(medicine) the act of caring for someone (as by medication or remedial training etc.); "the quarterback is undergoing treatment for a knee injury"; "he tried every treatment the doctors suggested"; "heat therapy gave the best relief"
markedly different from the usual; "a peculiar hobby of stuffing and mounting bats"; "a man...feels it a peculiar insult to be taunted with cowardice by a woman"-Virginia Woolf
delivered at the moment of parting as if in flight or retreat; "paused to deliver a parting shot at the door"; "a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy"- Bret Harte
narrowly restricted in outlook or scope; "little sympathy with parochial mentality"; "insular attitudes toward foreigners"
suggestive of the isolated life of an island; "an exceedingly insular man; so deeply private as to seem inaccessible to the scrutiny of a novelist"- Leonard Michaels
relating to or characteristic of or situated on an island; "insular territories"; "Hawaii's insular culture"
any measurable property of a device measured under closely specified conditions
the integer part (positive or negative) of the representation of a logarithm; in the expression log 643 = 2.808 the characteristic is 2
typical or distinctive; "heard my friend's characteristic laugh"; "red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn"; "stripes characteristic of the zebra"