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A west Indian plant of the genus Maranta, esp. M. arundinacea, now cultivated in many hot countries. It said that the Indians used the roots to neutralize the venom in wounds made by poisoned arrows.

Wanting art, knowledge, or skill; ignorant; unskillful. Artless of stars and of the moving sand. Dryden.

A thorny shrub yielding a fragrant oil. Ecclus. xxiv. 15.

e sometimes mistaken for leaves. Asparagus racemosus is a shrubby climbing plant with fragrant flowers. Specifically: The Asparagus officinalis, a species cultivated in gardens.

To take for granted, or without proof; to suppose as a fact; to suppose or take arbitrarily or tentatively. The consequences of assumed principles. Whewell.

The act of taking for granted, or supposing a thing without proof; supposition; unwarrantable claim. This gives no sanction to the unwarrantable assumption that the soul sleeps from the period of death to the resurrection of the body. Thodey. That calm assumption of the virtues. W. Black.

Assumed, or capable of being assumed; characterized by assumption; making unwarranted claims. -- As*sump"tive*ly, adv. Assumptive arms (Her.), originally, arms which a person had a right to assume, in consequence of an exploit; now, those assumed without sanction of the Heralds' College. Percy Smith.…

A fragrant essential oil; esp., a volatile and highly fragrant essential oil obtained from the petals of roses. [Also written otto and ottar.]

To agree to become tenant to one to whom reversion has been granted.

Justification; warrant. Wilt thou be glass wherein it shall discern Authority for sin, warrant for blame. Shak.

The act of giving authority or legal power; establishment by authority; sanction or warrant. The authorization of laws. Motley. A special authorization from the chief. Merivale.

To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.

To make void; to annul or vacate; to refute. How can these grants of the king's be avoided Spenser.

ng or demonstration can make it plainer; a proposition which it is necessary to take for granted; as, "The whole is greater than a part;" "A thing can not, at the same time, be and not be."

The quadrant of an azimuth circle.

cially, several species of Ranunculus, and the cornflower (Centaures cyanus) and globe amaranth (Gomphrena).

The body of young aspirants for knighthood. [Obs.] Chaucer.

n. -- 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 county where the warrant is to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender. -- To back water (Naut.), to reverse the action of th…

To censure or revile the absent. They are arrant knaves, and will backbite. Shak.

rmerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.