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3d sing. pres. of Abide. [Obs.] Chaucer.

ing a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation; as, get, gat, got; sing, song; hang, hung. Earle.

An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.

The act of washing or cleansing; specifically, the washing of the body, or some part of it, as a religious rite.

Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable.

Causing abortion; as, abortive medicines. Parr.

numbers. Men abounding in natural courage. Macaulay. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. Prov. xxviii. 20. It abounds with cabinets of curiosities. Addison.

Figuratively, higher than; superior to in any respect; surpassing; beyond; higher in measure or degree than; as, things above comprehension; above mean actions; conduct above reproach. "Thy worth . . . is actions above my gifts." Marlowe. I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. Acts xxxvi.…

A group of annelids, so called because the species composing it have no special organs of respiration.

To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.

Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied; as, an absent air. What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man. Chesterfield.

Swallowing, engrossing; as, an absorbing pursuit. -- Ab*sorb"ing, adv.

. Etym: [L., without this.] (Law) The technical words of denial used in traversing what has been alleged, and is repeated.

A substance used in cleansing; a detergent; as, soap is an abstergent.

Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging. The task of ablution and abstersion being performed. Sir W. Scott.

Cleansing; purging. Bacon.

Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; -- opposed to Ant: concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word. J. S. Mill.

[Obs.] Or is it some abuse, and no such thing Shak. Abuse of distress (Law), a wrongful using of an animal or chattel distrained, by the distrainer.

Given to misusing; also, full of abuses. [Archaic] "The abusive prerogatives of his see." Hallam.

to accelerate our departure. Accelerated motion (Mech.), motion with a continually increasing velocity. -- Accelerating force, the force which causes accelerated motion. Nichol.