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In the early church, one who devoted himself to a solitary and contemplative life, characterized by devotion, extreme self-denial, and self-mortification; a hermit; a recluse; hence, one who practices extreme rigor and self-denial in religious things. I am far from commending those ascetics that take up their quarters…

obs. pl. for Ashes. Chaucer.

To mitigate; to moderate; to appease; to abate; to diminish. [Archaic] Chaucer.

ughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to mildness. "Asperity of character." Landor. It is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received. Johnson.

To bespatter with foul reports or false and injurious charges; to tarnish in point of reputation or good name; to slander or calumniate; as, to asperse a poet or his writings; to asperse a man's character. With blackest crimes aspersed. Cowper.

Having an indefinite number of small charges scattered or strewed over the surface. Cussans.

The spreading of calumniations reports or charges which tarnish reputation, like the bespattering of a body with foul water; calumny. Every candid critic would be ashamed to cast wholesale aspersions on the entire body of professional teachers. Grote. Who would by base aspersions blot thy virtue. Dryden.…

A sound consisting of, or characterized by, a breath like the sound of h; the breathing h or a character representing such a sound; an aspirated sound.

Aspiration. [Obs.] Chapman.

ty with artillery. No rude noise mine ears assailing. Cowper. No storm can now assail The charm he wears within. Keble.

t onset or attack with physical means, as blows, weapons, etc.; an onslaught; the rush or charge of an attacking force; onset; as, to make assault upon a man, a house, or a town. The Spanish general prepared to renew the assault. Prescott. Unshaken bears the assault Of their most dreaded foe, the strong southwest. Word…

Trial; attempt; essay. [Obs.] Chaucer. I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance. Milton.

Characterized by asseveration; asserting positively.

To make sibilant; to change to a sibilant. J. Peile.

Change of a non-sibilant letter to a sibilant, as of -tion to - shun, duke to ditch.

A siege. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To change and appropriate nourishment so as to make it a part of the substance of the assimilating body. Aliment easily assimilated or turned into blood. Arbuthnot.

Tending to, or characterized by, assimilation; that assimilates or causes assimilation; as, an assimilative process or substance.

p. Four assistants who his labor share. Pope. Rhymes merely as assistants to memory. Mrs. Chapone.

ile the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary. The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. Hallam.