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A small farm; -- so called as requiring but one yoke of oxen to till it. [Prov. Eng.]

Christmas time; Christmastide; the season of Christmas.

A zonule. Herrick.

The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made fr…

The first three letters of the alphabet, used for the whole alphabet.

orning; every morning. [Obs.] And have such pleasant walks into the woods A-mornings. J. Fletcher.

A tablet, panel, or compartment in ornamented or mosaic work.

A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.

The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.

ose duty is to make a short minute of a decision on a petition, or reply of the pope to a letter, and afterwards expand the minute into official form.

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.

ell; 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.

ntinuance, or where one dwells; abiding place; residence; a dwelling; a habitation. Come, let me lead you to our poor abode. Wordsworth.

To imbue with the principles of abolitionism. [R.] Bartlett.

me to maturity, or anything which in its progress, before it is matured or perfect; a complete failure; as, his attempt. proved an abortiori.

A mystical word or collocation of letters 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.

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.

To set abroach; to let out, as liquor; to broach; to tap. [Obs.] Chaucer.

al; -- applied to the repeal of laws, decrees, ordinances, the abolition of customs, etc. Let us see whether the New Testament abrogates what we so frequently see in the Old. South. Whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persian, they can not alter or abrogate. Burke.

Precipitously. Abruptly pinnate (Bot.), pinnate without an odd leaflet, or other appendage, at the end. Gray.