n. The act of making acetous or sour; the process of converting, or of becoming converted, into vinegar. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Producing acidity; converting into an acid. Dana. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. acidification. ] The act or process of acidifying, or changing into an acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Additional signification. [ R. ] Tooke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. aérification. See A&unr_;rify. ] 1. The act of combining air with another substance, or the state of being filled with air. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of becoming aërified, or of changing from a solid or liquid form into an aëriform state; the state of being aëriform. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F., fr. afficher to affix. ] A written or printed notice to be posted, as on a wall; a poster; a placard. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Cf. F. albification: L. albus white + ficare (only in comp.), facere, to make. ] The act or process of making white. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. algificus, fr. algus cold + facere to make. ] Producing cold. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. amplificatus, p. p. of amplificare. ] To amplify. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. amplificatio. ] 1. The act of amplifying or enlarging in dimensions; enlargement; extension. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Rhet.) The enlarging of a simple statement by particularity of description, the use of epithets, etc., for rhetorical effect; diffuse narrative or description, or a dilating upon all the particulars of a subject. [ 1913 Webster ]

Exaggeration is a species of amplification. Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

I shall summarily, without any amplification at all, show in what manner defects have been supplied. Sir J. Davies. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The matter by which a statement is amplified; as, the subject was presented without amplifications. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Amplificatory. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Serving to amplify or enlarge; amplificative. Morell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. artificium, fr. artifex artificer; ars, artis, art + facere to make: cf. F. artifice. ] 1. A handicraft; a trade; art of making. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Workmanship; a skillfully contrived work. [ 1913 Webster ]

The material universe . . . in the artifice of God, the artifice of the best Mechanist. Cudworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Artful or skillful contrivance. [ 1913 Webster ]

His [ Congreve's ] plots were constructed without much artifice. Craik. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Crafty device; an artful, ingenious, or elaborate trick. [ Now the usual meaning. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Those who were conscious of guilt employed numerous artifices for the purpose of averting inquiry. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. artificier, fr. LL. artificiarius. ] 1. An artistic worker; a mechanic or manufacturer; one whose occupation requires skill or knowledge of a particular kind, as a silversmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who makes or contrives; a deviser, inventor, or framer. “Artificer of fraud.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The great Artificer of all that moves. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A cunning or artful fellow. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mil.) A military mechanic, as a blacksmith, carpenter, etc.; also, one who prepares the shells, fuses, grenades, etc., in a military laboratory. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Artisan; artist. See Artisan. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. artificialis, fr. artificium: cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice. ] 1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. “Artificial tears.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses. Gibbon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. Johnson. --
Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and not expressing the true natural relations species; as, “the artificial system” in botany, which is the same as the Linnæan system. --
Artificial horizon. See under Horizon.
Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies. --
Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which, by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc. --
Artificial numbers, logarithms. --
Artificial person (Law). See under Person. --
Artificial sines,
tangents, etc., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, etc. Hutton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or appearance of being artificial; that which is artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In an artificial manner; by art, or skill and contrivance, not by nature. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Ingeniously; skillfully. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The spider's web, finely and artificially wrought. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Craftily; artfully. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sharp dissembled so artificially. Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. artificiosus. ] Artificial. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Cf. F. béatifique, L. beatificus. See Beatify. ] Having the power to impart or complete blissful enjoyment; blissful. “The beatific vision.” South. -- Be`a*tif"ic*al*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

v. t. To beatify. [ Obs. ] Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. béatification. ] The act of beatifying, or the state of being beatified; esp., in the R. C. Church, the act or process of ascertaining and declaring that a deceased person is one of “the blessed, ” or has attained the second degree of sanctity, -- usually a stage in the process of canonization. “The beatification of his spirit.” Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act of making something more beautiful. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

‖n.; pl. Beccaficos [ It., fr. beccare to peck + fico fig. ] (Zool.) A small bird. (Silvia hortensis), which is highly prized by the Italians for the delicacy of its flesh in the autumn, when it has fed on figs, grapes, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. beneficus. See Benefice. ] Favorable; beneficent. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bénéfice, L. beneficium, a kindness , in LL. a grant of an estate, fr. L. beneficus beneficent; bene well + facere to do. See Benefit. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A favor or benefit. [ Obs. ] Baxter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Feudal Law) An estate in lands; a fief. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Such an estate was granted at first for life only, and held on the mere good pleasure of the donor; but afterward, becoming hereditary, it received the appellation of fief, and the term benefice became appropriated to church livings. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An ecclesiastical living and church preferment, as in the Church of England; a church endowed with a revenue for the maintenance of divine service. See Advowson. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ All church preferments are called benefices, except bishoprics, which are called dignities. But, ordinarily, the term dignity is applied to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebendaryships; benefice to parsonages, vicarages, and donatives. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Beneficed. ] To endow with a benefice. [ Commonly in the past participle. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Possessed of a benefice or church preferment. “Beneficed clergymen.” Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having no benefice. “Beneficeless precisians.” Sheldon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. beneficentia, fr. beneficus: cf. F. bénéficence. See Benefice. ] The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness. [ 1913 Webster ]

And whose beneficence no charge exhausts. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Benevolence. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Doing or producing good; performing acts of kindness and charity; characterized by beneficence. [ 1913 Webster ]

The beneficent fruits of Christianity. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Benevolent. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Relating to beneficence. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a beneficent manner; with beneficence. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. bénéficial, LL. beneficialis. ] 1. Conferring benefits; useful; profitable; helpful; advantageous; serviceable; contributing to a valuable end; -- followed by to. [ 1913 Webster ]

The war which would have been most beneficial to us. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) Receiving, or entitled to have or receive, advantage, use, or benefit; as, the beneficial owner of an estate. Kent. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. King. [ Obs. ] “A beneficial foe.” B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Advantage. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a beneficial or advantageous manner; profitably; helpfully. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being beneficial; profitableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. bénéficiaire, LL. beneficiarius. ] 1. Holding some office or valuable possession, in subordination to another; holding under a feudal or other superior; having a dependent and secondary possession. [ 1913 Webster ]

A feudatory or beneficiary king of England. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Bestowed as a gratuity; as, beneficiary gifts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Beneficiaries 1. A feudatory or vassal; hence, one who holds a benefice and uses its proceeds. Ayliffe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who receives anything as a gift; one who receives a benefit or advantage; esp. one who receives help or income from an educational fund or a trust estate. [ 1913 Webster ]

The rich men will be offering sacrifice to their Deity whose beneficiaries they are. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Sp. beneficiar to benefit, to work mines. ] (Mining) To reduce (ores). -- Ben`e*fi`ci*a"tion (&unr_;), n. [1913 Webster]

a. Beneficent. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. An office where passengers, baggage, etc., are registered for conveyance, as by railway or steamship. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An office where passage tickets are sold. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. G. bofist, AS. wulfes fist puffball, E. fizz, foist. ] (Bot.) A kind of fungus. See Puffball. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Calciferous. Specifically: (Zool.) of or pertaining to the portion of the oviduct which forms the eggshell in birds and reptiles. Huxley. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Physiol.) The process of change into a stony or calcareous substance by the deposition of lime salt; -- normally, as in the formation of bone and of teeth; abnormally, as in calcareous degeneration of tissue. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. calorificus; calor heat + facere to make; cf. F. calorifique. ] Possessing the quality of producing heat; heating. [ 1913 Webster ]

Calorific rays, the invisible, heating rays which emanate from the sun, and from burning and heated bodies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. calorification. ] Production of heat, esp. animal heat. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Physiol.) Having, or relating to the power of producing heat; -- applied to foods which, being rich in carbon, as the fats, are supposed to give rise to heat in the animal body by oxidation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. caprificatio, fr. caprificare to ripen figs by caprification, fr. caprificus the wild fig; caper goat + ficus fig. ] The practice of hanging, upon the cultivated fig tree, branches of the wild fig infested with minute hymenopterous insects. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It is supposed that the little insects insure fertilization by carrying the pollen from the male flowers near the opening of the fig down to the female flowers, and also accelerate ripening the fruit by puncturing it. The practice has existed since ancient times, but its benefit has been disputed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. carnification. ] The act or process of turning to flesh, or to a substance resembling flesh. [ 1913 Webster ]