Search the Dictionary

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.

The act of assigning or allotting; apportionment. This order being taken in the senate, as touching the appointment and assignation of those provinces. Holland.

ns think themselves fairly assoiled, because they are . . . not of scandalous lives. Jer. Taylor.

The act of accustoming, or the state of being accustomed; habituation. [Obs.] Custom and studies efform the soul like wax, and by assuefaction introduce a nature. Jer. Taylor.

To take to or upon one's self; to take formally and demonstratively; sometimes, to appropriate or take unjustly. Trembling they stand while Jove assumes the throne. Pope. The god assumed his native form again. Pope.

Pretentious; taking much upon one's self; presumptuous. Burke.

To take up; to elevate; to assume. [Obs.] Sheldon.

The act of assuming, or taking to or upon one's self; the act of taking up or adopting. The assumption of authority. Whewell.

To make sure or certain; to render confident by a promise, declaration, or other evidence. His promise that thy seed shall bruise our foe . . . Assures me that the bitterness of death Is past, and we shall live. Milton.

One who takes out a life assurance policy.

Having little or no tendency to take a fixed or definite position or direction: thus, a suspended magnetic needle, when rendered astatic, loses its polarity, or tendency to point in a given direction. Astatic pair (Magnetism), a pair of magnetic needles so mounted as to be nearly or quite astatic, as in some galvanomet…

The ankle bone, or hock bone; the bone of the tarsus which articulates with the tibia at the ankle.

Pertaining to, coming from, or resembling, the stars; starry; starlike. Shines only with an astral luster. I. Taylor. Some astral forms I must invoke by prayer. Dryden. Astral lamp, an Argand lamp so constructed that no shadow is cast upon the table by the flattened ring-shaped reservoir in which the oil is contained.…

t; the power of contracting the parts of the body; that quality in medicines or other substances which causes contraction of the organic textures; as, the astringency of tannin.

g; contracting; -- opposed to laxative; as, astringent medicines; a butter and astringent taste; astringent fruit.

To study or to talk astronomy. [R.] They astronomized in caves. Sir T. Browne.

ion, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege. So sacred was the church to some, that it had the right of an asylum or sanctuary. Ayliffe.

A line which approaches nearer to some curve than assignable distance, but, though infinitely extended, would never meet it. Asymptotes may be straight lines or curves. A rectilinear asymptote may be conceived as a tangent to the curve at an infinite distance.

A kettledrum; a kind of tabor, used by the Moors. Croly.

A genus of American monkeys with prehensile tails, and having the thumb wanting or rudimentary. See Spider monkey, and Coaita.