n. Opposition to, or hatred of, Semites, esp. Jews. The word is sometimes also applied to acts motivated by or evincing antisemitism. -- An`ti-Sem"ite n. -- An`ti-Sem*it"ic a. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

‖n. pl. [ L. ] (Rom. Antiq.) A public assembly of the Roman people for electing officers or passing laws. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ There were three kinds of comitia: comitia curiata, or assembly of the patricians, who voted in curiæ; comitia centuriata, or assembly of the whole Roman people, who voted by centuries; and comitia tributa, or assembly of the plebeians according to their division into tribes. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. comitialis. ] Relating to the comitia, or popular assemblies of the Romans for electing officers and passing laws. Middleton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ It. ] A body of followers; -- applied to the lawless or brigand bands in Italy and Sicily. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Tending or liable to contaminate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Fine Arts) (a) That part of a painting, engraving, or the like, which is neither in full darkness nor full light. (b) The shade itself; neither the darkest nor the lightest in a composition. Also called half tint. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to dolomite. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. dormitif, fr. dormire to sleep. ] Causing sleep; as, the dormitive properties of opium. Clarke. -- n. (Med.) A medicine to promote sleep; a soporific; an opiate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Destroying by dynamite, for political ends. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dynamiting is not the American way. The Century. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The work of dynamiters. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. See Epididymis, and -itis. ] (Med.) Inflammation of the epididymis, one of the common results of gonorrhea. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Of or pertaining to an eremite; hermitical; living in solitude. “An eremitical life in the woods.” Fuller. “The eremitic instinct.” Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Eremitic. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of a hermit; a living in seclusion from social life. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of vomiting. [ Obs. ] Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to Ham or his descendants. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hamitic languages, the group of languages spoken mainly in the Sahara, Egypt, Galla, and Somâli Land, and supposed to be allied to the Semitic. Keith Johnston. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to a hermit; solitary; secluded from society. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or suited for, a hermit. Coventry. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Relating to the patriarch Abraham. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. immitigabilis; fr. pref. im- not + mitigare to mitigate. ] Not capable of being mitigated, softened, or appeased. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an immitigable manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to Islam; Islamic; Muslim. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Involving a limit; as, a limitive law, one designed to limit existing powers. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A natural family comprising primitive termites.
Syn. -- family Mastotermitidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Admitting of mitigation; that may be mitigated. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. mitigans, p. pr. of mitigare. See Mitigate. ] Tending to mitigate; mitigating; lenitive. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Mitigated p. pr. & vb. n. Mitigating. ] [ L. mitigatus, p. p. of mitigare to soften, mitigate; mitis mild, soft + the root of agere to do, drive. ] 1. To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make mild and accessible; to mollify; -- applied to persons. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

This opinion . . . mitigated kings into companions. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To alleviate; assuage; allay. See Alleviate. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. made less severe or intense. unmitigated [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. serving to reduce blame; -- of situations; as, mitigating factors; mitigating circumstances. Opposite of aggravating. [ Narrower terms: exculpatory ]
Syn. -- extenuating. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. [ OE. mitigacioun, F. mitigation, fr. L. mitigatio. ] The act of mitigating, or the state of being mitigated; abatement or diminution of anything painful, harsh, severe, afflictive, or calamitous; as, the mitigation of pain, grief, rigor, severity, punishment, or penalty. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Alleviation; abatement; relief. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. mitigativus: cf. F. mitigatif. ] Tending to mitigate; alleviating. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, mitigates. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to mitigate or alleviate; mitigative. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Mite. ] A little one; -- used as a term of endearment. [ Obs. ] Skelton. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Perh. fr. L. mitis mild. ] A process, invented by P. Ostberg, for producing malleable iron castings by melting wrought iron, to which from 0.05 to 0.1 per cent of aluminum is added to lower the melting point, usually in a petroleum furnace, keeping the molten metal at the bubbling point until it becomes quiet, and then pouring the molten metal into a mold lined with a special mixture consisting essentially of molasses and ground burnt fire clay; also, a casting made by this process; -- called also wrought-iron casting. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. The malleable iron produced by mitis casting; -- called also simply mitis. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ L. obdormire to fall asleep. ] Sleep. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Med.) severe conjunctivitis; ophthalmia.
Syn. -- ophthalmia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. (Physiol. Chem.) Pertaining to, or obtained from, palmitin or palm oil; as, palmitic acid (C16H32O2), a white crystalline substance belonging to the fatty acid series. It is readily soluble in hot alcohol, and melts to a liquid oil at 62° C. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called because abundant in palm oil. ] (Physiol. Chem.) A solid crystallizable fat, found abundantly in animals and in vegetables. It occurs mixed with stearin and olein in the fat of animal tissues, with olein and butyrin in butter, with olein in olive oil, etc. Chemically, it is a glyceride of palmitic acid, three molecules of palmitic acid being united to one molecule of glyceryl, and hence it is technically called tripalmitin, or glyceryl tripalmitate. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Existing or occurring before Adam; preadamic; as, preadamitic periods. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Primitiæ Primitias obs.). [ L. primitiae, pl., fr. primus first. Cf. Premices. ] (Eng. Law) The first fruit; the first year's whole profit of an ecclesiastical preferment. [ 1913 Webster ]

The primitias of your parsonage. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Being of the first production; primitive; original. [ Obs. ] Ainsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An original or primary word; a word not derived from another; -- opposed to derivative. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. primitivus, fr. primus the first: cf. F. primitif. See Prime, a. ] 1. Of or pertaining to the beginning or origin, or to early times; original; primordial; primeval; first; as, primitive innocence; the primitive church. “Our primitive great sire.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of or pertaining to a former time; old-fashioned; characterized by simplicity; as, a primitive style of dress. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as, primitive verb in grammar. [ 1913 Webster ]

Primitive axes of coordinate (Geom.), that system of axes to which the points of a magnitude are first referred, with reference to a second set or system, to which they are afterward referred. --
Primitive chord (Mus.), that chord, the lowest note of which is of the same literal denomination as the fundamental base of the harmony; -- opposed to derivative. Moore (Encyc. of Music). --
Primitive circle (Spherical Projection), the circle cut from the sphere to be projected, by the primitive plane. --
Primitive colors (Paint.), primary colors. See under Color. --
Primitive Fathers (Eccl.), the acknowledged Christian writers who flourished before the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. Shipley. --
Primitive groove (Anat.), a depression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, which appears later and in front of it. --
Primitive plane (Spherical Projection), the plane upon which the projections are made, generally coinciding with some principal circle of the sphere, as the equator or a meridian. --
Primitive rocks (Geol.), primary rocks. See under Primary. --
Primitive sheath. (Anat.) See Neurilemma. --
Primitive streak or
Primitive trace (Anat.), an opaque and thickened band where the mesoblast first appears in the vertebrate blastoderm. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- First; original; radical; pristine; ancient; primeval; antiquated; old-fashioned. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. Originally; at first. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Primarily; not derivatively. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. According to the original rule or ancient practice; in the ancient style. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of being primitive; conformity to primitive style or practice. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to Shem or his descendants; belonging to that division of the Caucasian race which includes the Arabs, Jews, and related races. [ Written also Shemitic. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Semitic language, a name used to designate a group of Asiatic and African languages, some living and some dead, namely: Hebrew and Phœnician, Aramaic, Assyrian, Arabic, Ethiopic (Geez and Ampharic). Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A Semitic idiom; a word of Semitic origin. [ Written also Shemitism. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Of or pertaining to Shem, the son of Noah, or his descendants. See Semitic. [ 1913 Webster ]