Search the Dictionary

A sour substance.

Without inclination or dipping; -- said the magnetic needle balances itself horizontally, having no dip. The aclinic line is also termed the magnetic equator. Prof. August.

theaters to propel the voices of the actors, so as to render them audible to a great distance.

An acquaintance. [R.] Swift.

State of being acquainted; degree of acquaintance. [R.] Boyle.

Property acquired by purchase, gift, or otherwise than by inheritance. Bouvier.

nstant, but step by step. Barrow. Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law. Blackstone.

The act of acquitting; discharge from debt or obligation; acquittance.

Excess; intemperance. [Obs. except in Med.] Farindon.

oing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed. That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. Wordsworth. Hence, in specific uses:

An animal of the class Anthozoa, and family Actinidæ. From a resemblance to flowers in form and color, they are often called animal flowers and sea anemones. [See Polyp.].

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.

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.

The computing official of an insurance company; one whose profession it is to calculate for insurance companies the risks and premiums for life, fire, and other insurances.

See Accustomance. [Obs.]

agined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substance of extreme hardness; but in modern minerology it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. Opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield.…

(to any one, an audience). The young hero had addressed his players to him for his assistance. Dryden.

To stick fast or cleave, as a glutinous substance does; to become joined or united; as, wax to the finger; the lungs sometimes adhere to the pleura.

Attached as an attribute or circumstance.

Sticky; tenacious, as glutinous substances.