ARTLESS a.
Free from guile, art, craft, or stratagem; characterized by simplicity and sincerity; sincere; guileless; ingenuous; honest; as, an artless mind; an artless tale. They were plain, artless men, without the least appearance of enthusiasm or credulity about them. Porteus. O, how unlike the complex works of man, Heaven's e…
ASCETIC n.
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…
ASSUMPTIVE a.
Assumed, or capable of being assumed; characterized by assumption; making unwarranted claims. -- As*sump"tive*ly, adv. Assumptive arms (Her.), originally, arms which a person had a right to assume, in consequence of an exploit; now, those assumed without sanction of the Heralds' College. Percy Smith.…
ASTHMA n.
A disease, characterized by difficulty of breathing (due to a spasmodic contraction of the bronchi), recurring at intervals, accompanied with a wheezing sound, a sense of constriction in the chest, a cough, and expectoration.
AZOLE n.
Any of a large class of compounds characterized by a five- membered ring which contains an atom of nitrogen and at least one other noncarbon atom (nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur). The prefixes furo-, thio, and pyrro-are used to distinguish three subclasses of azoles, which may be regarded as derived respectively from furfur…