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Melancholic or hypochondriac; atrabiliary. Dunglision. A hard-faced, atrabilious, earnest-eyed race. Lowell. He was constitutionally atrabilious and scornful. Froude.

adhere; to be attached. The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted. Brougham.

The act of attending; state of being in waiting; service; ministry; the fact of being present; presence. Constant attendance at church three times a day. Fielding.

t consideration, thought, or regard; obedient or affectionate heed; the supposed power or faculty of attending. They say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony. Shak.

value of; to make less complex; to weaken. To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point. I. Taylor. We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness. Sir F. Palgrave.

to affirm to be true or genuine; as, to attest the truth of a writing, a copy of record. Facts . . . attested by particular pagan authors. Addison.

testimony; witness; a solemn or official declaration, verbal or written, in support of a fact; evidence. The truth appears from the attestation of witnesses, or of the proper officer. The subscription of a name to a writing as a witness, is an attestation.

A low story above the main order or orders of a facade, in the classical styles; -- a term introduced in the 17th century. Hence:

One who is legally appointed by another to transact any business for him; an attorney in fact.

The quality or fact of being attractable. Sir W. Jones.

A substance which, by irritating the surface, excites action in the part to which it is applied, as a blister, an epispastic, a sinapism.

A type or block containing a facsimile of an autograph. Knight.

Unconscious or automatic reasoning. H. Spenser. Automatic arts, such economic arts or manufacture as are carried on by self-acting machinery. Ure.

A facsimile.

A quantity introduced for the purpose of simplifying or facilitating some operation, as in equations or trigonometrical formulæ. Math. Dict.

To take vengeance for; to exact satisfaction for by punishing the injuring party; to vindicate by inflicting pain or evil on a wrongdoer. He will avenge the blood of his servants. Deut. xxxii. 43. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold. Milton. He had avenged hims…

The inflicting of retributive punishment; satisfaction taken. [R.] Milton.

positive manner, as in confidence of asserting the truth. It is sufficient that the very fact hath its foundation in truth, as I do seriously aver is the case. Fielding. Then all averred I had killed the bird. Coleridge.

A positive statement of facts; an allegation; an offer to justify or prove what is alleged.

To declare or assert positively and as matter of fact; to affirm openly. If this which he avouches does appear. Shak. Such antiquities could have been avouched for the Irish. Spenser.