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onstant or close application or attention, particularly to some business or enterprise; diligence. I have, with much pains and assiduity, qualified myself for a nomenclator. Addison.

Performed with constant diligence or attention; unremitting; persistent; as, assiduous labor. To weary him with my assiduous cries. Milton.

s, generally the pastors of neighboring churches, united for promoting the interests of religion and the harmony of the churches. Association of ideas (Physiol.), the combination or connection of states of mind or their objects with one another, as the result of which one is said to be revived or represented by means o…

To pretend to possess; to take in appearance. Ambition assuming the mask of religion. Porteus. Assume a virtue, if you have it not. Shak.

An optical property of some crystals which exhibit a star- shaped by reflected light, as star sapphire, or by transmitted light, as some mica.

The act of binding; restriction; also, obligation. Milton.

To bind by moral or legal obligation. Wolsey.

An instrument for comparing the relative amount of the light of stars.

ical characteristics of the stars and other heavenly bodies, their chemical constitution, light, heat, atmospheres, etc.

nctions or symptoms, or (b) by a want of coordinating power in movements. Ataxic fever, malignant typhus fever. Pinel.

The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. Atheism is a ferocious system, that leaves nothing above us to excite awe, nor around us to awaken tenderness. R. Hall. Atheism and pantheism are often wrongly confounded. Shipley.

One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.

A square hall lighted from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

avor to do or perform (some action); to assay; as, to attempt to sing; to attempt a bold flight. Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose. Longfellow.

o direct the attention to; to fix the mind upon; to give heed to; to regard. [Obs.] The diligent pilot in a dangerous tempest doth not attend the unskillful words of the passenger. Sir P. Sidney.

To touch lightly. [Obs.] Coles.

s of trouble let a nation preserve a firm attitude; one's mental attitude in respect to religion. The attitude of the country was rapidly changing. J. R. Green. To strike an attitude, to take an attitude for mere effect.

Poisonous; malignant; malicious. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Contemning the restraints of law, religion, or decorum; bold in wickedness; presumptuous; impudent; insolent. " Audacious traitor." Shak. " Such audacious neighborhood." Milton.

An official diviner who foretold events by the singing, chattering, flight, and feeding of birds, or by signs or omens derived from celestial phenomena, certain appearances of quadrupeds, or unusual occurrences.