Search the Dictionary

To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances. Paley.

To give pain or sorrow to; to afflict; hence, to oppress or injure in one's rights; to bear heavily upon; -- now commonly used in the passive TO be aggrieved. Aggrieved by oppression and extortion. Macaulay.

The premium or percentage on a better sort of money when it is given in exchange for an inferior sort. The premium or discount on foreign bills of exchange is sometimes called agio.

An additional or fourth name given by the Romans, or account of some remarkable exploit or event; as, Publius Caius Scipio Africanus.

Willing; ready to agree or consent. [Colloq.] These Frenchmen give unto the said captain of Calais a great sum of money, so that he will be but content and agreeable that they may enter into the said town. Latimer.

The quality of being agreeable or pleasing; that quality which gives satisfaction or moderate pleasure to the mind or senses. That author . . . has an agreeableness that charms us. Pope.

In an agreeably manner; in a manner to give pleasure; pleasingly. "Agreeably entertained." Goldsmith.

The name is also given to various other plants; as, hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum); water agrimony (Bidens).

Any sound or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warming sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Joel ii. 1.

ether negro, Indian, or white, in whom by some defect of organization the substance which gives color to the skin, hair, and eyes is deficient or in a morbid state. An albino has a skin of a milky hue, with hair of the same color, and eyes with deep red pupil and pink or blue iris. The term is also used of the lower an…

A person given to the use of alcoholic liquors.

An apparatus formerly used in distillation, usually made of glass or metal. It has mostly given place to the retort and worm still. Used also metaphorically. The alembic of a great poet's imagination. Brimley.

An alarm from a real or threatened attack; a sudden attack; also, a bugle sound to give warning. "We have had an alert." Farrow. On the alert, on the lookout or watch against attack or danger; ready to act.

A name given to two species of the genus Smyrnium, formerly cultivated and used as celery now is; -- called also horse parsely.

To convert into an alkali; to give alkaline properties to.

A dyeing matter extracted from the roots of Alkanna tinctoria, which gives a fine deep red color.

An allaying; that which allays; mitigation. [Obs.] The like allayment could I give my grief. Shak.

al sense; as, when a passage in a writer may understood literally or figuratively, he who gives it a figurative sense is said to allegorize it.

Any passage having the entrance represented as wider than the exit, so as to give the appearance of length.

A name popularly given to the officinal valerian, and to some other plants.