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Acting of one's self or of itself; acting without depending on other agents.

Same as Stupefacient. [Written also stupifactive.]

Tending, or having power, to subtract.

Serving to draw; pulling; attracting; as, tractive power.

Inactive; listless. [R.] While other animals unactive range. Milton.

Inactivity. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

usually of two separate lenses, a convex and concave, of substances having different refractive and dispersive powers, as crown and flint glass, with the curvatures so adjusted that the chromatic aberration produced by the one is corrected by other, and light emerges from the compound lens undecomposed. -- Achromatic…

Any one of the active processes going on in an organism; the performance of a function; as, the action of the heart, the muscles, or the gastric juice.

To make active. [Obs.]

The state or quality of being active; nimbleness; agility; vigorous action or operation; energy; active force; as, an increasing variety of human activities. "The activity of toil." Palfrey.

Involving or comprising action; active. [Obs.] Her walking and other actual performances. Shak. Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is . . . by a special prayer or action, . . . given to God. Jer. Taylor.

Actively. [Obs.] "Neither actually . . . nor passively." Fuller.

To put into action or motion; to move or incite to action; to influence actively; to move as motives do; -- more commonly used of persons. Wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion. Johnson. Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow mi…

Very active. [Obs.]

Proper to be added; positive; -- opposed to subtractive.

or dress with ornaments; to embellish; to set off to advantage; to render pleasing or attractive. As a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isa. lxi. 10. At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place. Goldsmith.

ine substance, C9H13O3N, obtained from suprarenal extract, of which it is regarded as the active principle. It is used in medicine as a stimulant and hemostatic.

and need oxygen for their growth; as the microbacteria which form on the surface of putrefactive fluids.

An active power or cause; that which has the power to produce an effect; as, a physical, chemical, or medicinal agent; as, heat is a powerful agent.

Having the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; nimble; active; as, an agile boy; an agile tongue. Shaking it with agile hand. Cowper.