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The act or practice of abstaining; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from…

To deceive; to impose on. [Obs.] Their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud, and abused by a double object. Jer. Taylor.

A school or place of training in which some special art is taught; as, the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music. Academy figure (Paint.), a drawing usually half life-size, in crayon or pencil, after a nude model.

o cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of; -- opposed to retard.

, a falling body moves toward the earth with an acceleration of velocity; -- opposed to retardation. A period of social improvement, or of intellectual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor. (Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its o…

acceptance of a gift, office, doctrine, etc. They shall come up with acceptance on mine altar. Isa. lx. 7.

rs (Opt.), colors depending on the hypersensibility of the retina of the eye for complementary colors. They are purely subjective sensations of color which often result from the contemplation of actually colored bodies. -- Accidental point (Persp.), the point in which a right line, drawn from the eye, parallel to a gi…

Voluntary or spontaneous motion or impulse to act; -- preceded by own; as, of one's own accord. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. Lev. xxv. 5. Of his own accord he went unto you. 2 Cor. vii. 17.

To furnish with dress, or equipments, esp. those for military service; to equip; to attire; to array. Bot accoutered like young men. Shak. For this, in rags accoutered are they seen. Dryden. Accoutered with his burden and his staff. Wordsworth.

Turning sour; readily becoming tart or acid; slightly sour. Faraday.

the distillation of certain acetates, or by the destructive distillation of citric acid, starch, sugar, or gum, with quicklime.

Excess of acetone in the urine, as in starvation or diabetes.

Free from color; colorless; as, in Physiol. Chem., the achromic point of a starch solution acted upon by an amylolytic enzyme is the point at which it fails to give any color with iodine.

Sour, sharp, or biting to the taste; tart; having the taste of vinegar: as, acid fruits or liquors. Also fig.: Sour-tempered. He was stern and his face as acid as ever. A. Trollope.

The quality of being sour; sourness; tartness; sharpness to the taste; as, the acidity of lemon juice.

Sourly; tartly.

An instrument for measuring the acuteness of the sense of hearing. Itard.

Rising at sunset and setting at sunrise, as a star; -- opposed to cosmical.

Requiring or implying action or exertion; -- opposed to Ant: sedentary or to Ant: tranquil; as, active employment or service; active scenes.

In an active manner; nimbly; briskly; energetically; also, by one's own action; voluntarily, not passively.