. [ L. prefix ambi-, amb-, akin to Gr. &unr_;, Skr. abhi, AS. embe, emb, OHG. umbi, umpi, G. um, and also L. ambo both. Cf. Amphi-, Both, By. ] A prefix meaning about, around; -- used in words derived from the Latin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ LL., fr. L. ambo both + dexter right, dextra (sc. manus) the right hand. ] Using both hands with equal ease. Smollett. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A person who uses both hands with equal facility. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence: A double-dealer; one equally ready to act on either side in party disputes. [ 1913 Webster ]

The rest are hypocrites, ambidexters, so many turning pictures -- a lion on one side, a lamb on the other. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) A juror who takes money from both parties for giving his verdict. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The quality of being ambidextrous; the faculty of using both hands with equal facility. Hence: Versatility; general readiness; as, ambidexterity of argumentation. Sterne. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ignorant I was of the human frame, and of its latent powers, as regarded speed, force, and ambidexterity. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Double-dealing. (Law) A juror's taking of money from the both parties for a verdict. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining equally to the right-hand side and the left-hand side. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having the faculty of using both hands with equal ease. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Practicing or siding with both parties. [ 1913 Webster ]

All false, shuffling, and ambidextrous dealings. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an ambidextrous manner; cunningly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being ambidextrous; ambidexterity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambiens, p. pr. of ambire to go around; amb- + ire to go. ] Encompassing on all sides; circumfused; investing. “Ambient air.” Milton. “Ambient clouds.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Something that surrounds or invests; as, air . . . being a perpetual ambient. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambo both + genus kind. ] Of two kinds. (Bot.) Partaking of two natures, as the perianth of some endogenous plants, where the outer surface is calycine, and the inner petaloid. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., fr. ambigu doubtful, L. ambiquus. See Ambiguous. ] An entertainment at which a medley of dishes is set on at the same time. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Ambiguities [ L. ambiguitas, fr. ambiguus: cf. F. ambiguité. ] The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of language, arising from its admitting of more than one meaning; an equivocal word or expression. [ 1913 Webster ]

No shadow of ambiguity can rest upon the course to be pursued. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

The words are of single signification, without any ambiguity. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambiguus, fr. ambigere to wander about, waver; amb- + agere to drive. ] Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to signification; capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses; equivocal; as, an ambiguous course; an ambiguous expression. [ 1913 Webster ]

What have been thy answers? What but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding? Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Doubtful; dubious; uncertain; unsettled; indistinct; indeterminate; indefinite. See Equivocal. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an ambiguous manner; with doubtful meaning. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Ambiguity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambo both + laevus left. ] Left-handed on both sides; clumsy; -- opposed to ambidexter. [ R. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Doubtful or ambiguous language. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambo both + parere to bring forth. ] (Bot.) Characterized by containing the rudiments of both flowers and leaves; -- applied to a bud. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. ambitus circuit, fr. ambire to go around. See Ambient. ] Circuit or compass. [ 1913 Webster ]

His great parts did not live within a small ambit. Milward. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. ambition, L. ambitio a going around, especially of candidates for office is Rome, to solicit votes (hence, desire for office or honor), fr. ambire to go around. See Ambient, Issue. ] 1. The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ I ] used no ambition to commend my deeds. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling a way ambition:
By that sin fell the angels. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. F. ambitionner. ] To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. Trumbull. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One excessively ambitious. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Devoid of ambition. Pollok. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambitiosus: cf. F. ambitieux. See Ambition. ] 1. Possessing, or controlled by, ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Strongly desirous; -- followed by of or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something. [ 1913 Webster ]

I was not ambitious of seeing this ceremony. Evelyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

Studious of song, and yet ambitious not to sing in vain. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Springing from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring; as, an ambitious style. [ 1913 Webster ]

A giant statue . . .
Pushed by a wild and artless race,
From off wide, ambitious base. Collins. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an ambitious manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being ambitious; ambition; pretentiousness. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L. See Ambit, Ambition. ] 1. The exterior edge or border of a thing, as the border of a leaf, or the outline of a bivalve shell. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Rom. Antiq.) A canvassing for votes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. mixed feelings or emotions; uncertainty or vacillation in making a choice. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

2. (Psychol.) the simultaneous existence within a person of both positive and negative feelings toward another person or action, or toward an object (as of attraction and revulsion), resulting in internal conflict. [ PJC ]

adj. 1. 1 undecided as to whether or not to take a proposed course of action; having feelings both for and against the proposed action.
Syn. -- on the fence(predicate), suspensive, uncertain [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. a balanced disposition intermediate between extroversion and introversion. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. 1. (Psychol.) intermediate between introversive and extroversive. Contrasted to introversive and extroversive. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

‖n.; It. pl. -ni /plu>. [ It., a little boy, fr. bambo silly; cf. Gr. bambali`zein, bambai`nein, to chatter. ] 1. A child or baby; esp., a representation in art of the infant Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. (Sports) George Herman Ruth ("Babe" Ruth), the baseball player; -- usu. in the form “the bambino”. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A small European flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola), so called because it often nests on a beam in a building. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ LL. cambialis, fr. cambiars. See Change. ] Belonging to exchanges in commerce; of exchange. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. cambiste, It. cambista, fr. L. cambire to exchange. See Change. ] A banker; a money changer or broker; one who deals in bills of exchange, or who is skilled in the science of exchange. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The science of exchange, weight, measures, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. cambium exchange, fr. L. cambire to exchange. It was supposed that cambium was sap changing into wood. ] 1. (Bot.) A series of formative cells lying outside of the wood proper and inside of the inner bark. The growth of new wood takes place in the cambium, which is very soft. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) A fancied nutritive juice, formerly supposed to originate in the blood, to repair losses of the system, and to promote its increase. Dunglison. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ L. choliambus, Gr. &unr_;; &unr_; lame + &unr_; an iambus. ] (Pros.) A verse having an iambus in the fifth place, and a spondee in the sixth or last. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. choriambicus, gr. &unr_;. ] Pertaining to a choriamb. -- n. A choriamb. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of surrounding or encompassing. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. circum- + ambient. ] Surrounding; inclosing or being on all sides; encompassing. “The circumambient heaven.” J. Armstrong. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. dithyrambicus, Gr. &unr_;: cf. F. dithyrambique. ] Pertaining to, or resembling, a dithyramb; wild and boisterous. “Dithyrambic sallies.” Longfellow. -- n. A dithyrambic poem; a dithyramb. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. escambium, excambium. See Excamb. ] (Eng. Law) A license formerly required for the making over a bill of exchange to another over sea. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } v. t. [ LL. excambiare, excambire; L. ex out + cambire. See Change, and cf. Exchange. ] (Scots Law) To exchange; -- used with reference to transfers of land.

{ ‖‖ } n. [ LL. excambium. See Excamb. ] (Scots Law) Exchange; barter; -- used commonly of lands. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. galliambus a song used by the priests of Cybele; Gallus (a name applied to these priests) + iambus ] (Pros.) Consisting of two iambic dimeters catalectic, the last of which lacks the final syllable; -- said of a kind of verse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Malayan. ] (a) The inspissated juice of a plant (Uncaria Gambir) growing in Malacca. It is a powerful astringent, and, under the name of Terra Japonica, is used for chewing with the Areca nut, and is exported for tanning and dyeing. (b) Catechu. [ Written also gambeer and gambir. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. gambeson, gambaison, fr. gambais, wambais, of German origin: cf. MHG. wambeis, G. wams doublet, fr. OHG. wamba, stomach. See Womb. ] A defensive garment formerly in use for the body, made of cloth stuffed and quilted. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. gamba leg. ] (Mus.) A performer upon the viola di gamba. See under Viola. [ 1913 Webster ]