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A short grace note, one semitone below the note to which it is prefixed; -- used especially in organ music. Now used as equivalent to the short appoggiatura.

Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident. Of moving accidents by fl…

re purely subjective sensations of color which often result from the contemplation of actually colored bodies. -- Accidental point (Persp.), the point in which a right line, drawn from the eye, parallel to a given right line, cuts the perspective plane; so called to distinguish it from the principal point, or point of…

The application of a writer's language, on the ground of analogy, to something not originally referred to or intended. Many of those quotations from the Old Testament were probably intended as nothing more than accommodations. Paley.

eness to the principal thing, or by way of ornament, or for the sake of symmetry. Specifically: (Mus.)

Complete in acquirements as the result usually of training; -- commonly in a good sense; as, an accomplished scholar, an accomplished villain. They . . . show themselves accomplished bees. Holland. Daughter of God and man, accomplished Eve. Milton.

Dress; trappings; equipment; specifically, the devices and equipments worn by soldiers. How gay with all the accouterments of war!

The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth. A mineral . . . augments not by grown, but by accretion. Owen. To strip off all the subordinate parts of his as a later accretion. Sir G. C. Lewis.

arise or spring as a growth or result; to be added as increase, profit, or damage, especially as the produce of money lent. "Interest accrues to principal." Abbott. The great and essential advantages accruing to society from the freedom of the press. Junius.

to charge with an offense, judicially or by a public process; - - with of; as, to accuse one of a high crime or misdemeanor. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. Acts xxiv. 13. We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms. Macaulay.

An escutcheon or ensign armorial; now generally applied to the funeral shield commonly called hatchment. Cussans.

sorbing color from a fluid; -- said of tissue. Achromatic lens (Opt.), a lens composed 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 cor…

One of a class of compounds, generally but not always distinguished by their sour taste, solubility in water, and reddening of vegetable blue or violet colors. They are also characterized by the power of destroying the distinctive properties of alkalies or bases, combining with them to form salts, at the same time losi…

The measurement of the strength of acids, especially by a chemical process based on the law of chemical combinations, or the fact that, to produce a complete reaction, a certain definite weight of reagent is required. -- Ac`id*i*met"ric*al, a.

acknowledge the being of a God. I acknowledge my transgressions. Ps. li. 3. For ends generally acknowledged to be good. Macaulay.

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.

An extract or tincture obtained from Aconitum napellus, used as a poison and medicinally. Winter aconite, a plant (Eranthis hyemalis) allied to the aconites.

Personally known; familiar. See To be acquainted with, under Acquaint, v. t.

rest satisfied, or apparently satisfied, or to rest without opposition and discontent (usually implying previous opposition or discontent); to accept or consent by silence or by omitting to object; -- followed by in, formerly also by with and to. They were compelled to acquiesce in a government which they did not regar…

To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own; as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits. No virtue is acquired in an instant, 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 hei…