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The act of reducing to any state, as of mixing two bodies combletely. [Obs.] Bacon.

Subtraction; deduction. [Obs.]

The act or operation of subtracting or taking away a part.

A wasting away; a gradual losing of flesh by disease.

The act of touching; touch; contact; tangency. "External taction." Chesterfield.

Act of tepefying.

The act or process of torrefying, or the state of being torrefied. Bp. Hall.

The act of drawing, or the state of being drawn; as, the traction of a muscle.

A locomotive driving wheel which acts by friction adhesion to a smooth track.

Of or relating to traction.

That which is done; an affair; as, the transactions on the exchange.

The act or process of tumefying, swelling, or rising into a tumor; a swelling. Arbuthnot.

Subordinate action; a minor action incidental or subsidiary to the main story; an episode. The least episodes or underactions . . . are parts necessary or convenient to carry on the main design. Dryden.

A subordinate party or faction.

Dissatisfaction. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

The act, art, or process of vitrifying; also, the state of being vitrified.

A test for typhoid fever based on the fact that blood serum of one affected, in a bouillon culture of typhoid bacilli, causes the bacilli to agglutinate and lose their motility.

Inability to coördinate muscular actions properly in walking. - - A*ba"sic (#), a.

To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.