英文字典中文字典Word104.com

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Artificial \Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium:
cf. F. artificiel. See {Artifice}.]
1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human
skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial
heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
[1913 Webster]

Artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
"Artificial tears." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as,
artificial grasses. --Gibbon.
[1913 Webster]

{Artificial arguments} (Rhet.), arguments invented by the
speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the
like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs.
--Johnson.

{Artificial classification} (Science), an arrangement based
on superficial characters, and not expressing the true
natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in
botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system.

{Artificial horizon}. See under {Horizon}.

{Artificial light}, any light other than that which proceeds
from the heavenly bodies.

{Artificial lines}, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived
as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which,
by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable
exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc.

{Artificial numbers}, logarithms.

{Artificial person} (Law). See under {Person}.

{Artificial sines}, {tangents}, etc., the same as logarithms
of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
[1913 Webster]