roundabout or ambiguous; "attacks from that source amounted to a backhanded compliment to his integrity"; "a backhanded and dishonest way of reaching his goal"
back and sides of a hog salted and dried or smoked; usually sliced thin and fried
English statesman and philosopher; precursor of British empiricism; advocated inductive reasoning (1561-1626)
English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation; first showed that air is required for combustion and first used lenses to correct vision (1220-1292)
the process of ionizing; the formation of ions by separating atoms or molecules or radicals or by adding or subtracting electrons from atoms by strong electric fields in a gas
the condition of being dissociated into ions (as by heat or radiation or chemical reaction or electrical discharge); "the ionization of a gas"
a garment similar to a jacket that is used to bind the arms tightly against the body as a means of restraining a violent person
anything immaterial that severely hinders or confines; "they defected because Russian dance was in a straitjacket"; "the government is operating in an economic straitjacket"
the flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light