Search the Dictionary

Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

16 words match “APTNESS”

APTNESS n. 4 definitions

Fitness; suitableness; appropriateness; as, the aptness of things to their end. The aptness of his quotations. J. R. Green.

Adaptedness. [R.]

Readiness in learning; docility; aptness. He was a boy of remarkable aptitude. Macaulay.

Aptness to break; fragility.

DECEPTIVENESS n.

The power or habit of deceiving; tendency or aptness to deceive.

DOCIBILITY; DOCIBLENESS n.

Aptness for being taught; teachableness; docility. To persons of docibility, the real character may be easily taught in a few days. Boyle. The docibleness of dogs in general. Walton.

teachableness; aptness for being taught; docibleness. [Obs. or R.]

he figure of an object, symbolizing and suggesting another object, or an idea, by natural aptness or by association; a figurative representation; a typical designation; a symbol; as, a balance is an emblem of justice; a scepter, the emblem of sovereignty or power; a circle, the emblem of eternity. "His cicatrice, an em…

Aptness to unite; conformity; affinity; harmony; correspondence. [Obs.] Those colors . . . have a friendship with each other. Dryden.

ot (Zoöl.), a parrot (Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. -- Gray pike. (Zoöl.) See Sauger. -- Gray snapper (Zoöl.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper. -- Gray snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. -- Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large…

Unsuitableness; unaptness; unfitness; inability. [Obs.] Barrow.

KNACK n. 2 definitions

A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something; skill; facility; dexterity. The fellow . . . has not the knack with his shears. B. Jonson. The dean was famous in his time, And had a kind of knack at rhyme. Swift.

The quality or state of being passible; aptness to feel or suffer; sensibility. Hakewill.

Of or pertaining to potters. Pottern ore, a species of ore which, from its aptness to vitrify like the glazing of potter's wares, the miners call by this name. Boyle.

STARTFULNESS n.

Aptness to start. [R.]

he quality or state of being testy; fretfulness; petulance. Testiness is a disposition or aptness to be angry. Locke.