Search the Dictionary

Behind; in the rear. Knolles.

Behind; toward the stern from; as, abaft the wheelhouse. Abaft the beam. See under Beam.

eated, or come to naught; to fall through; to fail; as, a writ abates. To abate into a freehold, To abate in lands (Law), to enter into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, and before the heir takes possession. See Abatement, 4.

The entry of a stranger, without right, into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Blackstone. Defense in abatement, Plea in abatement, (Law), plea to the effect that from some formal defect (e.g. misnomer, want of jurisdiction) the proceedings should be abated.…

(a) One who abates a nuisance. (b) A person who, without right, enters into a freehold on the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Blackstone.

The posterior section of the body, behind the thorax, in insects, crustaceans, and other Arthropoda.

t of fresh-water fishes, and many marine ones, having the ventral fins under the abdomen behind the pectorals.

To bear; to behave. [Obs.] So did the faery knight himself abear. Spenser.

Behavior. [Obs.] Blackstone.

Behavior. [Obs.] Sir. T. More.

; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout. Lampoons . . . were handed about the coffeehouses. Macaulay. Roving still about the world. Milton.

any respect; surpassing; beyond; higher in measure or degree than; as, things above comprehension; above mean actions; conduct above reproach. "Thy worth . . . is actions above my gifts." Marlowe. I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. Acts xxxvi. 13.

Suddenness; unceremonious haste or vehemence; as, abruptness of style or manner.

Remote from apprehension; difficult to be comprehended or understood; recondite; as, abstruse learning. Profound and abstruse topics. Milman.

The quality of being abstruse; difficulty of apprehension. Boyle.

In breech-loading firearms, the block behind the barrel which receives the pressure due to recoil.

Incomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.

Incapable of being comprehended; incomprehensible.

Agreeably; correspondingly; suitably; in a manner conformable. Behold, and so proceed accordingly. Shak.

e sake of; by reason of; because of. -- On one's own account, for one's own interest or behalf. -- To make account, to have an opinion or expectation; to reckon. [Obs.] s other part . . . makes account to find no slender arguments for this assertion out of those very scriptures which are commonly urged against it. Mi…