Search the Dictionary

To acknowledge deliberately; to admit; to confess; to sanction. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God. Deut. xxvi. 17.

To declare openly, as something believed to be right; to own or acknowledge frankly; as, a man avows his principles or his crimes. Which I to be the of Israel's God Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test. Milton.

Capable of being avowed, or openly acknowledged, with confidence. Donne.

An open declaration; frank acknowledgment; as, an avowal of such principles. Hume.

Openly acknowledged or declared; admitted. -- A*vow"ed*ly (, adv.

word of the Elizabethan writers, probably in ridicule of some person who pretended to a knowledge of Latin which he did not possess. Baccare! you are marvelous forward. Shak.

walken inne by daylight. Chaucer. Behind one's back, when one is absent; without one's knowledge; as, to ridicule a person behind his back. -- Full back, Half back, Quarter back (Football), players stationed behind those in the front line. -- To be or lie on one's back, to be helpless. -- To put, or get, one's back…

Reluctantly; slowly; aversely. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

The application of a knowledge of bacteria for their detection and identification, as in the examination of polluted water.

A variety of small barnyard fowl, with feathered legs, probably brought from Bantam, a district of Java.

ctions of a farm. In the United States a part of the barn is often used for stables. Barn owl (Zoöl.), an owl of Europe and America (Aluco flammeus, or Strix flammea), which frequents barns and other buildings. -- Barn swallow (Zoöl.), the common American swallow (Hirundo horreorum), which attaches its nest of mud to…

Of humble birth; or low degree; lowly; mean. [Archaic] "A pleasant and base swain." Bacon.

The bass (Tilia) or its wood; especially, T. Americana. See Bass, the lime tree. All the bowls were made of basswood, White and polished very smoothly. Longfellow.

trace or lay the foundation of; to make or place a beginning of. The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God. Locke.

Left a distance by, in progress of improvement Hence: Inferior to in dignity, rank, knowledge, or excellence, or in any achievement. I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 2 Cor. xi. 5.

To confess; to acknowledge. [Obs.] Chaucer.

acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses. Belief admits of all degr…

reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider; as, to believe a person, a statement, or a doctrine. Our conqueror (whom I now Of force believe almighty). Milton. King Agrippa, believest thou t…

To illuminate. [Obs.] Cowley.

To bowl; to vociferate; to clamor. Dryden.