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A large South American serpent (Boa aboma).

To become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to become sterile.

Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.

be in great plenty; to be very prevalent; to be plentiful. The wild boar which abounds in some parts of the continent of Europe. Chambers. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound. Rom. v. 20.

ate neighborhood of; in contiguity or proximity to; near, as to place; by or on (one's person). "Have you much money about you" Bulwer.

A narrow pass or defile; a break in a mesa; the mouth of a cañon. [Southwestern U. S.]

it was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon.

A group of annelids, so called because the species composing it have no special organs of respiration.

Absolute renunciation or repudiation. [Obs.] An abrenunciation of that truth which he so long had professed, and still believed. Fuller.

Before the public at large; throughout society or the world; here and there; widely. He went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter. Mark i. 45. To be abroad. (a) To be wide of the mark; to be at fault; as, you are all abroad in your guess. (b) To be at a loss or nonplused.…

To annul by an authoritative act; to abolish by the authority of the maker or his successor; to repeal; -- applied to the repeal of laws, decrees, ordinances, the abolition of customs, etc. Let us see whether the New Testament abrogates what we so frequently see in the Old. South. Whose laws, like those of the Medes an…

employed when a speaker having begun to say a thing stops abruptly: thus, "He is a man of so much honor and candor, and of such generosity -- but I need say no more."

To depart clandestinely; to steal off and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor. That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.

To set free, or release, as from some obligation, debt, or responsibility, or from the consequences of guilt or such ties as it would be sin or guilt to violate; to pronounce free; as, to absolve a subject from his allegiance; to absolve an offender, which amounts to an acquittal and remission of his punishment. Halifa…

helm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to use up; to include. "Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all." Cowper. The large cities absorb the wealth and fashion. W. Irving.

Absorbing; swallowing; absorptive. Absorbent ground (Paint.), a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.

Swallowing, engrossing; as, an absorbing pursuit. -- Ab*sorb"ing, adv.

The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear; as, the absorption of bodies in a whirlpool, the absorption of a smaller tribe into a larger.

A substance used in cleansing; a detergent; as, soap is an abstergent.