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In process of; in the act of; into; to; -- used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging. "Jacob, when he was a dying" Heb. xi. 21. "We'll a birding together." " It was a…

rience, in order to make experience rational or possible. A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preëxisted in order to make experience possible. Coleridge.

Given to laughter; inclined to foolish or incessant merriment.

ns in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

To shrink back with shuddering from; to regard with horror or detestation; to feel excessive repugnance toward; to detest to extremity; to loathe. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Rom. xii. 9.

The process of grafting now called inarching, or grafting by approach.

The act or process of laying bare the roots of trees to expose them to the air and water. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Excessive; large; -- used as an intensive. [Obs.]

Coming to naught; failing in its effect; miscarrying; fruitless; unsuccessful; as, an abortive attempt. "An abortive enterprise." Prescott.

visit." Smollett. She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. Fuller.

To annul by an authoritative act; to abolish by the authority of the maker or his successor; to repeal; -- applied to the repeal of laws, decrees, ordinances, the abolition of customs, etc. Let us see whether the New Testament abrogates what we so frequently see in the Old. South. Whose laws, like those of the Medes an…

The act or process of cutting off. "Not to be cured without the abscission of a member." Jer. Taylor.

ff and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor. That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

The condition of being poisoned by the excessive use of absinth.

The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.

The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear; as, the absorption of bodies in a whirlpool, the absorption of a smaller tribe into a larger.

s the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.

The act process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis. Thus, when the mind considers the form of a tree by itself, or the color of the leaves as separate from their size or figure, the act is called abstraction. So, also, when it considers whitene…

to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority. This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. Froude.

Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied. I am . . . necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the abusive acceptation thereof. Fuller.