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Of or pertaining to the abdomen; ventral; as, the abdominal regions, muscles, cavity.

A group including the greater part of fresh-water fishes, and many marine ones, having the ventral fins under the abdomen behind the pectorals.

A group of cirripeds having abdominal appendages.

Examination of the abdomen to detect abdominal disease.

The act of abducing or abducting; a drawing apart; a carrying away. Roget.

A muscle which serves to draw a part out, or form the median line of the body; as, the abductor oculi, which draws the eye outward.

that is, on a line which forms a right angle with the ship's keel; opposite to the center of the ship's side.

Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary. Abecedarian psalms, hymns, etc., compositions in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

A primer; the first principle or rudiment of anything. [R.] Fuller.

To childbed (in the phrase "brought abed," that is, delivered of a child). Shak.

One of a sect in Africa (4th century), mentioned by St. Augustine, who states that they married, but lived in continence, after the manner, as they pretended, of Abel.

An evergreen shrub (Hibiscus -- formerly Abelmoschus- moschatus), of the East and West Indies and Northern Africa, whose musky seeds are used in perfumery and to flavor coffee; -- sometimes called musk mallow.

State of being aberrant; a wandering from the right way; deviation from truth, rectitude, etc. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a circular form.

ceptional; abnormal. The more aberrant any form is, the greater must have been the number of connecting forms which, on my theory, have been exterminated. Darwin.

The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type. "The aberration of youth." Hall. "Aberrations from theory." Burke.

To instigate or encourage by aid or countenance; -- used in a bad sense of persons and acts; as, to abet an ill-doer; to abet one in his wicked courses; to abet vice; to abet an insurrection. "The whole tribe abets the villany." South. Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus exposed his wealth Gay.…

The act of abetting; as, an abetment of treason, crime, etc.

One who abets; an instigator of an offense or an offender.

Expectancy; condition of being undetermined.

Being in a state of abeyance.