a. [ L. absurdus harsh-sounding; ab + (prob) a derivative fr. a root svar to sound; not connected with surd: cf. F. absurde. See Syringe. ] Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and flatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; as, an absurd person, an absurd opinion; an absurd dream. [ 1913 Webster ]

This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

'This phrase absurd to call a villain great. Pope. p. 9 [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Foolish; irrational; ridiculous; preposterous; inconsistent; incongruous. -- Absurd, Irrational, Foolish, Preposterous. Of these terms, irrational is the weakest, denoting that which is plainly inconsistent with the dictates of sound reason; as, an irrational course of life. Foolish rises higher, and implies either a perversion of that faculty, or an absolute weakness or fatuity of mind; as, foolish enterprises. Absurd rises still higher, denoting that which is plainly opposed to received notions of propriety and truth; as, an absurd man, project, opinion, story, argument, etc. Preposterous rises still higher, and supposes an absolute inversion in the order of things; or, in plain terms, a “putting of the cart before the horse;” as, a preposterous suggestion, preposterous conduct, a preposterous regulation or law. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An absurdity. [ Obs. ] Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Absurdities [ L. absurditas: cf. F. absurdite. ] 1. The quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment. “The absurdity of the actual idea of an infinite number.” Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is absurd; an absurd action; a logical contradiction. [ 1913 Webster ]

His travels were full of absurdities. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an absurd manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Absurdity. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. acus needle + premere, pressum, to press. ] (Surg.) A mode of arresting hemorrhage resulting from wounds or surgical operations, by passing under the divided vessel a needle, the ends of which are left exposed externally on the cutaneous surface. Simpson. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ . } (Aëronautics) A small plane or surface, usually capable of adjustment but not of manipulation, for preserving lateral balance in an aëroplane or flying machine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ Cf. OF. amesurer, LL. admensurare. See Measure. ] 1. To measure. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) To determine the proper share of, or the proper apportionment; as, to admeasure dower; to admeasure common of pasture. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The measure of a thing; dimensions; size. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) Formerly, the adjustment of proportion, or ascertainment of shares, as of dower or pasture held in common. This was by writ of admeasurement, directed to the sheriff. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who admeasures. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. admensuratio; L. ad + mensurare to measure. See Mensuration. ] Same as Admeasurement. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Aëronautics) The first of two or more surfaces arranged in tandem; -- contr. with following surface, which is the rear surface. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Pref. arch- + treasurer. ] A chief treasurer. Specifically, the great treasurer of the German empire. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. an ancient Assyrian city. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. assuraunce, F. assurance, fr. assurer. See Assure. ] 1. The act of assuring; a declaration tending to inspire full confidence; that which is designed to give confidence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts xvii. 31. [ 1913 Webster ]

Assurances of support came pouring in daily. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being assured; firm persuasion; full confidence or trust; freedom from doubt; certainty. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let us draw with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Heb. x. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Firmness of mind; undoubting, steadiness; intrepidity; courage; confidence; self-reliance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Brave men meet danger with assurance. Knolles. [ 1913 Webster ]

Conversation with the world will give them knowledge and assurance. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Excess of boldness; impudence; audacity; as, his assurance is intolerable. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Betrothal; affiance. [ Obs. ] Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Recently, assurance has been used, in England, in relation to life contingencies, and insurance in relation to other contingencies. It is called temporary assurance, in the time within which the contingent event must happen is limited. See Insurance. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Law) Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In England, the legal evidences of the conveyance of property are called the common assurances of the kingdom. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Assured p. pr. & vb. n. Assuring. ] [ OF. aseürer, F. assurer, LL. assecurare; L. ad + securus secure, sure, certain. See Secure, Sure, and cf. Insure. ] 1. To make sure or certain; to render confident by a promise, declaration, or other evidence. [ 1913 Webster ]

His promise that thy seed shall bruise our foe . . .
Assures me that the bitterness of death
Is past, and we shall live. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To declare to, solemnly; to assert to (any one) with the design of inspiring belief or confidence. [ 1913 Webster ]

I dare assure thee that no enemy
Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To confirm; to make certain or secure. [ 1913 Webster ]

And it shall be assured to him. Lev. xxvii. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 1 John iii. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To affiance; to betroth. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Law) To insure; to covenant to indemnify for loss, or to pay a specified sum at death. See Insure. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To declare; aver; avouch; vouch; assert; asseverate; protest; persuade; convince. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Made sure; safe; insured; certain; indubitable; not doubting; bold to excess. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One whose life or property is insured. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Certainly; indubitably. “The siege assuredly I'll raise.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being assured; certainty; full confidence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who assures. Specifically: One who insures against loss; an insurer or underwriter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who takes out a life assurance policy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Act of rising. [ 1913 Webster ]

The . . . assurgency of the spirit through the body. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. assurgens, p. pr. of assurgere; ad + surgere to rise. ] Ascending; (Bot.) rising obliquely; curving upward. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That assures; tending to assure; giving confidence. -- As*sur"ing*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

‖n. (Hind. Myth.) An enemy of the gods, esp. one of a race of demons and giants. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. ] 1. (Fort.) Any part of a rampart or parapet which deviates from the general direction. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Her.) A mark of cadency or difference. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. E. caesuras L. Cæsuræ /plu> [ L. caesura a cutting off, a division, stop, fr. caedere, caesum, to cut off. See Concise. ] A metrical break in a verse, occurring in the middle of a foot and commonly near the middle of the verse; a sense pause in the middle of a foot. Also, a long syllable on which the cæsural accent rests, or which is used as a foot. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the following line the cæsura is between study and of. [ 1913 Webster ] The prop | er stud | y ‖ of | mankind | is man. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. a pause or interruption (as in a conversation); as, after an ominous caesura the preacher continued. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Of or pertaining to a cæsura. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cæsural pause, a pause made at a cæsura. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Deserving of censure; blamable; culpable; reprehensible; as, a censurable person, or censurable conduct.

-- Cen"sur*a*bleness, n. -- Cen"sur*a*bly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. censura fr. censere: cf. F. censure. Cf. Censor. ] 1. Judgment either favorable or unfavorable; opinion. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of blaming or finding fault with and condemning as wrong; reprehension; blame. [ 1913 Webster ]

Both the censure and the praise were merited. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Judicial or ecclesiastical sentence or reprimand; condemnatory judgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Excommunication or other censure of the church. Bp. Burnet.

Syn. -- Blame; reproof; condemnation; reprobation; disapproval; disapprobation; reprehension; animadversion; reprimand; reflection; dispraise; abuse. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Censured p. pr. & vb. n. Censuring. ] [ Cf. F. ensurer. ] 1. To form or express a judgment in regard to; to estimate; to judge. [ Obs. ] “Should I say more, you might well censure me a flatterer.” Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To find fault with and condemn as wrong; to blame; to express disapprobation of. [ 1913 Webster ]

I may be censured that nature thus gives way to loyalty. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To condemn or reprimand by a judicial or ecclesiastical sentence. Shak.

Syn. -- To blame; reprove; rebuke; condemn; reprehend; reprimand. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To judge. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who censures. Sha. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Cæsura. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Cæsural. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] A foot covering of any kind. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. clausura. See Closure. ] The act of shutting up or confining; confinement. [ R. ] Geddes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Of. closure, L. clausura, fr. clauedere to shut. See Close, v. t. ] 1. The act of shutting; a closing; as, the closure of a chink. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which closes or shuts; that by which separate parts are fastened or closed. [ 1913 Webster ]

Without a seal, wafer, or any closure whatever. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which incloses or confines; an inclosure. [ 1913 Webster ]

O thou bloody prison . . .
Within the guilty closure of thy walls
Richard the Second here was hacked to death. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A conclusion; an end. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Parliamentary Practice) A method of putting an end to debate and securing an immediate vote upon a measure before a legislative body. It is similar in effect to the previous question. It was first introduced into the British House of Commons in 1882. The French word clôture was originally applied to this proceeding. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Math.) the property of being mathematically closed under some operation; -- said of sets. [ PJC ]

7. (Math.) the intersection of all closed sets containing the given set. [ PJC ]

8. (Psychol.) achievement of a sense of completeness and release from tension due to uncertainty; as, the closure afforded by the funeral of a loved one; also, the sense of completion thus achieved. [ PJC ]

. A bureau of the United States government charged with the topographic and hydrographic survey of the coast and the execution of belts of primary triangulation and lines of precise leveling in the interior. It now belongs to the Department of Commerce and Labor. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. 1. Perfectly safe. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

We steal as in a castle, cocksure: . . . we walk invisible. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Quite certain. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I thought myself cocksure of the horse which he readily promised me. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. overconfident; -- of people; as, the team was so cocksure of winning that they didn't practice in the week before the big game.. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Co- + insurance. ] Insurance jointly with another or others; specif., that system of fire insurance in which the insurer is treated as insuring himself to the extent of that part of the risk not covered by his policy, so that any loss is apportioned between him and the insurance company on the principle of average, as in marine insurance or between other insurers. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ Cf. Commensurable. ] Having the same measure; commensurate; proportional. [ 1913 Webster ]

She being now removed by death, a commeasurable grief took as full possession of him as joy had done. I. Walton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To be commensurate with; to equal. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. commensurabilité. ] The quality of being commensurable. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. commensurabilis; pref. com- + mensurable. See Commensurate, and cf. Commeasurable. ] Having a common measure; capable of being exactly measured by the same number, quantity, or measure. -- Com*men"su*ra*ble*ness, n. [1913 Webster]

Commensurable numbers or
Commensurable quantities (Math.), those that can be exactly expressed by some common unit; thus a foot and yard are commensurable, since both can be expressed in terms of an inch, one being 12 inches, the other 36 inches. --
Numbers commensurable in power, or
Quantities commensurable in power, those whose squares are commensurable. [1913 Webster]

adv. In a commensurable manner; so as to be commensurable. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Commensurated; p. pr. & vb. n. Commensurating. ] [ Pref. com- + mensurate. ] 1. To reduce to a common measure. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To proportionate; to adjust. T. Puller [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having a common measure; commensurable; reducible to a common measure; as, commensurate quantities. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Equal in measure or extent; proportionate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those who are persuaded that they shall continue forever, can not choose but aspire after a happiness commensurate to their duration. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In a commensurate manner; so as to be equal or proportionate; adequately. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. With equal measure or extent. Goodwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being commensurate. Foster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. commensuration. ] The act of commensurating; the state of being commensurate. [ 1913 Webster ]

All fitness lies in a particular commensuration, or proportion of one thing to another. South. [ 1913 Webster ]