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The official staff or wand of Hermes or Mercury, the messenger of the gods. It was originally said to be a herald's staff of olive wood, but was afterwards fabled to have two serpents coiled about it, and two wings at the top.

With temporary gills: -- applied to those Amphibia in which the gills do not remain in adult life.

Tendency to fall; the feebleness of old age; senility. [R.] [A] jumble of youth and caducity. Chesterfield.

Dropping off or disappearing early, as the calyx of a poppy, or the gills of a tadpole.

Perishable; frail; transitory. [Obs.] Hickes. The caduke pleasures of his world. Bp. Fisher.

See Cadie.

A mystical word or collocation of letters written as in the figure. Worn on an amulet it was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon.

An academy. [Poetic] Shak.

Academic. [R.]

A member of an academy, university, or college.

A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician.

Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the Academic sect or philosophy.

In an academical manner.

The articles of dress prescribed and worn at some colleges and universities.

A member of an academy, or society for promoting science, art, or literature, as of the French Academy, or the Royal Academy of arts.

A tenet of the Academic philosophy.

The doctrines of the Academic philosophy. [Obs.] Baxter.

An Academic philosopher.

A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.

Of or pertaining to Acadie, or Nova Scotia. "Acadian farmers." Longfellow. -- n.