a form of hemophilia, inherited and transmitted like classical hemophilia, but caused by the deficiency of a different clotting factor of the blood and somewhat less severe than classical hemophilia. </DL>
<A NAME="christmaseve">
<B>Christmas Eve,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the night (often also the day) before Christmas Day, marked by preparations for the Christmas festival. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasfern">
<B>Christmas fern,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an evergreen fern of eastern North America, having simply pinnate fronds. <BR> <I>Ex. The Christmas fern, being very firm in texture, is much used in holiday decoration (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<B>Christmas pudding,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) plum pudding served at Christmas dinner. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasrose">
<B>Christmas rose,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a low-growing, European, evergreen plant of the crowfoot family, grown for its white flowers which bloom in winter or early spring; black hellebore. </DL>
<A NAME="christmasseal">
<B>Christmas seal,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an ornamental adhesive stamp offered for sale during the Christmas season. </DL>
<A NAME="christmassy">
<B>Christmassy</B> or <B>Christmasy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) in the spirit of Christmas; suitable for or suggestive of Christmas. <BR> <I>Ex. Strands of holly, laden with red berries, embroidered down each side of the inserts and ... around the cuffs are what make it [a dress] especially Christmassy (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="christmastide">
<B>Christmastide, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the Christmas season; Yuletide. It is properly from midnight of December 24 to New Year's Day or, especially in England, to Epiphany. <BR> <I>Ex. The door is decorated with a holly wreath at Christmastide, and passers-by seldom give the house a second glance (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="christmastime">
<B>Christmastime, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the Christmas season. <BR> <I>Ex. At Christmastime, there were trees and holly and carols (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="christmastree">
<B>Christmas tree,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an evergreen or artificial tree decorated with lights and ornaments, and often bearing Christmas presents. The Christmas tree now is a regular feature of the Christmas celebration in the United States and several other countries, especially Germany, where it originated. <DD><B> 2. </B>a special valve system used in oil wells. <DD><B> 3. </B>a small standard placed on the map of a plotting board to show the track of an aircraft or of a formation of aircraft. </DL>
<A NAME="christocentric">
<B>Christocentric, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having Christ as its center. <BR> <I>Ex. Christocentric theology.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="christogram">
<B>Christogram, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the symbol XP used for Christ's name, especially as a monogram; chrismon. See <B>XP.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="christolatry">
<B>Christolatry,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the worship of Christ. </DL>
<A NAME="christological">
<B>Christological, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with Christology. </DL>
<A NAME="christology">
<B>Christology, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the study of the life and attributes of Christ. <DD><B> 2. </B>a theory or doctrine concerning Christ. </DL>
<A NAME="christsthorn">
<B>Christ's-thorn, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of several Palestinian thorny shrubs or small trees supposed to have formed Christ's crown of thorns, as the common jujube. </DL>
<A NAME="christy">
<B>christy</B> or <B>Christy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties,</B> verb, <B>-tied,</B> <B>-tying.</B> <B>=christie.</B></DL>
<A NAME="chrom">
<B>chrom-,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (combining form.) the form of <B>chromo-</B> before vowels, as in <I>chrominance.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="chroma">
<B>chroma, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> saturation and hue considered together as a quality of color; the degree of a color's freedom from white, gray, or black. <BR> <I>Ex. If you mixed steps of color between a pure red and a neutral gray of the same value, or lightness, you would have a series of chromas (Faber Birren).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="chromaffin">
<B>chromaffin, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>having an affinity for salts of chromic acid. <DD><B> 2. </B>of or having to do with certain pigmented cells in the medulla of a suprarenal gland. <BR> <I>Ex. chromaffin tissue.</I> </DL>
<B>chromalize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-lized,</B> <B>-lizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to metalize with a substance containing chromium. </DL>
<A NAME="chromat">
<B>chromat-,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (combining form) the form of <B>chromato-</B> before vowels, as in <I>chromatin.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="chromate">
<B>chromate, </B>noun, verb, <B>-mated,</B> <B>-mating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Chemistry.) <DD><I>noun </I> a salt or ester of chromic acid. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to treat with a chromate. </DL>
<A NAME="chromatic">
<B>chromatic, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1a. </B>of color or colors. <BR> <I>Ex. Most paint stores have chromatic charts.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>of or having to do with chroma. <BR> <I>Ex. chromatic color.</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>progressing only by half steps instead of by the regular intervals of the musical scale. <BR> <I>Ex. There are twelve chromatic tones.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>having to do with or involving the use of tones which do not belong to a particular key or musical scale. <DD><B> c. </B>of tones which are marked with accidentals, are not normal to the scale in which they occur, but do not cause modulation. <DD><I>noun </I> (Music.) <B>=accidental.</B> adv. <B>chromatically.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="chromaticaberration">
<B>chromatic aberration,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Optics.) failure of the different colors of light to meet in one focus when refracted through a convex lens, resulting in a prismatic coloring around the edge of the image; chromatism. <BR> <I>Ex. An objective should be as free as possible from chromatic aberration, which causes colors to form around a brilliant object (Bernhard, Bennett, and Rice).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="chromaticism">
<B>chromaticism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the use of tones of a chromatic musical scale. </DL>
<A NAME="chromaticity">
<B>chromaticity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state, degree, or quality of being chromatic; chroma. </DL>
<B>chromatics, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the science that deals with colors. <DD><B> 2. </B>the branch of colorimetry dealing with hue and saturation. </DL>
<A NAME="chromaticscale">
<B>chromatic scale,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a musical scale that progresses by half steps within the octave. </DL>
<A NAME="chromatid">
<B>chromatid, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Biology.) one of the two identical longitudinal halves into which a chromosome divides during cell division, which in turn develops into a complete new chromosome. </DL>
<A NAME="chromatin">
<B>chromatin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a protein substance in the nucleus of an animal or plant cell; chromoplasm. The chromosomes are made up in part of chromatin. It consists of granules or threads of deoxyribonucleic acid and protein, absorbs basic stains readily, and draws together to form chromosomes during mitosis. <DD><B> 2. </B>sex chromatin; Barr body. <BR> <I>Ex. A cell component called chromatin is found in the nucleus of female cells but not in that of male cells (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="chromatinic">
<B>chromatinic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with chromatin. </DL>
