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A fictitious name assumed for the time, as by an author; a pen name. [Written also pseudonyme.]

To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance. Then came brave Glory puffing by. Herbert.

or rejection; to bring to the attention; to offer; to state; to express; figuratively, to assume; to suppose; -- formerly sometimes followed by that introducing a proposition; as, to put a question; to put a case. Let us now put that ye have leave. Chaucer. Put the perception and you put the mind. Berkeley. These verse…

Special or temporary character; profession; occupation; assumed or asserted rank, part, or position. I made that inquiry in quality of an antiquary. Gray.

the radix. The words we at present make use of, and understand only by common agreement, assume a new air and life in the understanding, when you trace them to their radicals, where you find every word strongly stamped with nature; full of energy, meaning, character, painting, and poetry. Cleland.

To cause to rise up, or assume an erect position or posture; to set up; to make upright; as, to raise a mast or flagstaff. Hence: --

To be disobedient to authority; to assume a hostile or insubordinate attitude; to revolt. Hoe could my hand rebel against my heart How could you heart rebel against your reason Dryden.

To assume, or to be in, a recumbent position; as, to recline on a couch.

Necessarily assumed by the mind as fundamental to all other knowledge; furnishing fundamental principles; as, the regulative principles, or principles a priori; the regulative faculty. Sir W. Hamilton.

to leave withouut restrain. -- To take the reins, to take the guidance or government; to assume control.

essed the outer form and embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or a false devotion assumed. Trench. Religions, by which are meant the modes of sdivine worship proper to different tribes, nations, or communities, and based on the belief held in common by the members of them severally . . . There is no living reli…

Formal declination to take out letters of administration, or to assume an office, privilege, or right.

To become erect; to assume an upright position; as, to rise from a chair or from a fall.

part, or character, performed by an actor in a drama; hence, a part of function taken or assumed by any one; as, he has now taken the rôle of philanthropist. Title rôle, the part, or character, which gives the title to a play, as the part of Hamlet in the play of that name.

An emblem of royalty; -- usually in the plural, meaning regalia. [Obs.] Wherefore do I assume These royalties, and not refuse to reign Milton.

evoutness; scrupulous austerity; sanctity; especially, outward or artificial saintliness; assumed or pretended holiness; hypocritical devoutness. Her pretense is a pilgrimage; . . . which holy undertaking with most austere sanctimony she accomplished. Shak.

e knee. So named because its contraction was supposed to produce the position of the legs assumed by the tailor in sitting.

Hence, royal or imperial power or authority; sovereignty; as, to assume the scepter. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shilon come. Gen. xlix. 10.

[OE. seer, AS. seár (assumed) fr. seárian to wither; akin to D. zoor dry, LG. soor, OHG. soren to to wither, Gr. sush) to dry, to wither, Zend hush to dry. sq. root152. Cf. Austere, Sorrel, a.] Dry; withered; no longer green; -- applied to leaves. Milton. I have lived long enough; my way of life Is fall'n into the sear…

One who seems; one who carries or assumes an appearance or semblance. Hence shall we see, If power change purpose, what our seemers be. Shak.