a. [ Cf. F. opalin. ] Of, pertaining to, or like, opal in appearance; having changeable colors like those of the opal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An opaline variety of yellow chalcedony. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. Opal glass. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

3. An opaline color or expanse. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Gr. pali`ndromos running back again; pa`lin again + dramei^n to run: cf. F. palindrome. ] A word, verse, or sentence, that is the same when read backward or forward; as, madam; Hannah; or Lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Of, pertaining to, or like, a palindrome. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A writer of palindromes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Pales, in general; a fence formed with pales or pickets; a limit; an inclosure. [ 1913 Webster ]

They moved within the paling of order and decorum. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of placing pales or stripes on cloth; also, the stripes themselves. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Paling board, one of the slabs sawed from the sides of a log to fit it to be sawed into boards. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. ] See Palingenesis. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Gr. &unr_;; pa`lin again + &unr_; birth: cf. F. palingénésie. See Genesis. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A new birth; a re-creation; a regeneration; a continued existence in different manner or form. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence: The passing over of the soul of one person or animal into the body of another person or animal, at the time of the death of the first; the transmigration of souls. Called also metempsychosis. [ PJC ]

3. (Biol.) That form of development of an individual organism in which in which ancestral characteristics occurring during its evolution are conserved by heredity and reproduced, sometimes transiently, in the course of individual development; original simple descent; -- distinguished from cenogenesis (kenogenesis or coenogenesis), in which the mode of individual development has been modified so that the evolutionary process had become obscured. Sometimes, in Zoology, the term is applied to the abrupt metamorphosis of insects, crustaceans, etc. See also the note under recapitulation. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

a. Of or pertaining to palingenesis: as, a palingenetic process. -- Pal`in*ge*net"ic*al*ly adv. [1913 Webster]

n. [ L. palinodia, from Gr. &unr_;; pa`lin again + &unr_; a song. See Ode. ] 1. An ode recanting, or retracting, a former one; also, a repetition of an ode. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A retraction; esp., a formal retraction. Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to a palinode, or retraction. J. Q. Adams. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Palinode. [ Obs. ] Wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called from L. Palinurus, the pilot of Aeneas. ] (Naut.) An instrument for obtaining directly, without calculation, the true bearing of the sun, and thence the variation of the compass. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Bot.) Relating to, or having the nature of, sepals. [ 1913 Webster ]