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The science or art of ascending and sailing in the air, as by means of a balloon; aërial navigation; ballooning.

osed by Edison, for greatly intensifying speech. It consists of a phonograph diaphragm so arranged that its action opens and closes valves, producing synchronous air blasts sufficient to operate a larger diaphragm with greater amplitude of vibration.

Aërial navigation; the art of raising and guiding balloons in the air.

Aërial; ethereal; incorporeal; visionary. [Poetic] M. Arnold.

Pertaining to Æsculapius or to the healing art; medical; medicinal.

The doctrine of æsthetics; æsthetic principles; devotion to the beautiful in nature and art. Lowell.

The theory or philosophy of taste; the science of the beautiful in nature and art; esp. that which treats of the expression and embodiment of beauty by art.

The arrangement of the petals in a flower bud, as to folding, overlapping, etc.; prefloration. Gray. [Spelt also estivation.]

To act upon; to produce an effect or change upon. As might affect the earth with cold heat. Milton. The climate affected their health and spirits. Macaulay.

An attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real; false display; artificial show. "An affectation of contempt." Macaulay. Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural what is natural. Locke.

Regarded with affection; beloved. [Obs.] His affected Hercules. Chapman.

attribute; a quality or property; a condition; a bodily state; as, figure, weight, etc. , are affections of bodies. "The affections of quantity." Boyle. And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, An old and strange affection of the house. Tennyson.

Disposed. [Archaic] Be kindly affectioned one to another. Rom. xii. 10.

To assess or reduce, as an arbitrary penalty or amercement, to a certain and reasonable sum. Amercements . . . were affeered by the judges. Blackstone.

That affirms; asserting that the fact is so; declaratory of what exists; answering "yes" to a question; -- opposed to negative; as, an affirmative answer; an affirmative vote.

To make low or humble. [Obs.] Spenser. Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error before an afflicted truth. Jer. Taylor.

The state of being afflicted; a state of pain, distress, or grief. Some virtues are seen only in affliction. Addison.

To frighten. [Archaic] "Fit tales . . . to affrighten babes." Southey.

One who frightens. [Archaic]

Terrifying; frightful. -- Af*fright"ful*ly, adv. [Archaic] Bugbears or affrightful apparitions. Cudworth.