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The first day of Lent; -- so called from a custom in the Roman Catholic church of putting ashes, on that day, upon the foreheads of penitents.

A white, nitrogenous, crystallizable substance, C4H8N2O3+H2O, found in many plants, and first obtained from asparagus. It is believed to aid in the disposition of nitrogenous matter throughout the plant; -- called also altheine.

To rise; to ascend; to tower; to soar. My own breath still foments the fire, Which flames as high as fancy can aspire. Waller.

llow; a dolt. Shak. Asses' Bridge. Etym: [L. pons asinorum.] The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." [Sportive] "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge." F. Harrison. -- To make an ass of one's self, to do or say something ve…

To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate. Nothing is more shameful . . . than to assert anything to be done without a cause. Ray.

The act of asserting, or that which is asserted; positive declaration or averment; affirmation; statement asserted; position advanced. There is a difference between assertion and demonstration. Macaulay.

Positive; affirming confidently; affirmative; peremptory. In a confident and assertive form. Glanvill. As*sert"ive*ly, adv. -- As*sert"ive*ness, n.

One who asserts or avers; one who maintains or vindicates a claim or a right; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator; a defender; an asserter. The assertors of liberty said not a word. Macaulay. Faithful assertor of thy country's cause. Prior.

Affirming; maintaining. Arguments . . . assertory, not probatory. Jer. Taylor. An assertory, not a promissory, declaration. Bentham. A proposition is assertory, when it enounces what is known as actual. Sir W. Hamilton.

To affirm or aver positively, or with solemnity.

The act of asseverating, or that which is asseverated; positive affirmation or assertion; solemn declaration. Another abuse of the tongue I might add, -- vehement asseverations upon slight and trivial occasions. Ray.

The state of being assured; firm persuasion; full confidence or trust; freedom from doubt; certainty. Let us draw with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Heb. x. 22.

To confirm; to make certain or secure. And it shall be assured to him. Lev. xxvii. 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 1 John iii. 19.

ented in the Middle Ages as fallen angels, spirits of the dead, or spirits originating in fire.

. Asynartete verse (Pros.), a verse of two members, having different rhythms; as when the first consists of iambuses and the second of trochees.

The relations of time, age, or order; as, at ten o'clock; at twenty-one; at once; at first.

The first vertebra of the neck, articulating immediately with the skull, thus sustaining the globe of the head, whence the name.

and motion accounted thus for the origin and formation of all things. This philosophy was first broached by Leucippus, was developed by Democritus, and afterward improved by Epicurus, and hence is sometimes denominated the Epicurean philosophy. -- Atomic theory, or the Doctrine of definite proportions (Chem.), teaches…

To bear witness to; to certify; to affirm to be true or genuine; as, to attest the truth of a writing, a copy of record. Facts . . . attested by particular pagan authors. Addison.

n as indicating action, feeling, or mood; as, in times of trouble let a nation preserve a firm attitude; one's mental attitude in respect to religion. The attitude of the country was rapidly changing. J. R. Green. To strike an attitude, to take an attitude for mere effect.