Search the Dictionary

The root of Ipomoea Turpethum, a plant of Ceylon, Malabar, and Australia, formerly used in medicine as a purgative; -- sometimes called vegetable turpeth.

A small yelping cur. [Prov. Eng.]

A kind of carpet woven with loops like the Brussels, but differing from it in having the loops cut so as to form an elastic velvet pile; -- so called because made originally at Wilton, England.

y-two officers of the papal court whose duty is to make a short minute of a decision on a petition, or reply of the pope to a letter, and afterwards expand the minute into official form.

orm, whether physical, moral, intellectual, conventional, or legal; capacity; skill or competence in doing; sufficiency of strength, skill, resources, etc.; -- in the plural, faculty, talent. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren. Acts xi. 29. Natural abilit…

resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.

Having a sound, strong body; physically competent; robust. "Able-bodied vagrant." Froude. -- A`ble-bod"ied*ness, n..

to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from. Not a few abstained from voting. Macaulay. Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt Shak.

e use of food and strong drinks; temperate; abstinent; sparing in the indulgence of the appetite or passions. Instances of longevity are chiefly among the abstemious. Arbuthnot.

g; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from a present pleasure that offers…

Refraining from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. & Fl.

Having spinous petioles.

ich particulars, being confessedly knotty and difficult can never be accorded but by a competent stock of critical learning. South.

- more commonly used of persons. Wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion. Johnson. Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it. Addison.

To direct, as words (to any one or any thing); to make, as a speech, petition, etc. (to any one, an audience). The young hero had addressed his players to him for his assistance. Dryden.

Congenitally united with an organ of another kind, as calyx with ovary, or stamens with petals.

osal, under legal authority, of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent executor.

n who manages or settles the estate of an intestate, or of a testator when there is no competent executor; one to whom the right of administration has been committed by competent authority.

cating or pleading; plea; advocacy. [Archaic] The holy Jesus . . . sits in heaven in a perpetual advocation for us. Jer. Taylor.

The arrangement of the petals in a flower bud, as to folding, overlapping, etc.; prefloration. Gray. [Spelt also estivation.]