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Prognostication by inspection of the entrails of victims slain sacrifice.

A funeral feast. [North of Eng.] Grose.

A mouse of the genus Arvicola; the meadow mouse. There are many species.

The language of the original Aryans. [Written also Arian.]

To make Aryan (a language, or in language). K. Johnston.

Ladle-shaped; -- applied to two small cartilages of the larynx, and also to the glands, muscles, etc., connected with them. The cartilages are attached to the cricoid cartilage and connected with the vocal cords.

rn Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter (Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttu…

A, as a prefix to English words, is derived from various sources. (1) It frequently signifies on or in (from an, a forms of AS. on), denoting a state, as in afoot, on foot, abed, amiss, asleep, aground, aloft, away (AS. onweg), and analogically, ablaze, atremble, etc. (2) AS. of off, from, as in adown (AS. ofdüne off t…

A rod with one serpent twined around it, thus differing from the caduceus of Mercury, which has two.

Toward the back or rear; backward. "Therewith aback she started." Chaucer.

pposite to the mouth in a radiate animal; -- opposed to actinal. "The aboral or abactinal area." L. Agassiz.

A calculating table or frame; an instrument for performing arithmetical calculations by balls sliding on wires, or counters in grooves, the lowest line representing units, the second line, tens, etc. It is still employed in China.

A univalve mollusk of the genus Haliotis. The shell is lined with mother-of-pearl, and used for ornamental purposes; the sea-ear. Several large species are found on the coast of California, clinging closely to the rocks.

A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.

A West Indian palm; also the fruit of this palm, the seeds of which are used as a remedy for diseases of the chest.

Articulation, usually that kind of articulation which admits of free motion in the joint; diarthrosis. Coxe.

To lower or depress; to throw or cast down; as, to abase the eye. [Archaic] Bacon. Saying so, he abased his lance. Shelton.

To deduct; to omit; as, to abate something from a price. Nine thousand parishes, abating the odd hundreds. Fuller.

A means of defense formed by felled trees, the ends of whose branches are sharpened and directed outwards, or against the enemy.

ontraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.