Definition of "atmosphere" []

• The gaseous mass or envelope surrounding a celestial body, especially the one surrounding the earth, and retained by the celestial body's gravitational field. (noun)
• The air or climate in a specific place. (noun)
• Physics A unit of pressure equal to the air pressure at sea level. It equals the amount of pressure that will support a column of mercury 760 millimeters high at 0 degrees Celsius under standard gravity, or 14.7 pounds per square inch (1.01325 × 105 pascals). See Table at measurement. (noun)
• A dominant intellectual or emotional environment or attitude: an atmosphere of distrust among the electorate. (noun)
• The dominant tone or mood of a work of art. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "_ -- Watt being a mathematical instrument maker, was requested to repair an old engine used by some students of Glasgow University; having finished the repairs, and in working this model (the best type of the atmospheric engine), he found and proved by many and various experiments, that an enormous waste of fuel was absolutely necessary in working the engine; he found great difficulty in keeping the air from entering the cylinder, and the cylinder top was so exposed to the atmosphere that the steam was much condensed when it entered the cylinder, and he came to the conclusion to put a cover on the top of the cylinder, and allow the piston-rod to play in a hole in the cover with a gland and stuffing box, and _to press down the piston with steam instead of the atmosphere_."
• "When the atmosphere is of the same weight and density orer a considerable extent of the surface of the earth, there a calm will obtain: but if this equipoise is taken off, a stream of air, or. wind, is produced, stronger or weaker in proportion to the alteration made in the state of the atmosphere* There are direr* causes which make these alterations in the equipoise of the atmosphere, such as rarefactions or conden - sations in one part more than in another; yapoura rising from the earth or sea, pressure of the clouds, &c."
• "However, the bit that one tree can draw from the atmosphere is a minute fraction of what another tree, left uncut, would consume."