Search the Dictionary

To put into action or motion; to move or incite to action; to influence actively; to move as motives do; -- more commonly used of persons. Wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion. Johnson. Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow mi…

One who actuates, or puts into action. [R.] Melville.

Tendency or impulse to act. [R.] Acturience, or desire of action, in one form or another, whether as restlessness, ennui, dissatisfaction, or the imagination of something desirable. J. Grote.

Sharpness or acuteness, as of a needle, wit, etc.

Having prickles, or sharp points; beset with prickles.

Having small prickles or sharp points. Gray.

Quickness of perception or discernment; penetration of mind; the faculty of nice discrimination. Selden.

To render sharp or keen. [R.] "To acuminate even despair." Cowper.

A mode of arresting hemorrhage resulting from wounds or surgical operations, by passing under the divided vessel a needle, the ends of which are left exposed externally on the cutaneous surface. Simpson.

Sharp at the end; ending in a sharp point; pointed; -- opposed to blunt or obtuse; as, an acute angle; an acute leaf.

The quality of being acute or pointed; sharpness; as, the acuteness of an angle.

Not cyclic; not disposed in cycles or whorls; as: (a) (Bot.)

An acid radical, as acetyl, malonyl, or benzoyl.

Without fingers or without toes.

The name given in the Bible to the first man, the progenitor of the human race.

eme hardness; but in modern minerology it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. Opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. Milton.

Made of adamant, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; as, adamantine bonds or chains.

Of or pertaining to Adam, or resembling him. Adamic earth, a name given to common red clay, from a notion that Adam means red earth.

enus of great trees related to the Bombax. There are two species, A. digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread of Africa and India, and A. Gregorii, the sour gourd or cream-of-tartar tree of Australia. Both have a trunk of moderate height, but of enormous diameter, and a wide-spreading head. The fruit is oblong, and filled…

To make suitable; to fit, or suit; to adjust; to alter so as to fit for a new use; -- sometimes followed by to or for. For nature, always in the right, To your decays adapts my sight. Swift. Appeals adapted to his [man's] whole nature. Angus. Streets ill adapted for the residence of wealthy persons. Macaulay.…