Search the Dictionary

Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely; as, an affair of honor, i. e., a duel; an affair of love, i. e., an intrigue.

Inclined; disposed; attached. How stand you affected his wish Shak.

, or of languages. There is a close affinity between imposture and credulity. Sir G. C. Lewis.

Wisdom or perception that comes after it can be of use. "After- wit comes too late when the mischief is done." L'Estrange.

A soft, compact stone, of a grayish, greenish, or yellowish color, carved into images by the Chinese, and hence called figure stone, and pagodite. It is probably a variety of pinite.

rpose of cooling, refreshing, or purifying; to ventilate; as, to air a room. It were good wisdom . . . that the jail were aired. Bacon. Were you but riding forth to air yourself. Shak.

Of all; -- used in composition; as, alderbest, best of all, alderwisest, wisest of all. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The salt of wisdom of the alchemists, a double salt composed of the chlorides of ammonium and mercury. It was formerly used as a stimulant. Brande & C.

At full length; lenghtwise. Chaucer.

Otherwise; otherwise called; -- a term used in legal proceedings to connect the different names of any one who has gone by two or more, and whose true name is for any cause doubtful; as, Smith, alias Simpson.

A kind of light armor used in the sixteenth century, esp. by the Swiss. Fairholt.

By the length; in a line with the length; lengthwise. Some laid along . . . on spokes of wheels are hung. Dryden.

rved wooden horn about three feet long, with a cupped mouthpiece and a bell, used by the Swiss to sound the ranz des vaches and other melodies. Its notes are open harmonics of the tube.

Of or relating to Alphonso X., the Wise, King of Castile (1252- 1284). Alphonsine tables, astronomical tables prepared under the patronage of Alphonso the Wise. Whewell.

In like manner; likewise. [Obs.]

To make otherwise; to change in some respect, either partially or wholly; to vary; to modify. "To alter the king's course." "To alter the condition of a man." "No power in Venice can alter a decree." Shak. It gilds all objects, but it alters none. Pope. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out…

The state or quality of being other; a being otherwise. [R.] For outness is but the feeling of otherness (alterity) rendered intuitive, or alterity visually represented. Coleridge.

hange regularly. The most high God, in all things appertaining unto this life, for sundry wise ends alternates the disposition of good and evil. Grew.

he thing offered in place of another. If this demand is refused the alternative is war. Lewis. With no alternative but death. Longfellow.

To steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum. Ure.