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Without notice to prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious. "The cause of your abrupt departure." Shak.

Absorbing; swallowing; absorptive. Absorbent ground (Paint.), a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.

, under Priming. -- Diurnal acceleration of the fixed stars, the amount by which their apparent diurnal motion exceeds that of the sun, in consequence of which they daily come to the meridian of any place about three minutes fifty-six seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding. -- Acceleration of the pla…

To rest satisfied, or apparently satisfied, or to rest without opposition and discontent (usually implying previous opposition or discontent); to accept or consent by silence or by omitting to object; -- followed by in, formerly also by with and to. They were compelled to acquiesce in a government which they did not re…

A silent or passive assent or submission, or a submission with apparent content; -- distinguished from avowed consent on the one hand, and on the other, from opposition or open discontent; quiet satisfaction.

that it was caused by the forbidden fruit (an apple) sticking in the throat of our first parent. -- Adam's flannel (Bot.), the mullein (Verbascum thapsus). -- Adam's needle (Bot.), the popular name of a genus (Yucca) of liliaceous plants.

To prepare or make ready. [Obs.] His foe was soon addressed. Spenser. Turnus addressed his men to single fight. Dryden. The five foolish virgins addressed themselves at the noise of the bridegroom's coming. Jer. Taylor.

An animal having feet that are not apparent.

ship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc. ; esp. to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.

The act of adopting, or state of being adopted; voluntary acceptance of a child of other parents to be the same as one's own child.

A transparent or translucent variety of common feldspar, or orthoclase, which often shows pearly opalescent reflections; -- called by lapidaries moonstone.

Property given, usually by a parent to a child, in advance of a future distribution.

Proceeding from affection; indicating love; tender; as, the affectionate care of a parent; affectionate countenance, message, language.

The establishment or ascertaining of parentage; the assignment of a child, as a bastard, to its father; filiation.

Prepared; previously provided; -- opposed to behindhand. [Archaic or Dial.] Aforehand in all matters of power. Bacon.

Reproduction without the union of parents of distinct sexes: asexual reproduction.

A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby.

ion, as a language or a compound. In agglutinative languages the union of words may be compared to mechanical compounds, in inflective languages to chemical compounds. R. Morris. Cf. man-kind, heir-loom, war-like, which are agglutinative compounds. The Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, the Tamul, etc., are agglutinative lan…

To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate. [Colloq.] If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine. Richardson (Clarissa).

Charcoal prepared for making powder.