Of asecond class or group; second, not merely as so counted, but in its own nature; appropriately reckoned as second; fulfilling a function similar to that which is primary, but less important: opposed to primary or principal.Subordinate; inferior.In ornithology:Of the second order, rank, row, or series, between the primary and the tertiary, as remiges or flight-feathers. See cuts under covert, n., 6, and bird.Pertaining to the secondaries: as, the secondary coverts.In mineralogy, subsequent in origin; produced by chemical change or by mechanical or other means after the original mineral was formed: said of cleavage, twinning, etc.: as, the secondary twinning sometimes developed in pyroxene and other species by pressure.[capitalized] In paleon., same as MesozoicIn modern philos., since Galileo (who in 1623 calls the qualities known as primary “primi accidenti”) and Boyle (who in 1666 uses the term “secondary qualities, if I may so call them,” in precisely the modern signification), affections of bodies; affective, patible, sensible qualities; imputed qualities; qualities of bodies relative to the organs of sense, as color, taste, smell, etc.: opposed to those characters (called primary qualities, though properly speaking they are not qualities at all) which we cannot imagine bodies as wanting. Sometimes called secondary properties.n. A delegate or deputy; one who acts in subordination to another; one who occupies a subordinate or inferior position; specifically, a cathedral dignitary of the second rank, such as a minor canon, precentor, singing clerk, etc. The application of the title varies in different cathedrals.n. A thing which is of second or secondary position or importance, or is dependent on a primary: said of circles, planets, etc.n. Specificallyn. A secondary remex or flight-feather; one of the large quills of a bird's wing which are seated on the forearm, and intervene between the primaries and the tertiaries. They vary in number from six (in humming-birds) to forty or more (in albatrosses). See cuts under bird and covert.n. In entomology, one of the posterior or hind wings of an insect, especially of a butterfly or moth. See cut under Cirrophanus.n. [capitalized] In geology, that part of the series of fossi-liferous formations which lies between the Primary or Paleozoic and the Tertiary or Cænozoic.n. In meteorology, a subsidiary cyclonic circulation, generally on the border of a primary cyclone, accompanied by rain, thunder-storms, and squalls: indicated on a weather-map by the bulging of an isobar toward the region of higher pressure.In geology, applied to those rock-making minerals which are the products of the alteration or decay of the minerals, original or primary, in the rock. Thus quartz, feldspar, and mica are primary in granite, whereas kaolin, arising from the decay of the feldspar, is secondary.In electricity: Pertaining to those parts of a transformer, or induction-coil, in which the induced currents occur, as distinguished from the corresponding parts of the primary or inducing circuit; as the secondary coils, windings, turns, or terminals of a transformer.Pertaining to the induced current or electromotive force in a transformer or induction-coil.n. plural The symptoms occurring in the second stage of syphilis.n. One of the smaller tubercles on the surface of the test in the Echinoidea or sea-urchins. The secondaries are intermediate in size between the primaries and the miliaries.n. In English law, the second officer of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas; also, an officer of the Corporation of London who hears inquiries to assess damages in cases where the defendant does not appear.n. In an alternating-current transformer or other apparatus having several circuits in inductive relation to each other, that coil or circuit which receives power by induction from the primary coil.
