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A word or expression admitting of a double interpretation, one of which is often obscure or indelicate.

Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like. Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good. Shak. Is it a great cruelty to expel from our abode the enemy of our peace, or even the doubtfu…

To admit the action of pulling or dragging; to undergo draught; as, a carriage draws easily.

ither the whole or a part is made to be raised up, let down, or drawn or turned aside, to admit or hinder communication at pleasure, as before the gate of a town or castle, or over a navigable river or canal.

A hard, heavy, and durable wood, which admits of a fine polish or gloss. The usual color is black, but it also occurs red or green.

Admitted to a state of paradisaic happiness. [R.] Davies (Wit's Pilgr. ).

A variety of glass, used in ornament, to cover a surface, as of metal or pottery, and admitting of after decoration in color, or used itself for inlaying or application in varied colors.

To admit to the privileges of a denizen; to naturalize. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

ncorporate into a body politic and thus to invest with civil and political privileges; to admit to the privileges of a freeman.

o, and enslaved by war, Shall, with their freedom lost, all virtue lose. Milton. Pleasure admitted in undue degree Enslaves the will. Cowper.

To unite in; to join; to be admitted to; to become a member of; as, to enter an association, a college, an army.

To give reception to; to receive, in general; to receive and take into consideration; to admit, treat, or make use of; as, to entertain a proposal. I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke. De Quincey. A rumor gained ground, -- and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensib…

The act of receiving as host, or of amusing, admitting, or cherishing; hospitable reception; also, reception or treatment, in general. The entertainment of Christ by faith. Baxter. The sincere entertainment and practice of the precepts of the gospel. Bp. Sprat.

the like. What becomes . . . of the Herakleid genealogy of the Spartan kings, when it is admitted that eponymous persons are to be canceled as fictions Grote.

ee, etc.; -- applied to number, degree, quantity, and intensity, and to any subject which admits of them; neither inferior nor superior, greater nor less, better nor worse; corresponding; alike; as, equal quantities of land, water, etc. ; houses of equal size; persons of equal stature or talents; commodities of equal v…

Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; -- applied to magnitudes; as, a square may be equivalent to a triangle.

se words of equivocal or doubtful signification; to express one's opinions in terms which admit of different senses, with intent to deceive; to use ambiguous expressions with a view to mislead; as, to equivocate is the work of duplicity. All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate. Bp…

ty or state of being exchangeable. The law ought not be contravened by an express article admitting the exchangeability of such persons. Washington.

n; to debar from participation or enjoyment; to deprive of; to except; -- the opposite to admit; as, to exclude a crowd from a room or house; to exclude the light; to exclude one nation from the ports of another; to exclude a taxpayer from the privilege of voting. And none but such, from mercy I exclude. Milton.…

To pardon, as a fault; to forgive entirely, or to admit to be little censurable, and to overlook; as, we excuse irregular conduct, when extraordinary circumstances appear to justify it. I must excuse what can not be amended. Shak.