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The act of looking; vision; gaze; glance. [R.] "The basilisk killeth by aspect." Bacon. His aspect was bent on the ground. Sir W. Scott.

o 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.

ir or gases through or over certain liquids or solids, or for exhausting a closed vessel, by means of suction.

with eagerness; to seek to attain something high or great; to pant; to long; -- followed by to or after, and rarely by at; as, to aspire to a crown; to aspire after immorality. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; Aspiring to be angels, men rebel. Pope.

A spear used by tribes in South Africa as a missile and for stabbing, a kind of light javelin.

uce changes in the feelings, character, conduct, existing usages, institutions; to attack by words, hostile influence, etc.; as, to assail one with appeals, arguments, abuse, ridicule, and the like. The papal authority . . . assailed. Hallam. They assailed him with keen invective; they assailed him with still keener ir…

One who kills, or attempts to kill, by surprise or secret assault; one who treacherously murders any one unprepared for defense.

To kill by surprise or secret assault; to murder by treacherous violence. Help, neighbors, my house is broken open by force, and I am ravished, and like to be assassinated. Dryden.

The act of assassinating; a killing by treacherous violence.

orce or violence, to do hurt to another; an attempt or offer to beat another, accompanied by a degree of violence, but without touching his person, as by lifting the fist, or a cane, in a threatening manner, or by striking at him, and missing him. If the blow aimed takes effect, it is a battery. Blackstone. Wharton. Pr…

amination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine. [Obs.] This can not be, by no assay of reason. Shak.

To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties. To assert one's self, to claim or vindicate one's rights or position; to demand recognition.

To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment.

One who sits by another, as next in dignity, or as an assistant and adviser; an associate in office. Whence to his Son, The assessor of his throne, he thus began. Milton. With his ignorance, his inclinations, and his fancy, as his assessors in judgment. I. Taylor.

Property of a deceased person, subject by law to the payment of his debts and legacies; -- called assets because sufficient to render the executor or administrator liable to the creditors and legatees, so far as such goods or estate may extend. Story. Blackstone.

Characterized by asseveration; asserting positively.

tain persons, called assignees, for the benefit of creditors. To assign dower, to set out by metes and bounds the widow's share or portion in an estate. Kent.

One of the notes, bills, or bonds, issued as currency by the revolutionary government of France (1790-1796), and based on the security of the lands of the church and of nobles which had been appropriated by the state.

A making over by transfer of title; assignment. House of assignation, a house in which appointments for sexual intercourse are fulfilled.