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Latin and some other languages, -- the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away.

ssing into the adverbial sense. See Above, adv., 4.) above all, before every other consideration; chiefly; in preference to other things. Over and above, prep. or adv., besides; in addition to.

up of annelids, so called because the species composing it have no special organs of respiration.

To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights. "The bridegroom . . . abridged his visit." Smollett. She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. Fuller.

A sudden breaking off; a violent separation of bodies. Woodward.

Sparingly used; used with temperance or moderation; as, an abstemious diet. Gibbon.

To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute. Whately.

The act process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis. Thus, when the mind considers the form of a tree by itself, or the color of the leaves as separate from their size or figure, the act is called abstraction. So, also, when it considers whitene…

Relating to acceleration; adding to velocity; quickening. Reid.

person accepts, or a note which a person makes and delivers to another, not upon a consideration received, but for the purpose of raising money on credit. -- Accommodation coach, or train, one running at moderate speed and stopping at all or nearly all stations. -- Accommodation ladder (Naut.), a light ladder hung ov…

A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning; as, the Julian account of time. A beggarly account of empty boxes. Shak.

Capable of being accounted for; explicable. [R.] True religion . . . intelligible, rational, and accountable, -- not a burden but a privilege. B. Whichcote.

The process of generation by development of blastema, or fission of cells, in which the new formation is in all respect like the individual from which it proceeds.

That of which one is accused; the charge of an offense or crime, or the declaration containing the charge. [They] set up over his head his accusation. Matt. xxvii. 37.

powers, as crown and flint glass, with the curvatures so adjusted that the chromatic aberration produced by the one is corrected by other, and light emerges from the compound lens undecomposed. -- Achromatic prism. See Prism. -- Achromatic telescope, or microscope, one in which the chromatic aberration is corrected,…

A declaration or avowal of one's own act, to give it legal validity; as, the acknowledgment of a deed before a proper officer. Also, the certificate of the officer attesting such declaration. Acknowledgment money, in some parts of England, a sum paid by copyhold tenants, on the death of their landlords, as an acknowled…

A limpid, colorless, highly volatile liquid, obtained by the dehydration of glycerin, or the destructive distillation of neutral fats containing glycerin. Its vapors are intensely irritating. Watts.

The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress.

acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. One wise in council, one in action brave. Pope.

The state or quality of being active; nimbleness; agility; vigorous action or operation; energy; active force; as, an increasing variety of human activities. "The activity of toil." Palfrey.