Sec"tion (?), n. [L. sectio, fr. secare, sectum, to cut; akin to E. saw
a cutting instrument: cf. F. section. See Saw, and cf. Scion, Dissect,
Insect, Secant, Segment.]
1. The act of cutting, or separation by cutting; as, the section of bodies.
2. A part separated from something; a division; a
portion; a slice. Specifically: --
(a) A distinct part or portion of
a book or writing; a subdivision of a chapter; the division of a law or other writing; a paragraph; an article; hence, the character §, often used to denote such a division.
It is hardly
possible to give a distinct view of his several arguments in distinct sections.
Locke. (b) A distinct part of a country or people, community, class, or the
like; a part
of a territory separated by
geographical lines, or of a people considered as distinct.
The extreme
section of one class consists of bigoted dotards, the extreme section of the other consists of shallow and reckless
empirics.
Macaulay. (c) One of the portions, of one square
mile each, into which the public lands of the United
States are divided; one thirty-sixth part of
a township. These sections are subdivided into quarter sections for sale under the homestead and preëmption laws.
3.
(Geom.) The figure
made up of all the points common to a superficies and a solid which
meet, or to
two superficies which meet, or to two lines
which meet. In the first
case the section is a
superficies, in the second a
line, and in
the third a
point.
4. (Nat. Hist.) A division of
a genus; a group of species separated by some distinction from others of the same genus; -- often indicated by the sign §.
5. (Mus.) A part of a musical period, composed of one or more
phrases. See Phrase.
6. The description or representation of anything as it would appear if cut
through by any intersecting plane; depiction of what is beyond a plane passing through, or supposed to pass through, an object, as a building, a machine, a succession of strata; profile.
&fist; In mechanical drawing, as in these
Illustrations of a cannon, a longitudinal section (a) usually
represents the object as cut through its center lengthwise and vertically; a cross or transverse section
(b), as cut crosswise and vertically; and a horizontal section
(c), as cut through its center horizontally. Oblique sections are made at various angles. In architecture, a vertical section is a drawing showing the interior, the thickness of the walls, etc., as if made on a vertical plane passed through a building.
Angular sections (Math.), a branch of analysis which treats of the relations of sines, tangents, etc., of arcs to the sines, tangents, etc., of their multiples or of their
parts. [R.] -- Conic
sections. (Geom.) See under Conic. --
Section liner (Drawing), an instrument to aid in drawing a series of equidistant parallel
lines, -- used in representing sections. -- Thin section, a section or
slice, as of
mineral, animal, or vegetable substance, thin enough to be
transparent, and used for study under the microscope.
Syn. -- Part; portion; division. -- Section, Part. The English more commonly apply the word section to a part or portion of
a body of men; as, a section of the clergy, a
small section of the Whigs, etc. In the United
States this use is less common, but another use, unknown or but little known in England, is very frequent, as in the phrases "the eastern section of our country," etc., the same sense being also given to
the adjective sectional; as, sectional feelings, interests, etc.
Hear it pronounced