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▪ I. apex, n.1|ˈeɪpɛks|
Pl. apices |ˈeɪpɪsiːz, ˈæp-|, apexes.
[a. L. apex peak, tip, the small rod at the top of the flamen's cap, perh. f. ap- to fit to (cf. vertex, f. vertĕre to turn); whence, the tip of anything.]
1. (As in Latin.) rare.
1603B. Jonson James I.'s Entert. Wks. 1838, 532 Upon his head a hat of delicate wool, whose top ended in a cone, and was thence called apex. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., The Apex is described as a stitched cap in form of a helmet, with the addition of a little stick fixed on the top. 1820Mair Tyro's Dict. 7 Apicatus, wearing an apex, tufted.
2. The tip of anything, the top or peak of a mountain, pyramid, or spire; the pointed end of anything pyramidal or spiral, as a shell or leaf.
1610Healey St. Aug., City of God 77 Apex, is any thing..added to the toppe, or highest part of a thing. 1637Heywood Royal Ship 2 In the very Apex and top thereof [Mt. Ararat], there is still to be discerned a blacke shadow. 1727De Foe, etc. Tour Gt. Brit. (1769) III. 319 The Precipices were surprisingly variegated with Apices, Prominences, etc. 1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 108 In the apex of the dome, is seen the Celestial Dove. 1853C. Brontë Villette xxix. (1876) 325 It formed the apex to a blooming pyramid. 1866R. Tate Brit. Mollusks iii. 56 The shells..have their apices eroded. 1864T. Moore Brit. Ferns 111 The apices of the fronds. 1873H. Spencer Sociol. iii. 49 Crystals..modified by truncations of angles and apices. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Apex, in the U.S. Revenue Statutes, the end or edge of a vein nearest the surface.
3. Geom. The vertex of a triangle or cone.
1678Phillips, Apex, principally in a Geometrical signification, the top of a Conical figure, which ends and sharpens into a point. 1869Rawlinson Anc. Hist. 56 Memphis, not much above the apex of the Delta. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 68 The apex of this triangle.
4. fig. (Cf. acme, climax.)
1641R. Brooke Nat. Eng. Episc. 21 Now..I am neere the Apex of this question. a1643W. Cartwright To C'tess Carlile, You who have gained the apex of your kind. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. §5. 124 Commencing with the rudiments of grammar and terminating in the apex of the Doctorate. 1883A. Blake in Harper's Mag. 902/1 They have attained the apex of the comic.
5. The highest or culminating point of time. rare.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 292 In the beginning, the first Apex of Time which began with the Being of Matter. 1864Heavysege Shaks. Tercent. Ode 2 The apex of the years, The period's culmination.
6. Bot.
†a. An early name for the anther or summit of the stamen (obs.).
b. The tip of a young plant-shoot, ‘the growing point.’
1691Ray Creation i. (1777) 104 The masculine or prolific seed contained in the chiues or apices of the stamina. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., On the tops of the stamina or chives, grow those little capsulæ or knobs, called Apices. 1862Darwin Orchids vi. 251 This apex consists of a thin flattened filament. [See also under ]
‖7. A horn or projecting point on a Hebrew letter. (So Vulg. translates κεραία Matt. v. 18; Eng. ‘tittle.’)
a1646J. Gregory Posthuma 193 There being no difference between gimel [{hebgimel}] and nun [נ] but a small apex or excrescence.
†8. Hence fig. A tittle, a jot; the least portion of anything written or said. Obs.
1635Jackson Creed viii. xxvii. Wks. VIII. 113 The words..answer punctually and identically to every apex or tittle of St. Matthew's quotation. 1661Origen's Opin. in Phœnix 1721 I. 77 To establish the Sense and Interpretation..upon Tittles and Apices. 1680S. Mather Iren. 8 Every Apex of truth is precious, the least Jota thereof is not to be despised.
9. Comb., as apex-beat, the impulse of the contraction of the heart.
1877Roberts Handbk. Med. II. 7 In health the apex-beat is usually felt in the 5th left interspace.
▸ apex court n. orig. and chiefly S. Asian a federal court, the highest judicial body, having authority over the High Courts and lower courts of individual states, from which cases may be referred; more formally called the Supreme Court.
1989Xinhua News Service (Nexis) 14 Feb. The court ruled that to enable speedy settlement to be reached, it was transferring all civil proceedings to the *apex court and directed that the matters in the respective courts would stand quashed. 1996India Today 30 June 75/3 It was promptly returned by the apex court, which obviously did not want to take an essentially political decision on whether a temple existed at the site where the Babri Masjid stood. 2002This Day (Accra) (Nexis) 31 Dec. It was a good year for the nation's Judiciary as the apex court made one bold pronouncement after the other.
▪ II. ˈapex, v.
[f. apex n.1]
trans. To form with an apex or pointed top; to raise to a point or tip.
1905Holman Hunt Pre-Raph. I. 87 Should the several parts of the composition be always apexed in pyramids? 1924Scribner's Mag. Jan. 56/1 Phil apexed his fine even eyebrows in the direction of Mary. |