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To cause to sit; to make to assume a specified position or attitude; to give site or place to; to place; to put; to fix; as, to set a house on a stone foundation; to set a book on a shelf; to set a dish on a table; to set a chest or trunk on its bottom or on end. I do set my bow in the cloud. Gen. ix. 13.…

To become fixed or permanent; to become stationary; to establish one's self or itself; to assume a lasting form, condition, direction, or the like, in place of a temporary or changing state. The wind came about and settled in the west. Bacon. Chyle . . . runs through all the intermediate colors until it settles in an i…

To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign. To sham Abram or Abraham, to feign sickness; to malinger. Hence a malingerer is called, in sailors' cant, Sham Abram, or Sham Abraham.

ed nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted. To take shape, to assume a definite form.

To take upon the shoulder or shoulders; as, to shoulder a basket; hence, to assume the burden or responsibility of; as, to shoulder blame; to shoulder a debt. As if Hercules Or burly Atlas shouldered up their state. Marston. Right shoulder arms (Mil.), a position in the Manual of Arms which the piece is placed on the r…

To assume the mere appearance of, without the reality; to assume the signs or indications of, falsely; to counterfeit; to feign. The Puritans, even in the depths of the dungeons to which she had sent them, prayed, and with no simulated fervor, that she might be kept from the dagger of the assassin. Macaulay.…

t it appears to be; having a character which corresponds with the appearance; not falsely assumed; genuine; true; real; as, a sincere desire for knowledge; a sincere contempt for meanness. A sincere intention of pleasing God in all our actions. Law.

Quality or state of being smiling. And made despair a smilingness assume. Byron.

An assumed name; a fanciful epithet or appellation; a nickname. [Sometimes less correctly written soubriquet.]

To view subjects from certain premises given or assumed, and infer conclusions respecting them a priori.

The act or process of reasoning a priori from premises given or assumed.

The apparent surface of the heavens, which is assumed to be spherical and everywhere equally distant, in which the heavenly bodies appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometric…

To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; -- said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal. See Sport, n., 6. Darwin.

or the like. -- Sporting plant (Bot.), a plant in which a single bud or offset suddenly assumes a new, and sometimes very different, character from that of the rest of the plant. Darwin.

To assume a spread-eagled position; -- it may be done reclining, for relaxation, or momentarily, as an exhibitionary maneuver in a sport.

not seriously; to alarm; to surprise. The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us. Locke.

narrate; to recite; as, to state the facts of a case, one's opinion, etc. To state it. To assume state or dignity. [Obs.] "Rarely dressed up, and taught to state it." Beau. & Fl.

nward and forward; to bend or lean forward; to incline forward in standing or walking; to assume habitually a bent position.

To assume and carry successfully, as the part of an actor; to represent or act; to sustain; as, to support the character of King Lear.

e or admit of; to imagine or admit to exist, for the sake of argument or illustration; to assume to be true; as, let us suppose the earth to be the center of the system, what would be the result Suppose they take offence without a cause. Shak. When we have as great assurance that a thing is, as we could possibly, suppo…