n. [ Cf. F. abandonnement. ] 1. The act of abandoning, or the state of being abandoned; total desertion; relinquishment. [ 1913 Webster ]

The abandonment of the independence of Europe. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mar. Law) The relinquishment by the insured to the underwriters of what may remain of the property insured after a loss or damage by a peril insured against. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Com. Law) (a) The relinquishment of a right, claim, or privilege, as to mill site, etc. (b) The voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a special relation, as a wife, husband, or child; desertion. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Careless freedom or ease; abandon. [ R. ] Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. f. adjournement, OF. ajornement. See Adjourn. ] 1. The act of adjourning; the putting off till another day or time specified, or without day. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The time or interval during which a public body adjourns its sittings or postpones business. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. adornement. See Adorn. ] An adorning; an ornament; a decoration. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. alignement. ] 1. The act of adjusting to a line; arrangement in a line or lines; the state of being so adjusted; a formation in a straight line; also, the line of adjustment; esp., an imaginary line to regulate the formation of troops or of a squadron. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Engin.) The ground-plan of a railway or other road, in distinction from the grades or profile. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Alignment. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. That which appertains to a person; an appurtenance. [ Obs. or R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. apportionnement, LL. apportionamentum. ] The act of apportioning; a dividing into just proportions or shares; a division or shares; a division and assignment, to each proprietor, of his just portion of an undivided right or property. A. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. arraynement, aresnement. ] 1. (Law) The act of arraigning, or the state of being arraigned; the act of calling and setting a prisoner before a court to answer to an indictment or complaint. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A calling to an account to faults; accusation. [ 1913 Webster ]

In the sixth satire, which seems only an Arraignment of the whole sex, there is a latent admonition. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of ascertaining; a reducing to certainty; a finding out by investigation; discovery. [ 1913 Webster ]

The positive ascertainment of its limits. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. assignamentum: cf. OF. assenement. ] 1. An allotting or an appointment to a particular person or use; or for a particular time, as of a cause or causes in court. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) (a) A transfer of title or interest by writing, as of lease, bond, note, or bill of exchange; a transfer of the whole of some particular estate or interest in lands. (b) The writing by which an interest is transferred. (c) The transfer of the property of a bankrupt to certain persons called assignees, in whom it is vested for the benefit of creditors. [ 1913 Webster ]

Assignment of dower, the setting out by metes and bounds of the widow's thirds or portion in the deceased husband's estate, and allotting it to her. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Assignment is also used in law as convertible with specification; assignment of error in proceedings for review being specification of error; and assignment of perjury or fraud in indictment being specifications of perjury or fraud. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of attaining; the act of arriving at or reaching; hence, the act of obtaining by efforts. [ 1913 Webster ]

The attainment of every desired object. Sir W. Jones. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is attained to, or obtained by exertion; acquirement; acquisition; (pl.), mental acquirements; knowledge; as, literary and scientific attainments. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. attornement, LL. attornamentum. See Attorn. ] (Law) The act of a feudatory, vassal, or tenant, by which he consents, upon the alienation of an estate, to receive a new lord or superior, and transfers to him his homage and service; the agreement of a tenant to acknowledge the purchaser of the estate as his landlord. Burrill. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An awakening. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. That which bedizens; the act of dressing, or the state of being dressed, tawdrily. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of blazoning; blazoning; emblazonment. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Bonsmots [ F. bon good + mot word. ] A witty repartee; a jest. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A disk of bone, wood, or other material, which is made into a button by covering it with cloth. [ Written also buttonmould. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Fossil buttonmolds, joints of encrinites. See Encrinite. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. cantonnement. ] A town or village, or part of a town or village, assigned to a body of troops for quarters; temporary shelter or place of rest for an army; quarters. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ When troops are sheltered in huts or quartered in the houses of the people during any suspension of hostilities, they are said to be in cantonment, or to be cantoned. In India, permanent military stations, or military towns, are termed cantonments. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of consigning; consignation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Com.) The act of consigning or sending property to an agent or correspondent in another place, as for care, sale, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Com.) That which is consigned; the goods or commodities sent or addressed to a consignee at one time or by one conveyance. [ 1913 Webster ]

To increase your consignments of this valuable branch of national commerce. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The writing by which anything is consigned. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. That which is contained; the extent; the substance. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The containment of a rich man's estate. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. the act of containing. [ PJC ]

3. (Diplomacy) the act or policy of restricting the influence or territorial growth of a hostile nation. The policy of containment is employed when the defeat of a hostile nation or overthrow of its government is considered impractical or too costly. [ PJC ]

4. the act of restricting some deleterious substance within a confined space, especially when such material is released unintentionally or by accident; as, containment of nuclear waste; containment of an oil spill. Also used attributively, as a containment boom. [ PJC ]

5. a structure surrounding a nuclear power plant designed to prevent release of radioactive materials into the environment in the event of an accident. [ PJC ]

n. A cornemuse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. venomous semiaquatic snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus) of swamps in southern U.S.; -- called also water moccasin, cottonmouth moccasin, and cottonmouth water moccasin. It grows to a length of about 4 feet. The name refers to the whiteness of the lips and inside of the mouth.
Syn. -- water moccasin, cottonmouth moccasin, Agkistrodon piscivorus. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

{ or }, n. 1. In Scott's “Guy Mannering”, a Border farmer of eccentric but fine character, who owns two terriers claimed to be the progenitors of the Dandie Dinmont terriers. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. One of a breed of terriers with short legs, long body, and rough coat, originating in the country about the English and Scotch border. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

See under Satin. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ See Darraign. ] 1. The act of deraigning. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The renunciation of religious or monastic vows. [ Obs. ] Blount. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Delineation; sketch; design; ideal; invention. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

For though that some mean artist's skill were shown
In mingling colors, or in placing light,
Yet still the fair designment was his own. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Design; purpose; scheme. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. detenement. ] Detention. [ R. ] Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A wether sheep between one and two years old. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. discernement. ] 1. The act of discerning. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The power or faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes one thing from another; power of viewing differences in objects, and their relations and tendencies; penetrative and discriminate mental vision; acuteness; sagacity; insight; as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment.

Syn. -- Judgment; acuteness; discrimination; penetration; sagacity; insight. -- Discernment, Penetration, Discrimination. Discernment is keenness and accuracy of mental vision; penetration is the power of seeing deeply into a subject in spite of everything that intercepts the view; discrimination is a capacity of tracing out minute distinctions and the nicest shades of thought. A discerning man is not easily misled; one of a penetrating mind sees a multitude of things which escape others; a discriminating judgment detects the slightest differences. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Discouragement; dejection; depression of spirits. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of freeing from an illusion, or the state of being freed therefrom. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Act of disowning. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Most eastern. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. See Octodecimo. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. éloignement. ] Removal to a distance; withdrawal. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Eloignment. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An emblazoning. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. empoisonnement. ] The act of poisoning. Bacon.

n. [ Cf. F. enchaînement. ] The act of enchaining, or state of being enchained. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Direction; command; authoritative admonition. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. same as Aufklärung. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖a. [ F.; pref. en- (L. in) + manche sleeve. ] (Her.) Resembling, or covered with, a sleeve; -- said of the chief when lines are drawn from the middle point of the upper edge upper edge to the sides. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. en- + marble. ] To make hard as marble; to harden. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. en- + mesh. Cf. Inmesh. ] To catch or entangle in, or as in, meshes. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

My doubts enmesh me if I try. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. See Emmew. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To infold, as in a mist. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Enmities [ OE. enemyte, fr. enemy: cf. F. inimitié, OF. enemistié. See Enemy, and cf. Amity. ] 1. The quality of being an enemy; hostile or unfriendly disposition. [ 1913 Webster ]

No ground of enmity between us known. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A state of opposition; hostility. [ 1913 Webster ]

The friendship of the world is enmity with God. James iv. 4.

Syn. -- Rancor; hostility; hatred; aversion; antipathy; repugnance; animosity; ill will; malice; malevolence. See Animosity, Rancor. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. en- + moss. ] Covered with moss; mossed. Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. See Emmove. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To muffle up. [ 1913 Webster ]