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erior; -- in the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches, a title given to the bishops, and by the bishops to the patriarch.

To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.

Purification by washing the hands before prayer; -- a Mohammedan rite. Heyse.

Abdicating; renouncing; -- followed by of. Monks abdicant of their orders. Whitlock.

The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority.

the body between the thorax and the pelvis. Also, the cavity of the belly, which is lined by the peritoneum, and contains the stomach, bowels, and other viscera. In man, often restricted to the part between the diaphragm and the commencement of the pelvis, the remainder being called the pelvic cavity.…

To take away surreptitiously by force; to carry away (a human being) wrongfully and usually by violence; to kidnap.

Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary. Abecedarian psalms, hymns, etc., compositions in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

Same as Aby. [Obs.] Chaucer.

One of a sect in Africa (4th century), mentioned by St. Augustine, who states that they married, but lived in continence, after the manner, as they pretended, of Abel.

The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; called spherical aberration, when due to the spherical form of the lens or mirror, such form giving different foci for central and marginal rays; and chromat…

Characterized by aberration.

To instigate or encourage by aid or countenance; -- used in a bad sense of persons and acts; as, to abet an ill-doer; to abet one in his wicked courses; to abet vice; to abet an insurrection. "The whole tribe abets the villany." South. Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus exposed his wealth Gay.…

Contrary or repugnant; discordant; inconsistent; -- followed by to. "Injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles." Gibbon.

t month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, corresponding nearly to our April. After the Babylonish captivity this month was called Nisan. Kitto.

stians had no longer abidance in the holy hill of Palestine. Fuller. A judicious abidance by rules. Helps.

to continue; to remain. Let every man abide in the same calling. 1 Cor. vii. 20. Followed by by: To abide by. (a) To stand to; to adhere; to maintain. The poor fellow was obstinate enough to abide by what he said at first. Fielding.

o the brethren. Acts xi. 29. Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study. Bacon. The public men of England, with much of a peculiar kind of ability. Macaulay.

opposed to biogenesis. I shall call the . . . doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogenesis. Huxley, 1870.