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Affirming; maintaining. Arguments . . . assertory, not probatory. Jer. Taylor. An assertory, not a promissory, declaration. Bentham. A proposition is assertory, when it enounces what is known as actual. Sir W. Hamilton.

A digesting furnace, formerly used by alchemists. It was so constructed as to maintain uniform and durable heat. Chambers.

One of a class of divines, who, following St. Augustine, maintain that grace by its nature is effectual absolutely and creatively, not relatively and conditionally.

lia, in which there is such an arrangement for polling votes that secrecy is compulsorily maintained, and the ballot used is an official ballot printed and distributed by the government.

To maintain a just or true; to vouch for. We might be disposed to question its authencity, it if were not avouched by the full evidence. Milman.

To support; to maintain; to second or strengthen by aid or influence; as, to back a friend. "Parliament would be backed by the people." Macaulay. Have still found it necessary to back and fortify their laws with rewards and punishments. South. The mate backed the captain manfully. Blackw. Mag.

Fig.: That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security. It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity. Barrow. Ballast engine, a steam engine used in excavating and for digging and raising stones and gravel for ballast. -- Ship in ballast, a ship carring only ballast.

denomination of Christians who deny the validity of infant baptism and of sprinkling, and maintain that baptism should be administered to believers alone, and should be by immersion. See Anabaptist.

To carry on, or maintain; to have. "The credit of bearing a part in the conversation." Locke.

To support, hold up, or maintain with difficulty or unusual effort; -- often with up. To bolster baseness. Drayton. Shoddy inventions designed to bolster up a factitious pride. Compton Reade.

A cord, ligament, or rod, for producing or maintaining tension, as a cord on the side of a drum. The little bones of the ear drum do in straining and relaxing it as the braces of the war drum do in that. Derham.

ion was suppressed by the government in 1819, but was secretly revived, and is now openly maintained as a social organization, the restrictive laws having been repealed prior to

rd by clockwork so that, as it is burned away by the electric current, it shall contantly maintain its proper relation to the opposing point. -- Carbon tissue, paper coated with gelatine and pigment, used in the autotype process of photography. Abney. -- Gas carbon, a compact variety of carbon obtained as an incrusta…

tax or imposition an a dwelling within a certain distance of a castle, for the purpose of maintaining watch and ward in it; castle-ward.

thickened albuminous substance which exists in the white of the bird's egg, and serves to maintain the yolk in its position; the treadle.

To furnish with a champion; to attend or defend as champion; to support or maintain; to protect. Championed or unchampioned, thou diest. Sir W. Scott.

ungracious; surly; illiberal; niggardly. "Churlish benefits." Ld. Burleigh. Half mankind maintain a churlish strife. Cowper.

ich the fluid rises from the overheated portion, and descends from the relatively colder, maintaining a circulation.

To assert; to maintain. [Colloq.]

One who maintains the theory of conceptualism. Stewart.