Search the Dictionary

Behavior. [Obs.] Sir. T. More.

One who is learning the alphabet; hence, a tyro.

Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary. Abecedarian psalms, hymns, etc., compositions in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

A primer; the first principle or rudiment of anything. [R.] Fuller.

In bed, or on the bed. Not to be abed after midnight. Shak.

Same as Aby. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The white polar (Populus alba). Six abeles i' the churchyard grow. Mrs. Browning.

tates that they married, but lived in continence, after the manner, as they pretended, of Abel.

An evergreen shrub (Hibiscus -- formerly Abelmoschus- moschatus), of the East and West Indies and Northern Africa, whose musky seeds are used in perfumery and to flavor coffee; -- sometimes called musk mallow.

The European siskin (Carduelis spinus), a small green and yellow finch, related to the goldfinch.

To wander; to stray. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

State of being aberrant; a wandering from the right way; deviation from truth, rectitude, etc. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a circular form.

See Aberr.]

To go astray; to diverge. [R.] Their own defective and aberrating vision. De Quincey.

n, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type. "The aberration of youth." Hall. "Aberrations from theory." Burke.

Characterized by aberration.

To weed out. [Obs.] Bailey.

A weeding machine.

te or encourage by aid or countenance; -- used in a bad sense of persons and acts; as, to abet an ill-doer; to abet one in his wicked courses; to abet vice; to abet an insurrection. "The whole tribe abets the villany." South. Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus exposed his wealth Gay.…

The act of abetting; as, an abetment of treason, crime, etc.