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Possible definitions for ziehen

Diemen
Dutch colonial administrator who consolidated the Dutch empire in the Far East. He joined the Dutch E. India Co. and served in Batavia from 1618. As governor-general of the Dutch E. Indian settlements (1636-45), he enabled the Dutch to gain a monopoly of the spice trade in the Moluccas, conquer cinnamon-producing areas in Ceylon (later Sri Lanka), seize the key Portuguese stronghold of Malacca, and capture all of Formosa (Taiwan). By 1645 he had established the United Provinces of the Netherlands as the paramount commercial and political power in the E. Indies. Van Diemen also initiated the exploring expeditions of A. Tasman and Frans Visscher (1642, 1644).


lichen
Any of about 15,000 species of small, colorful, scaly plants that consist of a symbiotic association of algae (usually green) and fungi (see fungus). These extremely hardy, slow growers often are pioneer species in sparse environments such as mountaintops and the far North. Fungal cells, anchored to the substrate with hairlike growths (rhizines), form the base. In the body (thallus), numerous algal cells are distributed among fewer fungal cells. Through photosynthesis the algal cells provide simple sugars and vitamins for both partners in this symbiotic association. The fungal cells protect the algal cells from environmental extremes. Lichens may form a thin, crustlike, tightly bound covering over their substrate (e.g., cracks in rocks), or they may be small and leafy, with loose attachments to the substrate. Their colors range from brown to bright orange or yellow. In far N Europe and Asia, lichens provide two-thirds of caribou and reindeer food. They have been the source of medicines and dyes.


Michener
U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Michener was a foundling discovered in Doylestown, Pa., and raised as a Quaker. Initially a teacher, during 1944-46 he was a naval historian in the S. Pacific, the area of his early fiction; his Tales of the South Pacific (1947, Pulitzer Prize) was adapted as the Broadway musical South Pacific (1949; film, 1958). He is best known for epic and detailed novels drawing on extensive research, incl. Hawaii (1959; film, 1966), Centennial (1974), Chesapeake (1978), Space (1982), and Mexico (1992).


Riesener
French cabinetmaker. Son of an usher in the law courts of the elector of Cologne, he joined a workshop in Paris and became its head when his master died. In 1774 he was made royal cabinetmaker and from then on was the regular supplier of furniture to Marie Antoinette. His preferred wood was mahogany; occasionally he used lacquer and mother-of-pearl to enrich his surfaces. His furniture exemplified Louis XVI style.


Siegen
German painter and engraver. His earliest dated mezzotint was a portrait of Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse-Kassel (1642); in its dedication he claimed the invention of the mezzotint process, which he described as engraving by dots rather than ...

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