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Read Ebook: The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section A and B by Project Gutenberg Webster Noah
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Ebook has 11225 lines and 412096 words, and 225 pages
Begin file 1 of 11: A and B. of An electronic field-marked version of:
This electronic version was prepared by MICRA, Inc. of Plainfield, NJ. Last edit February 11, 1999.
This version is only a first typing, and has numerous typographic errors, including errors in the field-marks. Assistance in bringing this dictionary to a more accurate and useful state will be greatly appreciated. This electronic dictionary is made available as a potential starting point for development of a modern on-line comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary, by the efforts of all individuals willing to help build a large and freely available knowledge base. Anyone willing to assist in any way in constructing such a knowledge base should contact:
Patrick Cassidy cassidy@micra.com 735 Belvidere Ave. Office: 668-5252 Plainfield, NJ 07062 561-3416
A . The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter , besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ? sound, the Phoenician alphabet having no vowel symbols.
This letter, in English, is used for several different vowel sounds. See Guide to pronunciation, ?? 43-74. The regular long a, as in fate, etc., is a comparatively modern sound, and has taken the place of what, till about the early part of the 17th century, was a sound of the quality of ? .
A per se , one pre?minent; a nonesuch.
O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se Of Troy and Greece. Chaucer.
A . 1. An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically. "At a birth"; "In a word"; "At a blow". Shak. It is placed before nouns of the singular number denoting an individual object, or a quality individualized, before collective nouns, and also before plural nouns when the adjective few or the phrase great many or good many is interposed; as, a dog, a house, a man; a color; a sweetness; a hundred, a fleet, a regiment; a few persons, a great many days. It is used for an, for the sake of euphony, before words beginning with a consonant sound ; as, a table, a woman, a year, a unit, a eulogy, a ewe, a oneness, such a one, etc. Formally an was used both before vowels and consonants.
A , prep. 1. In; on; at; by. "A God's name." "Torn a pieces." "Stand a tiptoe." "A Sundays" Shak. "Wit that men have now a days." Chaucer. "Set them a work." Robynson .
A. Of. "The name of John a Gaunt." "What time a day is it ?" Shak. "It's six a clock." B. Jonson.
A. A barbarous corruption of have, of he, and sometimes of it and of they. "So would I a done" "A brushes his hat." Shak.
A. An expletive, void of sense, to fill up the meter
A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. Shak.
A-. A, as a prefix to English words, is derived from various sources. It frequently signifies on or in , denoting a state, as in afoot, on foot, abed, amiss, asleep, aground, aloft, away , and analogically, ablaze, atremble, etc. AS. of off, from, as in adown . AS. - , usually giving an intensive force, and sometimes the sense of away, on, back, as in arise, abide, ago. Old English y- or i- , which, as a prefix, made no essential addition to the meaning, as in aware. French ? , as in abase, achieve. L. a, ab, abs, from, as in avert. Greek insep. prefix α without, or privative, not, as in abyss, atheist; akin to E. un-.
Besides these, there are other sources from which the prefix a takes its origin.
A 1 . A registry mark given by underwriters to ships in first-class condition. Inferior grades are indicated by A 2 and A 3.
A 1 is also applied colloquially to other things to imply superiority; prime; first-class; first-rate.
||Aam , n. A Dutch and German measure of liquids, varying in different cities, being at Amsterdam about 41 wine gallons, at Antwerp 36 1/2 , at Hamburg 38 1/4 .
||Aard"-vark` , n. An edentate mammal, of the genus Orycteropus, somewhat resembling a pig, common in some parts of Southern Africa. It burrows in the ground, and feeds entirely on ants, which it catches with its long, slimy tongue.
||Aard"-wolf` , n. A carnivorous quadruped , of South Africa, resembling the fox and hyena. See Proteles.
a. Pertaining to Aaron, the first high priest of the Jews.
Aar"on's rod` . 1. A rod with one serpent twined around it, thus differing from the caduceus of Mercury, which has two.
Ab- . A prefix in many words of Latin origin. It signifies from, away , separating, or departure, as in abduct, abstract, abscond. See A-.
||Ab , n. The fifth month of the Jewish year according to the ecclesiastical reckoning, the eleventh by the civil computation, coinciding nearly with August. W. Smith.
To be taken aback. To be driven backward against the mast; -- said of the sails, also of the ship when the sails are thus driven. To be suddenly checked, baffled, or discomfited. Dickens.
Ab"ack , n. An abacus. B. Jonson.
Abacus harmonicus , an ancient diagram showing the structure and disposition of the keys of an instrument. Crabb.
In all her gates, Abaddon rues Thy bold attempt. Milton.
Abaft the beam. See under Beam.
Enforced the kingdom to aband. Spenser.
That he might . . . abandon them from him. Udall.
Being all this time abandoned from your bed. Shak.
He abandoned himself . . . to his favorite vice. Macaulay.
Syn. -- To give up; yield; forego; cede; surrender; resign; abdicate; quit; relinquish; renounce; desert; forsake; leave; retire; withdraw from. -- To Abandon, Desert, Forsake. These words agree in representing a person as giving up or leaving some object, but differ as to the mode of doing it. The distinctive sense of abandon is that of giving up a thing absolutely and finally; as, to abandon one's friends, places, opinions, good or evil habits, a hopeless enterprise, a shipwrecked vessel. Abandon is more widely applicable than forsake or desert. The Latin original of desert appears to have been originally applied to the case of deserters from military service. Hence, the verb, when used of persons in the active voice, has usually or always a bad sense, implying some breach of fidelity, honor, etc., the leaving of something which the person should rightfully stand by and support; as, to desert one's colors, to desert one's post, to desert one's principles or duty. When used in the passive, the sense is not necessarily bad; as, the fields were deserted, a deserted village, deserted halls. Forsake implies the breaking off of previous habit, association, personal connection, or that the thing left had been familiar or frequented; as, to forsake old friends, to forsake the paths of rectitude, the blood forsook his cheeks. It may be used either in a good or in a bad sense.
||A`ban`don" , n. A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.
Syn. -- Profligate; dissolute; corrupt; vicious; depraved; reprobate; wicked; unprincipled; graceless; vile. -- Abandoned, Profligate, Reprobate. These adjectives agree in expressing the idea of great personal depravity. Profligate has reference to open and shameless immoralities, either in private life or political conduct; as, a profligate court, a profligate ministry. Abandoned is stronger, and has reference to the searing of conscience and hardening of heart produced by a man's giving himself wholly up to iniquity; as, a man of abandoned character. Reprobate describes the condition of one who has become insensible to reproof, and who is morally abandoned and lost beyond hope of recovery.
God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Rom. i. 28.
The abandonment of the independence of Europe. Burke.
n. Banishment. Bailey.
Saying so, he abased his lance. Shelton.
Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased. Luke xiv. ll.
Syn. -- To Abase, Debase, Degrade. These words agree in the idea of bringing down from a higher to a lower state. Abase has reference to a bringing down in condition or feelings; as, to abase the proud, to abase one's self before God. Debase has reference to the bringing down of a thing in purity, or making it base. It is, therefore, always used in a bad sense, as, to debase the coin of the kingdom, to debase the mind by vicious indulgence, to debase one's style by coarse or vulgar expressions. Degrade has reference to a bringing down from some higher grade or from some standard. Thus, a priest is degraded from the clerical office. When used in a moral sense, it denotes a bringing down in character and just estimation; as, degraded by intemperance, a degrading employment, etc. "Art is degraded when it is regarded only as a trade."
Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. Milton.
He was a man whom no check could abash. Macaulay.
Syn. -- To confuse; confound; disconcert; shame. -- To Abash, Confuse, Confound. Abash is a stronger word than confuse, but not so strong as confound. We are abashed when struck either with sudden shame or with a humbling sense of inferiority; as, Peter was abashed by the look of his Master. So a modest youth is abashed in the presence of those who are greatly his superiors. We are confused when, from some unexpected or startling occurrence, we lose clearness of thought and self- possession. Thus, a witness is often confused by a severe cross- examination; a timid person is apt to be confused in entering a room full of strangers. We are confounded when our minds are overwhelmed, as it were, by something wholly unexpected, amazing, dreadful, etc., so that we have nothing to say. Thus, a criminal is usually confounded at the discovery of his guilt.
Satan stood Awhile as mute, confounded what to say. Milton.
n. A silver coin of Persia, worth about twenty cents.
The King of Scots . . . sore abated the walls. Edw. Hall.
His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. Deut. xxxiv. 7.
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