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Ready; prompt; prepared. [Obs.] All prest to such battle he was. R. of Gloucester.

his pride. Goldsmith. A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. Macaulay.

The first ancestor; a forefather.

Proceeding from, as from a parent; derived, as from an ancestor. [R.] The threefold distinction of profectitious, adventitious, and professional was ascertained. Gibbon.

An ancestor in the direct line; a forefather. And reverence thee their great progenitor. Milton.

Shak. Till the bright mountains prop the incumbent sky. Pope. For being not propp'd by ancestry. Shak. I prop myself upon those few supports that are left me. Pope.

Nearest; next immediately preceding or following. "Proximate ancestors." J. S. Harford. The proximate natural causes of it [the deluge]. T. Burnet. Proximate analysis (Chem.), an analysis which determines the proximate principles of any substance, as contrasted with an ultimate analysis. -- Proximate cause. (a) A caus…

One of a religious sect founded by George Fox, of Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers, originally, in derision. See Friend, n., 4. Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or con…

The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed. The whole race of mankind. Shak. Whence the long race of Alban fathers come. Dryden.

(Law), lands or real estate in the hands of the heir, chargeable with the debts of the ancestor. -- Real composition (Eccl. Law), an agreement made between the owner of lands and the parson or vicar, with consent of the ordinary, that such lands shall be discharged from payment of tithes, in consequence of other land…

t with authority in behalf of; to act the part of (another); as, an heir represents his ancestor; an attorney represents his client in court; a member of Congress represents his district in Congress.

evert. [Obs.] The inheritance of the son never resorted to the mother, or to any of her ancestors. Sir M. Hale.

A return towards some ancestral type or character; atavism. Reversion of series (Alg.), the act of reverting a series. See To revert a series, under Revert, v. t.

ly or in part, towards some preëxistent form; to take on the traits or characters of an ancestral type.

A journey, or stage of a journey. [Obs.] With easy roads he came to Leicester. Shak.

An ancestor or progenitor; and hence, an early race; a stem. They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people. Locke.

gnorant; raw; unskillful; -- said of persons, or of conduct, skill, and the like. "Mine ancestors were rude." Chaucer. He was but rude in the profession of arms. Sir H. Wotton. the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. Gray.

A kind of coarse, heavy frieze, formerly used for garments. They spin the choicest rug in Ireland. A friend of mine . . . repaired to Paris Garden clad in one of these Waterford rugs. The mastiffs, . . . deeming he had been a bear, would fain have baited him. Holinshed.

Of or pertaining to Sarmatia, or its inhabitants, the ancestors of the Russians und the Poles.

silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen one fifth in value. Locke. The scarcest of all is a Pescennius Niger on a medallion well preserved. Addison.