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ney; money paid to bind a bargain. [Scot.] Arles penny, earnest money given to servants. Kersey.

se, one next in degree to a knight, and entitled to armorial bearings. The term is now superseded by esquire. Jacob.

t the Tigris and Euphrates, and subsequently in Persia, and abounding among the ruins of Persepolis, Nineveh, and Babylon. See Cuneiform.

Workmanship; a skillfully contrived work. The material universe.. in the artifice of God, the artifice of the best Mechanist. Cudworth.

A choriambic verse, first used by the Greek poet Asclepias, consisting of four feet, viz., a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus.

Tending to asperse; defamatory; slanderous. -- As*pers"ive*ly, adv.

Studied and persevering attention to a person; -- usually in the plural.

One versed in Assyriology; a student of Assyrian archæology.

im. [Fluellen had struck Pistol]. Shak. The very cramp-fish [i. e., torpedo] . . . being herself not benumbed, is able to astonish others. Holland.

One who is versed in astronomy; one who has a knowledge of the laws of the heavenly orbs, or the principles by which their motions are regulated, with their various phenomena. An undevout astronomer is mad. Young.

Disconnected; not fitted or adjusted. -- A*syn"ar*tet"ic, a. Asynartete verse (Pros.), a verse of two members, having different rhythms; as when the first consists of iambuses and the second of trochees.

Across the course; so as to thwart; perversely. All athwart there came A post from Wales loaden with heavy news. Shak.

One who is versed in atmology.

To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less complex; to weaken. To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point. I. Taylor. We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness. Sir F. Palgrave.…

cles, tending to draw them together, or to produce their cohesion or combination, and conversely resisting separation.

measure, of different parts of the country (at Paris, 0.95 of an English ell); -- now superseded by the meter.

The Charioteer, or Wagoner, a constellation in the northern hemisphere, situated between Perseus and Gemini. It contains the bright star Capella.

o as to charge a small storage battery; when there is a deficiency of power the dynamo reverses and acts as an auxiliary motor. Sometimes called Pieper system. -- Automixte car, etc.

ceeds southward, or when it passes the ~ point. -- ~= point, the point of the equator intersected by the ecliptic, as the sun proceeds southward; the first point of Libra. -- ~= signs, the signs Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, through which the sun passes between the ~ equinox and winter solstice.

Any medial estimate or general statement derived from a comparison of diverse specific cases; a medium or usual size, quantity, quality, rate, etc. "The average of sensations." Paley.