Search the Dictionary

To startle from quiet; to alarm. Smale foules a great heap That had afrayed [affrayed] me out of my sleep. Chaucer.

Moving; passing from place to place; in general circulation; as, a rumor is afloat.

Afore the mast, among the common sailors; -- a phrase used to distinguish the ship's crew from the officers.

Of or pertaining to Africa. African hemp, a fiber prerared from the leaves of the Sanseviera Guineensis, a plant found in Africa and India. -- African marigold, a tropical American plant (Tagetes erecta). -- African oak or African teak, a timber furnished by Oldfieldia Africana, used in ship building. African violet…

Moving toward from behind; following, in search of; in pursuit of. Ye shall not go after other gods. Deut. vi. 14. After whom is the king of Israel come out 1 Sam. xxiv. 14.

One of the small notes occur on the unaccented parts of the measure, taking their time from the preceding note.

From an opposite direction so as to strike or come in contact with; in contact with; upon; as, hail beats against the roof.

A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; -- so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.

e chief species is the maguey or century plant (A. Americana), wrongly called Aloe. It is from ten to seventy years, according to climate, in attaining maturity, when it produces a gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and perishes. The fermented juice is the pulque of the Mexicans; distilled, it yields…

A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others; as, the golden age, the age of Pericles. "The spirit of the age." Prescott. Truth, in some age or other, will find her witness. Milton. Archeological ages are designated as three: The Stone age (the early and the later stone age, called paleolithic a…

One who acts for, or in the place of, another, by authority from him; one intrusted with the business of another; a substitute; a deputy; a factor.

A mass of angular volcanic fragments united by heat; -- distinguished from conglomerate.

several florets within a common involucre, as in the daisy; or of several carpels formed from one flower, as in the raspberry.

struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror. Aghast he waked; and, starting from his bed, Cold sweat in clammy drops his limbs o'erspread. Dryden. The commissioners read and stood aghast. Macaulay.

Related or akin by the father's side; also, sprung from the same male ancestor.

Consanguinity by a line of males only, as distinguished from cognation. Bouvier.

A cake of wax stamped with such a figure. It is made from the remains of the paschal candles and blessed by the Pope.

a spell or charm against ague. Gay. -- Ague tree, the sassafras, -- sometimes so called from the use of its root formerly, in cases of ague. [Obs.]

aid. Aid prayer (Law), a proceeding by which a defendant beseeches and claims assistance from some one who has a further or more permanent interest in the matter in suit. -- To pray in aid, to beseech and claim such assistance.

A plant deriving its sustenance from the air alone; an aërophyte.