Search the Dictionary

ptacle or receiver. [Obs.] It [a little brook] paid to its common audit no more than the revenues of a little cloud. Jer. Taylor. Audit ale, a kind of ale, brewed at the English universities, orig. for the day of audit. -- Audit house, Audit room, an appendage to a cathedral, for the transaction of its business.…

od matter of discharge has subsequently accrued which could not have been availed of to prevent such judgment. Wharton.

. Augmentation court (Eng. Hist.), a court erected by Stat. 27 Hen. VIII., to augment to revenues of the crown by the suppression of monasteries. It was long ago dissolved. Encyc. Brit.

An official diviner who foretold events by the singing, chattering, flight, and feeding of birds, or by signs or omens derived from celestial phenomena, certain appearances of quadrupeds, or unusual occurrences.

The art or practice of foretelling events by observing the actions of birds, etc.; divination.

Soothsaying, or prediction of events, from observation of the winds.

To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on. [Obs.] Thy judgment in avenging thine enemies. Bp. Hall.

Pertaining to Mons Aventinus, one of the seven hills on which Rome stood. Bryant.

itive assertion. Signally has this averment received illustration in the course of recent events. I. Taylor.

To turn aside, or away; as, to avert the eyes from an object; to ward off, or prevent, the occurrence or effects of; as, how can the danger be averted "To avert his ire." Milton. When atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the church. Bacon.…

Capable of being averted; preventable.

Eng. bear and Lat. pear; Eng. silver and Ger. silber; Lat. cubitum and It. gomito; Eng. seven, Anglo-Saxon seofon, Ger. sieben, Lat. septem, Gr.ptan. The form of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

at babel of strange heathen languages. Hammond. The grinding babel of the street. R. L. Stevenson.

pertaining to the festival of Bacchus; relating to or given to reveling and drunkenness. Even bacchanalian madness has its charms. Cowper.

n. -- To back the oars, to row backward with the oars. -- To back a rope, to put on a preventer. -- To back the sails, to arrange them so as to cause the ship to move astern. -- To back up, to support; to sustain; as, to back up one's friends. -- To back a warrant (Law), is for a justice of the peace, in the count…

A board attached to the rim of a water wheel to prevent the water from running off the floats or paddies into the interior of the wheel. W. Nicholson.

A rope or strap used to prevent excessive forward motion.

Toward, or in, past time or events; ago. Some reigns backward. Locke.

n festivals, of which one is held at the close of the fast called Ramadan, and the other seventy days after the fast.

The state of being in equipoise; equilibrium; even adjustment; steadiness. And hung a bottle on each side To make his balance true. Cowper. The order and balance of the country were destroyed. Buckle. English workmen completely lose their balance. J. S. Mill.