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The week commencing with Whitsunday, esp. the first three days -- Whitsunday, Whitsun Monday, and Whitsun Tuesday; the time of Pentecost. R. of Gloucester.

om the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter (Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phoenician…

thern Africa. It burrows in the ground, and feeds entirely on ants, which it catches with its long, slimy tongue.

The Manila-hemp plant (Musa textilis); also, its fiber. See Manila hemp under Manila.

lations by balls sliding on wires, or counters in grooves, the lowest line representing units, the second line, tens, etc. It is still employed in China.

Articulation, usually that kind of articulation which admits of free motion in the joint; diarthrosis. Coxe.

t, etc. He abdicates all right to be his own governor. Burke. The understanding abdicates its functions. Froude.

The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority.

Having a protuberant belly; pot-bellied. Gorgonius sits, abdominous and wan, Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan. Cowper.

To draw away, as a limb or other part, from its ordinary position.

he observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and dairy or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion…

Of or pertaining to the fir tree or its products; as, abietic acid, called also sylvic acid. Watts.

Any fruit or produce that does not come to maturity, or anything which in its progress, before it is matured or perfect; a complete failure; as, his attempt. proved an abortiori.

Coming to naught; failing in its effect; miscarrying; fruitless; unsuccessful; as, an abortive attempt. "An abortive enterprise." Prescott.

At large; widely; broadly; over a wide space; as, a tree spreads its branches abroad. The fox roams far abroad. Prior.

n absconding debtor. That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty. So absolute she seems, And in herself complete. Milton.

Anything which absorbs. The ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat. Darwin.

ages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes, a very great one. Locke.

deas which naturally accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated apart from its color or figure. -- Abstract terms, those which express abstract ideas, as beauty, whiteness, roundness, without regarding any object in which they exist; or abstract terms are the names of orders, genera or species of things…