Search the Dictionary

Fig.: In motion; in action; astir; in progress. The matter being afoot. Shak.

One born in Africa, the offspring of a white father and a "colored" mother. Also, and now commonly in Southern Africa, a native born of European settlers.

Having the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; nimble; active; as, an agile boy; an agile tongue. Shaking it with agile hand. Cowper.

ile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; nimbleness; activity; quickness of motion; as, strength and agility of body. They . . . trust to the agility of their wit. Bacon. Wheeling with the agility of a hawk. Sir W. Scott.

e of being agitated; the state of being moved with violence, or with irregular action; commotion; as, the sea after a storm is in agitation.

In motion; in the act of going; as, to set a mill agoing.

To cause to suffer agony; to subject to extreme pain; to torture. He agonized his mother by his behavior. Thackeray.

Paroxysm of joy; keen emotion. With cries and agonies of wild delight. Pope.

The person or thing that promotes or helps in something done; a helper; an assistant. It is not good that man should be alone; let us make unto him an aid like unto himself. Tobit viii. 6.

Air in motion; a light breeze; a gentle wind. Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play. Pope.

In gasoline-engine motor vehicles, the cooling of the cylinder by increasing its radiating surface by means of ribs or radiators, and placing it so that it is exposed to a current of air. Cf. Water cooling. -- Air"-cooled`, a.

An air-filled gap in a magnetic or electric circuit; specif., in a dynamo or motor, the space between the field-magnet poles and the armature; clearance.

Paralysis of the motor nerves; loss of movement. Foster.

ticulate sounds, due either to paralysis of the larynx or to that form of aphasia, called motor, or ataxis, aphasia, due to loss of control of the muscles of speech.

(Angling) An artificial fly with brown mottled wings, body of peacock harl, and black legs.

Exhibiting the activity and motion of many living beings; swarming; thronged. The Boyne, for a quarter of a mile, was alive with muskets and green boughs. Macaulay.

y the same thing. -- All over, over the whole extent; thoroughly; wholly; as, she is her mother all over. [Colloq.] -- All the better, wholly the better; that is, better by the whole difference. -- All the same, nevertheless. "There they [certain phenomena] remain rooted all the same, whether we recognize them or not…

mmediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as in the following lines: - Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. Milton. Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. Tennyson.

That which allures; any real or apparent good held forth, or operating, as a motive to action; as, the allurements of pleasure, or of honor.

In a line, or with a progressive motion; onward; forward. We will go along by the king's highway. Numb. xxi. 22. He struck with his o'ertaking wings, And chased us south along. Coleridge.