Solid /(sŏl"ĭd)/

Sol·id

Solid

a.
  1. Having the constituent parts so compact, or so firmly adhering, as to resist the impression or penetration of other bodies; having a fixed form; hard; firm; compact; -- opposed to fluid and liquid or to plastic, like clay, or to incompact, like sand.
  2. Not hollow; full of matter; as, a solid globe or cone, as distinguished from a hollow one; not spongy; dense; hence, sometimes, heavy.
  3. Having all the geometrical dimensions; cubic; as, a solid foot contains 1,728 solid inches. (Arith.)
  4. Firm; compact; strong; stable; unyielding; as, a solid pier; a solid pile; a solid wall.
  5. Applied to a compound word whose parts are closely united and form an unbroken word; -- opposed to hyphened.
  6. Fig.: Worthy of credit, trust, or esteem; substantial, as opposed to frivolous or fallacious; weighty; firm; strong; valid; just; genuine.
    The solid purpose of a sincere and virtuous answer.
    These, wanting wit, affect gravity, and go by the name of solid men.
    The genius of the Italians wrought by solid toil what the myth-making imagination of the Germans had projected in a poem.
    — J. A. Symonds.
  7. Sound; not weakly; as, a solid constitution of body.
  8. Of a fleshy, uniform, undivided substance, as a bulb or root; not spongy or hollow within, as a stem. (Bot.)
  9. Impenetrable; resisting or excluding any other material particle or atom from any given portion of space; -- applied to the supposed ultimate particles of matter. (Metaph.)
  10. Not having the lines separated by leads; not open. (Print.)
  11. United; without division; unanimous; as, the delegation is solid for a candidate. [Polit. Cant. U.S.]
    Repose you there; while I [return] to this hard house, More harder than the stones whereof 't is raised.
    I hear his thundering voice resound, And trampling feet than shake the solid ground.

Phrases & Compounds
Solid angle
See under Angle.
Solid color
an even color; one not shaded or variegated.
Solid green
See Emerald green (a), under Green.
Solid measure
a measure for volumes, in which the units are each a cube of fixed linear magnitude, as a cubic foot, yard, or the like; thus, a foot, in solid measure, or a solid foot, contains 1,728 solid inches.
Solid newel
a newel into which the ends of winding stairs are built, in distinction from a hollow newel. See under Hollow, a.
Solid problem
a problem which can be construed geometrically, only by the intersection of a circle and a conic section or of two conic sections.
Solid square
a square body or troops in which the ranks and files are equal.

Solid

n.
  1. A substance that is held in a fixed form by cohesion among its particles; a substance not fluid.
  2. A magnitude which has length, breadth, and thickness; a part of space bounded on all sides. (Geom.)

Phrases & Compounds
Solid of revolution
See Revolution, n., 5.