Search the Dictionary

Impossible. [R.]

The basis or principle of a treaty which leaves belligerents mutually in possession of what they have acquired by their arms during the war. Brande & C.

See Yapock, and the Note under Opossum.

assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible. A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preëxisted in order to make experience possible. Coleridge.

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.

a freehold, To abate in lands (Law), to enter into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, and before the heir takes possession. See Abatement, 4.

The entry of a stranger, without right, into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Blackstone. Defense in abatement, Plea in abatement, (Law), plea to the effect that from some formal defect (e.g. misnomer, want of jurisdiction) the proceedings should be abated.…

uisance. (b) A person who, without right, enters into a freehold on the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Blackstone.

power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able…

To be copiously supplied; -- followed by in or with. To abound in, to posses in such abundance as to be characterized by. -- To abound with, to be filled with; to possess in great numbers. Men abounding in natural courage. Macaulay. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. Prov. xxviii. 20. It abounds with cabinets…

One who believes that it is possible to realize a cognition or concept of the absolute. Sir. W. Hamilton.

luding the Medusæ or jellyfishes, and hydroids; -- so called from the stinging power they possess. Sometimes called sea nettles.

bought as that for which it was bought, or as that agreed to be delivered, or the taking possession as owner.

The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or sail from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.

Not possessing a mantle; -- said of certain gastropods.

To familiarize; to accustom. [Obs.] Evelyn. To be acquainted with, to be possessed of personal knowledge of; to be cognizant of; to be more or less familiar with; to be on terms of social intercourse with.

The quality of being acquisitive; propensity to acquire property; desire of possession.

Possessing acres or landed property; -- used in composition; as, large-acred men.

A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [Obs.] The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. Hooker.

isting in act or reality; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, coceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion.