Search the Dictionary

To take away surreptitiously by force; to carry away (a human being) wrongfully and usually by violence; to kidnap.

The wrongful, and usually the forcible, carrying off of a human being; as, the abduction of a child, the abduction of an heiress.

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.

On the beam, 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.

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.

rectitude, etc. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a circular form.

Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; 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.

Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form. I. Taylor.

protest against; to reject solemnly. [Obs.] I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul Refuse you for my judge. Shak.

o stay; to continue in a place; to have one's abode; to dwell; to sojourn; -- with with before a person, and commonly with at or in before a place. Let the damsel abide with us a few days. Gen. xxiv. 55.

s waiting-maid. Pepys. Her abigail reported that Mrs. Gutheridge had a set of night curls for sleeping in. Leslie.

on; down in spirit or hope; degraded; servile; groveling; despicable; as, abject posture, fortune, thoughts. "Base and abject flatterers." Addison. "An abject liar." Macaulay. And banish hence these abject, lowly dreams. Shak.

. [R.] An adjection from the beatific regions where God, and his angels and saints, dwell forever. Jer. Taylor.

The act of abjuring or forswearing; a renunciation upon oath; as, abjuration of the realm, a sworn banishment, an oath taken to leave the country and never to return.

To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow; as, to abjure allegiance to a prince. To abjure the realm, is to swear to abandon it forever.

Diminishing; as, an ablatitious force. Sir J. Herschel.

Taking away or removing. [Obs.] Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth. Bp. Hall.

The substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation; as, get, gat, got; sing, song; hang, hung. Earle.

Having sufficient power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to e…