Search the Dictionary

To make clean by wiping; to wipe away; to cleanse; hence, to purge. [R.] Quincy.

Serving to cleanse, detergent.

To absterge; to cleanse; to purge away. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging. The task of ablution and abstersion being performed. Sir W. Scott.

Cleansing; purging. Bacon.

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

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…

te from apprehension; difficult to be comprehended or understood; recondite; as, abstruse learning. Profound and abstruse topics. Milman.

Nearly 300 species are Australian or Polynesian, and have terete or vertically compressed leaf stalks, instead of the bipinnate leaves of the much fewer species of America, Africa, etc. Very few are found in temperate climates.

Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific. "Academic courses." Warburton. "Academical study." Berkeley.

An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.

An ornament resembling the foliage or leaves of the acanthus (Acanthus spinosus); -- used in the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite orders.

One who sings the leading part; the director or leader. [Obs.]

Capable, worthy, or sure of being accepted or received with pleasure; pleasing to a receiver; gratifying; agreeable; welcome; as, an acceptable present, one acceptable to us.

In an acceptable manner; in a manner to please or give satisfaction.

Gratuitous discharge; a release from debt or obligation without payment; free remission.

Shak. Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning. Milton.

an ordinary daylight, such as the rays of the sun darting through a cloud, or between the leaves of trees; the effect of moonlight, candlelight, or burning bodies. Fairholt.

ish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Dan. ix. 2. He had accomplished half a league or more. Prescott.

nfessedly knotty and difficult can never be accorded but by a competent stock of critical learning. South.