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downcast state; meanness of spirit; abasement; degradation. That this should be termed baseness, abjection of mind, or servility, is it credible Hooker.

To reject by judicial sentence; also, to abjudge. [Obs.] Ash.

Rejection by judicial sentence. [R.] Knowles.

n; as, an abjuration of heresy. Oath of abjuration, an oath asserting the right of the present royal family to the crown of England, and expressly abjuring allegiance to the descendants of the Pretender. Brande & C.

forming a clause by themselves and being unconnected, grammatically, with the rest of the sentence; as, Tarquinio regnante, Pythagoras venit, i. e., Tarquinius reigning, Pythagoras came.

l powers; showing ability or skill; talented; clever; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech. No man wrote abler state papers. Macaulay.

An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.

To send abroad. [Obs.] Bailey.

The act of sending abroad. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

assing in number or quantity; more than; as, above a hundred. (Passing 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.

ters written as in the figure. Worn on an amulet it was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon.

Up to a certain level or line; equally advanced; as, to keep abreast of [or with] the present state of science.

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.

The act abridging, or the state of being abridged; diminution; lessening; reduction or deprivation; as, an abridgment of pleasures or of expenses.

Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative. Absolute curvature (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve. -- Absolute equation (Astron.), the sum of the opt…

An acquittal, or sentence of a judge declaring and accused person innocent. [Obs.]

Serving to absolve; absolving. "An absolutory sentence." Ayliffe.

Abstaining from wine. [Orig. Latin sense.] Under his special eye Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain. Milton.

refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes, a very great one. L…

Abstracted; absent in mind. "Abstract, as in a trance." Milton. An abstract idea (Metaph.), an idea separated from a complex object, or from other ideas which naturally accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated apart from its color or figure. -- Abstract terms, those which express abstract ideas, as be…