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A collection containing a variety of sorts or kinds adapted to various wants, demands, or purposes; as, an assortment of goods.

To set aside or reject as spurious, as by marking with an obelus.

Obtainable. [Obs.] General Howe would not permit the purchase of those articles [clothes and blankets] in Philadelphia, and they were not attainable in the country. Marshall.

To accompany or be present or near at hand, in pursuance of duty; to be ready for service; to wait or be in waiting; -- often followed by on or upon. He was required to attend upon the committee. Clarendon.

itated by the architects of the Renaissance. -- Attic faith, inviolable faith. -- Attic purity, special purity of language. -- Attic salt, Attic wit, a poignant, delicate wit, peculiar to the Athenians. -- Attic story. See Attic, n. -- Attic style, a style pure and elegant.

anner in which the parts of his body are disposed; position assumed or studied to serve a purpose; as, a threatening attitude; an attitude of entreaty.

and transfers to him his homage and service; the agreement of a tenant to acknowledge the purchaser of the estate as his landlord. Burrill. Blackstone.

sale of property to the highest bidder, esp. by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue.

of Augsburg. Augustan age of any national literature, the period of its highest state of purity and refinement; -- so called because the reign of Augustus Cæsar was the golden age of Roman literature. Thus the reign of Louis XIV. (b. 1638) has been called the Augustan age of French literature, and that of Queen Anne (…

opposition to that which is false, fictitious, counterfeit, or apocryphal; being what it purports to be; genuine; not of doubtful origin; real; as, an authentic paper or register. To be avenged On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire. Milton.

Dissection of a dead body, for the purpose of ascertaining the cause, seat, or nature of a disease; a post-mortem examination.

A quantity introduced for the purpose of simplifying or facilitating some operation, as in equations or trigonometrical formulæ. Math. Dict.

To be of use or advantage; to answer the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object; as, the plea in bar must avail, that is, be sufficient to defeat the suit; this scheme will not avail; medicines will not avail to check the disease. "What signs avail " Milton. Words avail very l…

Such as one may avail one's self of; capable of being used for the accomplishment of a purpose; usable; profitable; advantageous; convertible into a resource; as, an available measure; an available candidate. Struggling to redeem, as he did, the available months and days out of so many that were unavailable. Carlyle. H…

Quality of being available; capability of being used for the purpose intended. Sir M. Hale.

Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation. There are professions, among the men, no more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women. Richardson. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations. Macaulay. An ir…

a plane, to straight lines intersecting each other, to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position: they are either rectangular or oblique. -- Axes of coördinates in space, the three straight lines in which the coördinate planes intersect each other. -- Axis of a balance, that li…

presenting sounds having a close organic affinity to its own sound; as in Eng. bursar and purser; Eng. bear and Lat. pear; Eng. silver and Ger. silber; Lat. cubitum and It. gomito; Eng. seven, Anglo-Saxon seofon, Ger. sieben, Lat. septem, Gr.ptan. The form of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. T…

Anything like , or serving the purpose of, a backbone. The lofty mountains on the north side compose the granitic axis, or backbone of the country. Darwin. We have now come to the backbone of our subject. Earle.

To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." De Quincey. A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all. South. Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. Prescott. The mere intricacy of a quest…