ATTAIN v.
To come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc.; to reach. If by any means they might attain to Phenice. Acts xxvii. 12. Nor nearer might the dogs attain. Sir W. Scott. To see your trees attain to the dignity of timber. Cowper. Few boroughs had as yet attained to po…
AUDIENCE n.
y authors to their readers. Fit audience find, though few. Milton. He drew his audience upward to the sky. Dryden. Court of audience, or Audience court (Eng.), a court long since disused, belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury; also, one belonging to the Archbishop of York. Mozley & W. -- In general (or open) audie…
AURA n.
he peculiar sensation, as of a light vapor, or cold air, rising from the trunk or limbs towards the head, a premonitory symptom of epilepsy or hysterics. Electric ~, a supposed electric fluid, emanating from an electrified body, and forming a mass surrounding it, called the electric atmosphere. See Atmosphere, 2.…
AUTUMNAL a.
wthorne. Autumnal equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator, as it proceeds southward, or when it passes the ~ point. -- ~= point, the point of the equator intersected by the ecliptic, as the sun proceeds southward; the first point of Libra. -- ~= signs, the signs Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, through whi…
AVERAGE n.
ted. General average, a contribution made, by all parties concerned in a sea adventure, toward a loss occasioned by the voluntary sacrifice of the property of some of the parties in interest for the benefit of all. It is called general average, because it falls upon the gross amount of ship, cargo, and freight at risk…