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An exclamation to call one's attention; hem.

d or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warming sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Joel ii. 1.

A nonsense verse; a rigmarole, with apparent meaning, which on further attention proves to be meaningless. [Written also amphigouri.]

To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder. [Obs.] Camillus set upon the Gauls when they were amused in receiving their gold. Holland. Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house. Fuller.

(Psychol.) Not subject to conscious attention; having an indefinite, relatively passive, conscious being; characteristic of the "fringe" or "margin" of consciousness.

The act of fixing the mind or closely applying one's self; assiduous effort; close attention; as, to injure the health by application to study. Had his application been equal to his talents, his progress night have been greater. J. Jay.

To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline. Apply thine heart unto instruction. Prov. xxiii. 12.

Attentive, as a person listening. [Obs.] God speaks not the idle and unconcerned hearer, but to the vigilant and arrect. Smalridge.

To seize on and fix; to hold; to catch; as, to arrest the eyes or attention. Buckminster.

Striking; attracting attention; impressive. This most solemn and arresting occurrence. J. H. Newman.

Constant or close application or attention, particularly to some business or enterprise; diligence. I have, with much pains and assiduity, qualified myself for a nomenclator. Addison.

Constant in application or attention; devoted; attentive; unremitting. She grows more assiduous in her attendance. Addison.

Three asterisks placed in this manner, *, to direct attention to a particular passage.

To direct the attention to; to fix the mind upon; to give heed to; to regard. [Obs.] The diligent pilot in a dangerous tempest doth not attend the unskillful words of the passenger. Sir P. Sidney.

Attention; regard; careful application. [Obs.] Till I come, give attendance to reading. 1 Tim. iv. 13.

To become thin, slender, or fine; to grow less; to lessen. The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts. Coleridge.

To draw by influence of a moral or emotional kind; to engage or fix, as the mind, attention, etc.; to invite or allure; as, to attract admirers. Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze. Milton.

The act of hearing; attention to sounds. Thou, therefore, give due audience, and attend. Milton.

Listening; paying attention; as, audient souls. Mrs. Browning.

Hypnotism of one's self by concentration of the attention on some object or idea.