second

adj

1. (not-comparable)Number-two; following after the first one with nothing between them. The ordinal number corresponding to the cardinal number two.

   “He lives on Second Street.”

   “The second volume in "The Lord of the Rings" series is called "The Two Towers".”

   “He became the second player to hit 50000 runs for his county.”

   “You take the first one, and I'll have the second.”

   “The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.[…]The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.”

2. (not-comparable)Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.

   “May the day when we become the second people upon earth […] be the day of our utter extirpation!”

3. (not-comparable)Being of the same kind as one that has preceded; another.

   “Residents of Texas prepared for Hurricane Harvey, which would in some ways turn out to become the second Hurricane Katrina.”

   “A Daniel ſtill ſay I, a ſecond Daniel,[…]”

adv

1. (not-comparable)After the first; at the second rank.

   “Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system.”

2. (not-comparable)After the first occurrence but before the third.

   “He is batting second today.”

noun

1. Something that is number two in a series.
2. Something that is next in rank, quality, precedence, position, status, or authority.
3. The place that is next below or after first in a race or contest.
4. (plural-normally)A manufactured item that, though still usable, fails to meet quality control standards.

   “They were discounted because they contained blemishes, nicks or were otherwise factory seconds.”

5. (plural-normally)An additional helping of food.

   “That was good barbecue. I hope I can get seconds.”

6. A chance or attempt to achieve what should have been done the first time, usually indicating success this time around. (See second-guess.)

   “The policeman smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Now if you'll follow me, I'll escort you to the Victoria." "Oh, there's no need of that. If you'll just point me in the right direction..." That's what got you in trouble the first time around. You don't need a second.”

   “Smoky Joe ran against a Houston horse named Cherokee Chief. “Don't hit him,” Jeanine said to the jockey. “Maybe once. But you don't get a second.””

   “I'll have one chance to show them that's no longer true. One chance ... and if I stumble, I'll not get a second.”

7. The interval between two adjacent notes in a diatonic scale (either or both of them may be raised or lowered from the basic scale via any type of accidental).
8. The second gear of an engine.
9. Second base.
10. The agent of a party to an honour dispute whose role was to try to resolve the dispute or to make the necessary arrangements for a duel.

    “Since he [i.e., Abraham Lincoln] had very long arms, he chose cavalry broadswords and took lessons in sword fighting from a West Point graduate; and, on the appointed day, he and [James] Shields met on a sandbar in the Mississippi River, prepared to fight to the death; but, at the last minute, their seconds interrupted and stopped the duel.”

    “Joint enterprise law dates back to at least the 16th century. It was later developed to deter duelling by making seconds and doctors liable for murder.”

11. A Cub Scout appointed to assist the sixer.

    “Many packs have a sixer's council where the sixers, and sometimes the seconds, meet with Akela and some of the other leaders.”

12. (informal)A second-class honours degree.

    “[Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.”

13. A unit of time historically and commonly defined as a sixtieth of a minute which the International System of Units more precisely defines as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of caesium-133 in a ground state at a temperature of absolute zero and at rest.

    “Holonyms: decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond”

    “Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond < microsecond < millisecond < centisecond < decisecond”

    “For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that spinach be cooked at 160º for 15 seconds, which kills potentially fatal bacteria.”

14. A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a minute of arc or one part in 3600 of a degree.
15. (informal)A short, indeterminate amount of time.

    “I'll be there in a second.”

    “Exposure of aluminum to the air causes a near instantaneous oxide. So rapid is the oxidation that it is safe to say you never see aluminum that has no oxide on its surface... The initial exposure of aluminum, regardless of alloy, will form a thin oxide film on the surface the second it is exposed.”

16. One who supports another in a contest or combat, such as a dueller's assistant.

    “The dogs however parted, and after a little handling by their seconds immediately returned to the charge”

    “They find ways to take advice from their seconds or they arrange the schedule against you as they did to me in the finals of the 1962 World Tournament”

    “Vaguely reminiscent of the use of "seconds" among duelists, this provision required that the two hostile nations stop threatening each other and, instead, to let two appointed countries (their "seconds") try and solve their difficulties”

    “Theodore's practice is described as a model for the housemasters and their seconds”

17. One who supports or seconds a motion, or the act itself, as required in certain meetings to pass judgement etc.

    “If we want the motion to pass, we will need a second.”

18. (obsolete)Aid; assistance; help.

    “Give second, and my love / Is everlasting thine.”

verb

1. (transitive)To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (See etymology 3 for translations.)

   “I second the motion.”

   “Though seconding (or fifthing) the praise for “BoJack Horseman” and “In Treatment,” I think I’ll use the majority of my space to discuss “You’re the Worst.””

2. To follow in the next place; to succeed.

   “In the method of nature, a low valley is immediately seconded with an ambitious hill.”

   “Sin is usually seconded with sin.”

3. To climb after a lead climber.
4. (UK, transitive)To transfer temporarily to alternative employment.

   “The army officer was seconded while he held civil office.”

   “Things changed quickly from 1892 when Sam Fay was seconded from the L.S.W.R. as General Manager & Secretary.”

   “Daniel had still been surprised, however, to find the lab area deserted, all the scientists apparently seconded by Cleomides's military friends.”

   “As The Signpost reported, all was not well with Wikilambda. Ten days prior to the article, a group of Google employees seconded to Abstract Wikipedia had released a damning report on Meta-Wiki, the site where projects of the Wikimedia Foundation are documented.”

5. (transitive)To assist or support; to back.

   “Wee haue Supplyes, to ſecond our Attempt:[…]”

   “In human works, tho’ labour’d on with pain, / A thouſand movements ſcarce one purpoſe gain; / In God's, one ſingle can its End produce, / Yet ſerves to ſecond too ſome other Uſe.”

6. (transitive)To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (This may come from etymology 1 above.)

   “I second the motion.”

7. (transitive)To accompany by singing as the second performer.