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A table or tray strewn with sand, anciently used for drawing, calculating, etc. [Obs.]

The act of abalienating; alienation; estrangement. [Obs.]

To destroy the self-possession of; to confuse or confound, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. Milton. He was a man whom no check could abash. Macaulay.

To deduct; to omit; as, to abate something from a price. Nine thousand parishes, abating the odd hundreds. Fuller.

The act of abating, or the state of being abated; a lessening, diminution, or reduction; removal or putting an end to; as, the abatement of a nuisance is the suppression thereof.

omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

The result of abbreviating; an abridgment. Tylor.

Abdicating; renouncing; -- followed by of. Monks abdicant of their orders. Whitlock.

The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority.

Relating to the abdomen and the thorax, or chest.

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

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.

To go astray; to diverge. [R.] Their own defective and aberrating vision. De Quincey.

earth in its orbit, and dairy or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth.

Act of abetting; aid. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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

Abhorring; detesting; having or showing abhorrence; loathing; hence, strongly opposed to; as, abhorrent thoughts. The persons most abhorrent from blood and treason. Burke. The arts of pleasure in despotic courts I spurn abhorrent. Clover.

Continuing; lasting.

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

Cast down; low-lying. [Obs.] From the safe shore their floating carcasses And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrown Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood. Milton.