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Fig.: In motion; in action; astir; in progress. The matter being afoot. Shak.

pared; previously provided; -- opposed to behindhand. [Archaic or Dial.] Aforehand in all matters of power. Bacon.

r of a plan proposed for adoption; earnest discussion; debate. A logical agitation of the matter. L'Estrange. The project now in agitation. Swift.

s and claims assistance from some one who has a further or more permanent interest in the matter in suit. -- To pray in aid, to beseech and claim such assistance.

To affect with pain or uneasiness, either physical or mental; to trouble; to be the matter with; -- used to express some uneasiness or affection, whose cause is unknown; as, what ails the man I know not what ails him. What aileth thee, Hagar Gen. xxi. 17.

A sack or matters inflated with air, and used as a bed.

A kind of atomizer for applying liquid coloring matter in a spray by compressed air.

Nourishing matter stored up within the integuments of the seed in many plants, but not incorporated in the embryo. It is the floury part in corn, wheat, and like grains, the oily part in poppy seeds, the fleshy part in the cocoanut, etc.

A dyeing matter extracted from the roots of Alkanna tinctoria, which gives a fine deep red color.

Only; alone; nothing but. I was born to speak all mirth and no matter. Shak. All the whole, the whole (emphatically). [Obs.] "All the whole army." Shak.

what he undertakes to prove, -- usually applied to each separate averment; the charge or matter undertaken to be proved.

Matter deposited by an inundation or the action of flowing water; alluvium. The golden alluvions are there [in California and Australia] spread over a far wider space: they are found not only on the banks of rivers, and in their beds, but are scattered over the surface of vast plains. R. Cobden.

Deposits of earth, sand, gravel, and other transported matter, made by rivers, floods, or other causes, upon land not permanently submerged beneath the waters of lakes or seas. Lyell.

A kind of furnace used in refining, to separate the metal from cinders and other foreign matter. Chambers.

able consent of the parties, for the purpose of obtaining a decision of the court on some matter of law involved in it. Bouvier. Burrill. -- Amicable numbers (Math.), two numbers, each of which is equal to the sum of all the aliquot parts of the other.

of ancient Greece to a congress or council. They considered both political and religious matters.

The matter by which a statement is amplified; as, the subject was presented without amplifications.

A resinoid coloring matter obtained from alkanet root.

Conversion into animal matter by the process of assimilation. Owen.

To convert into animal matter by the processes of assimilation.