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Of or pertaining to a sea so named, the northwestern part of which is known as the Gulf of Venice.

Floating at random; in a drifting condition; at the mercy of wind and waves. Also fig. So on the sea shall be set adrift. Dryden. Were from their daily labor turned adrift. Wordsworth.

Dexterous in the use of the hands or in the exercise of the mental faculties; exhibiting skill and readiness in avoiding danger or escaping difficulty; ready in invention or execution; -- applied to persons and to acts; as, an adroit mechanic, an adroit reply. "Adroit in the application of the telescope and quadrant."…

The quality of being adroit; skill and readiness; dexterity. Adroitness was as requisite as courage. Motley.

Held to service as attached to the soil; -- said of feudal serfs.

Attached or annexed to the glebe or estate and transferable with it. Brougham.

A cultivated variety of the Asiatic gram, now introduced into the United States.

Servile flattery; praise in excess, or beyond what is merited. Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out With titles blown from adulation Shak.

xture of a foreign or a baser substance; as, to adulterate food, drink, drugs, coin, etc. The present war has . . . adulterated our tongue with strange words. Spectator.

The act of adulterating; corruption, or debasement (esp. of food or drink) by foreign mixture. The shameless adulteration of the coin. Prescott.

Proceeding from adulterous intercourse. Hence: Spurious; without the support of law; illegal. When any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter, such were called adulterine guilds. Adam Smith.

The unfaithfulness of a married person to the marriage bed; sexual intercourse by a married man with another than his wife, or voluntary sexual intercourse by a married woman with another than her husband.

The state of being adult.

To give a faint shadow or slight representation of; to outline; to shadow forth. Both in the vastness and the richness of the visible universe the invisible God is adumbrated. L. Taylor.

The act of adumbrating, or shadowing forth.

Curvature inwards; hookedness. The aduncity of the beaks of hawks. Pope.

Inflamed or scorched; fiery. "The Libyan air adust." Milton.

The act of burning, or heating to dryness; the state of being thus heated or dried. [Obs.] Harvey.

A term used to denote a duty or charge laid upon goods, at a certain rate per cent upon their value, as stated in their invoice, - - in opposition to a specific sum upon a given quantity or number; as, an ad valorem duty of twenty per cent.

To bring forward; to move towards the van or front; to make to go on.