n. An insoluble solid alcohol (C12H25OH) with an unbranched paraffin chain, used to make detergents, such as sodium lauryl sulfate.
Syn. -- lauryl alcohol [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

a. [ From Abdera, a town in Thrace, of which place Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher, was a native. ] Given to laughter; inclined to foolish or incessant merriment. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. Abderita, Abderites, fr. Gr. 'Abdhri`ths. ] An inhabitant of Abdera, in Thrace. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Abderite, Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Per. ābdast; ab water + dast hand. ] Purification by washing the hands before prayer; -- a Muslim rite. Heyse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The European siskin (Carduelis spinus), a small green and yellow finch, related to the goldfinch. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Abode formerly Abid p. pr. & vb. n. Abiding ] [ AS. ābīdan; pref. ā- (cf. Goth. us-, G. er-, orig. meaning out) + bīdan to bide. See Bide. ] 1. To wait; to pause; to delay. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To stay; to continue in a place; to have one's abode; to dwell; to sojourn; -- with with before a person, and commonly with at or in before a place. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let the damsel abide with us a few days. Gen. xxiv. 55. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To remain stable or fixed in some state or condition; to continue; to remain. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let every man abide in the same calling. 1 Cor. vii. 20. [ 1913 Webster ]

Followed by by:
To abide by. (a) To stand to; to adhere; to maintain. [ 1913 Webster ] The poor fellow was obstinate enough to abide by what he said at first. Fielding. [ 1913 Webster ] (b) To acquiesce; to conform to; as, to abide by a decision or an award. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To wait for; to be prepared for; to await; to watch for; as, I abide my time. “I will abide the coming of my lord.” Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ [ Obs. ], with a personal object. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bonds and afflictions abide me. Acts xx. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To endure; to sustain; to submit to. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Thou ] shalt abide her judgment on it. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To bear patiently; to tolerate; to put up with. [ 1913 Webster ]

She could not abide Master Shallow. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. [ Confused with aby to pay for. See Aby. ] To stand the consequences of; to answer for; to suffer for. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dearly I abide that boast so vain. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who abides, or continues. [ Obs. ] “Speedy goers and strong abiders.” Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who dwells; a resident. Speed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having much intellectual power. -- A`ble-mind"ed*ness, n. [1913 Webster]

v. t. [ L. abludere; ab + ludere to play. ] To be unlike; to differ. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

pret. of Abide. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To bode; to foreshow. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be ominous. [ Obs. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide. ] 1. Act of waiting; delay. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

And with her fled away without abode. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Stay or continuance in a place; sojourn. [ 1913 Webster ]

He waxeth at your abode here. Fielding. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Place of continuance, or where one dwells; abiding place; residence; a dwelling; a habitation. [ 1913 Webster ]

Come, let me lead you to our poor abode. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Bode, v. t. ] An omen. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

High-thundering Juno's husband stirs my spirit with true abodes. Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A foreboding; an omen. [ Obs. ] “Abodements must not now affright us.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abortus + caedere to kill. See Abort. ] (Med.) The act of destroying a fetus in the womb; feticide. [ archaic ] AS [ 1913 Webster ]

n. same as abortionist. [ PJC ]

a. On deck; and hence, like aboveboard, without artifice. Smart. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Abraded; p. pr. & vb. n. Abrading. ] [ L. abradere, abrasum, to scrape off; ab + radere to scrape. See Rase, Raze. ] To rub or wear off; to waste or wear away by friction; as, to abrade rocks. Lyell. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. Same as Abraid. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Fugitive concealment; secret retirement; hiding. [ R. ] Phillips. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who absconds. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Absent in mind; abstracted; preoccupied. -- Ab`sent-mind"ed*ness, n. -- Ab`sent-mind"ed*ly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. abstrudere. See Abstruse. ] To thrust away. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. a genus comprising the damsel fishes.
Syn. -- genus Abudefduf. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. academia. See Academy. ] An academy. [ Poetic ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Academic. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A member of an academy, university, or college. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist. Hume. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. academicus: cf. F. académigue. See Academy. ] 1. Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the Academic sect or philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific. “Academic courses.” Warburton. “Academical study.” Berkeley. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an academical manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. The articles of dress prescribed and worn at some colleges and universities. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. académicien. See Academy. ] 1. A member of an academy, or society for promoting science, art, or literature, as of the French Academy, or the Royal Academy of arts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A collegian. [ R. ] Chesterfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. the position or state of being a member of an honorary academy. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A tenet of the Academic philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The doctrines of the Academic philosophy. [ Obs. ] Baxter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. academiste. ] 1. An Academic philosopher. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An academician. [ Obs. ] Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Academies [ F. académie, L. academia. Cf. Academe. ] 1. A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A place of training; a school. “Academies of fanaticism.” Hume. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A society of learned men united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science; as, the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A school or place of training in which some special art is taught; as, the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music. [ 1913 Webster ]

Academy figure (Paint.), a drawing usually half life-size, in crayon or pencil, after a nude model. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Acceded; p. pr. & vb. n. Acceding. ] [ L. accedere to approach, accede; ad + cedere to move, yield: cf. F. accédere. See Cede. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To approach; to come forward; -- opposed to recede. [ Obs. ] T. Gale. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To enter upon an office or dignity; to attain. [ 1913 Webster ]

Edward IV., who had acceded to the throne in the year 1461. T. Warton. [ 1913 Webster ]

If Frederick had acceded to the supreme power. Morley. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To become a party by associating one's self with others; to give one's adhesion. Hence, to agree or assent to a proposal or a view; as, he acceded to my request. [ 1913 Webster ]

The treaty of Hanover in 1725 . . . to which the Dutch afterwards acceded. Chesterfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To agree; assent; consent; comply; acquiesce; concur. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of acceding. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who accedes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ A corruption of Eng. accidents, pl. of accident. See Accident, 2. ] 1. The accidents, of inflections of words; the rudiments of grammar. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The rudiments of any subject. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. accident, fr. L. accidens, -dentis, p. pr. of accidere to happen; ad + cadere to fall. See Cadence, Case. ] 1. Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of moving accidents by flood and field. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident:
It is the very place God meant for thee. Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Gram.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Her.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident. [ 1913 Webster ]

This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea. J. P. Mahaffy. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Unusual appearance or effect. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Accident, in Law, is equivalent to casus, or such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally. [ 1913 Webster ]

He conceived it just that accidentals . . . should sink with the substance of the accusation. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. (Paint.) Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mus.) A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. accidentel, earlier accidental. ] 1. Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; casual; fortuitous; as, an accidental visit. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Nonessential; not necessary belonging; incidental; as, are accidental to a play. [ 1913 Webster ]

Accidental chords (Mus.), those which contain one or more tones foreign to their proper harmony. --
Accidental colors (Opt.), colors depending on the hypersensibility of the retina of the eye for complementary colors. They are purely subjective sensations of color which often result from the contemplation of actually colored bodies. --
Accidental point (Persp.), the point in which a right line, drawn from the eye, parallel to a given right line, cuts the perspective plane; so called to distinguish it from the principal point, or point of view, where a line drawn from the eye perpendicular to the perspective plane meets this plane. --
Accidental lights (Paint.), secondary lights; effects of light other than ordinary daylight, such as the rays of the sun darting through a cloud, or between the leaves of trees; the effect of moonlight, candlelight, or burning bodies. Fairholt. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Casual; fortuitous; contingent; occasional; adventitious. -- Accidental, Incidental, Casual, Fortuitous, Contingent. We speak of a thing as accidental when it falls out as by chance, and not in the regular course of things; as, an accidental meeting, an accidental advantage, etc. We call a thing incidental when it falls, as it were, into some regular course of things, but is secondary, and forms no essential part thereof; as, an incremental remark, an incidental evil, an incidental benefit. We speak of a thing as casual, when it falls out or happens, as it were, by mere chance, without being prearranged or premeditated; as, a casual remark or encounter; a casual observer. An idea of the unimportant is attached to what is casual. Fortuitous is applied to what occurs without any known cause, and in opposition to what has been foreseen; as, a fortuitous concourse of atoms. We call a thing contingent when it is such that, considered in itself, it may or may not happen, but is dependent for its existence on something else; as, the time of my coming will be contingent on intelligence yet to be received. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Accidental character or effect. Ruskin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being accidental; accidentalness. [ R. ] Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an accidental manner; unexpectedly; by chance; unintentionally; casually; fortuitously; not essentially. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being accidental; casualness. [ 1913 Webster ]