n. An insoluble solid alcohol (C12H25OH) with an unbranched paraffin chain, used to make detergents, such as sodium lauryl sulfate.
Syn. -- lauryl alcohol [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. 1. the size of a book whose pages are made by folding a sheet of paper twice to form four leaves.
Syn. -- quarto [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. the size of a book whose pages are made by folding a sheet of paper three times to form eight leaves.
Syn. -- octavo, eightvo [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A.

‖n. [ D, earth-wolf ] (Zool.) A carnivorous, striped, quadruped mammal (Proteles cristata, formerly Proteles Lalandii), of South Africa, resembling the fox and hyena. It feeds chiefly on insects. See Proteles. [ 1913 Webster WordNet 1.5 ]

{ } a. Pertaining to Aaron, the first high priest of the Jews. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ See Exodus vii. 9 and Numbers xvii. 8 ] 1. (Arch.) A rod with one serpent twined around it, thus differing from the caduceus of Mercury, which has two. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A plant with a tall flowering stem; esp. the great mullein, or hag-taper, and the golden-rod. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of abacinating. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Stealing cattle on a large scale. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L., fr. abigere to drive away; ab + agere to drive. ] (Law) One who steals and drives away cattle or beasts by herds or droves. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Heb. ābaddōn destruction, abyss, fr. ābad to be lost, to perish. ] 1. The destroyer, or angel of the bottomless pit; -- the same as Apollyon and Asmodeus. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hell; the bottomless pit. [ Poetic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

In all her gates, Abaddon rues
Thy bold attempt. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abalienatio: cf. F. abaliénation. ] The act of abalienating; alienation; estrangement. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. (Zool.) A univalve mollusk of the genus Haliotis. The shell is lined with mother-of-pearl, and used for ornamental purposes; the sea-ear. Several large species are found on the coast of California, clinging closely to the rocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Abandoned p. pr. & vb. n. Abandoning. ] [ OF. abandoner, F. abandonner; a (L. ad) + bandon permission, authority, LL. bandum, bannum, public proclamation, interdiction, bannire to proclaim, summon: of Germanic origin; cf. Goth. bandwjan to show by signs, to designate OHG. ban proclamation. The word meant to proclaim, put under a ban, put under control; hence, as in OE., to compel, subject, or to leave in the control of another, and hence, to give up. See Ban. ] 1. To cast or drive out; to banish; to expel; to reject. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That he might . . . abandon them from him. Udall. [ 1913 Webster ]

Being all this time abandoned from your bed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To give up absolutely; to forsake entirely ; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Reflexively: To give (one's self) up without attempt at self-control; to yield (one's self) unrestrainedly; -- often in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

He abandoned himself . . . to his favorite vice. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mar. Law) To relinquish all claim to; -- used when an insured person gives up to underwriters all claim to the property covered by a policy, which may remain after loss or damage by a peril insured against. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To give up; yield; forego; cede; surrender; resign; abdicate; quit; relinquish; renounce; desert; forsake; leave; retire; withdraw from. -- To Abandon, Desert, Forsake. These words agree in representing a person as giving up or leaving some object, but differ as to the mode of doing it. The distinctive sense of abandon is that of giving up a thing absolutely and finally; as, to abandon one's friends, places, opinions, good or evil habits, a hopeless enterprise, a shipwrecked vessel. Abandon is more widely applicable than forsake or desert. The Latin original of desert appears to have been originally applied to the case of deserters from military service. Hence, the verb, when used of persons in the active voice, has usually or always a bad sense, implying some breach of fidelity, honor, etc., the leaving of something which the person should rightfully stand by and support; as, to desert one's colors, to desert one's post, to desert one's principles or duty. When used in the passive, the sense is not necessarily bad; as, the fields were deserted, a deserted village, deserted halls. Forsake implies the breaking off of previous habit, association, personal connection, or that the thing left had been familiar or frequented; as, to forsake old friends, to forsake the paths of rectitude, the blood forsook his cheeks. It may be used either in a good or in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. abandon. fr. abandonner. See Abandon, v. ] Abandonment; relinquishment. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. See Abandon. ] A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Forsaken, deserted. “Your abandoned streams.” Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Self-abandoned, or given up to vice; extremely wicked, or sinning without restraint; irreclaimably wicked ; as, an abandoned villain. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Profligate; dissolute; corrupt; vicious; depraved; reprobate; wicked; unprincipled; graceless; vile. -- Abandoned, Profligate, Reprobate. These adjectives agree in expressing the idea of great personal depravity. Profligate has reference to open and shameless immoralities, either in private life or political conduct; as, a profligate court, a profligate ministry. Abandoned is stronger, and has reference to the searing of conscience and hardening of heart produced by a man's giving himself wholly up to iniquity; as, a man of abandoned character. Reprobate describes the condition of one who has become insensible to reproof, and who is morally abandoned and lost beyond hope of recovery. [ 1913 Webster ]

God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Rom. i. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Unrestrainedly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) One to whom anything is legally abandoned. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who abandons. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ LL. abannatio; ad + LL. bannire to banish. ] (Old Law) Banishment. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. ab + E. articulation : cf. F. abarticulation. See Article. ] (Anat.) Articulation, usually that kind of articulation which admits of free motion in the joint; diarthrosis. Coxe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) (a) One who abates a nuisance. (b) A person who, without right, enters into a freehold on the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Abattoirs [ F., fr. abattre to beat down. See Abate. ] A public slaughterhouse for cattle, sheep, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. abattre to beat down + voix voice. ] The sounding-board over a pulpit or rostrum. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. abbod, abbad, L. abbas, abbatis, Gr. 'abba^s, fr. Syriac abbā father. Cf. Abba, Abbé. ] 1. The superior or head of an abbey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One of a class of bishops whose sees were formerly abbeys. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Abbot of the people. a title formerly given to one of the chief magistrates in Genoa. --
Abbot of Misrule (or
Lord of Misrule), in mediæval times, the master of revels, as at Christmas; in Scotland called the Abbot of Unreason. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Abbot + -ship. ] The state or office of an abbot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. abbreviatio: cf. F. abbréviation. ] 1. The act of shortening, or reducing. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The result of abbreviating; an abridgment. Tylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mus.) One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers. Moore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL.: cf. F. abbréviateur. ] 1. One who abbreviates or shortens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One of a college of seventy-two officers of the papal court whose duty is to make a short minute of a decision on a petition, or reply of the pope to a letter, and afterwards expand the minute into official form. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Serving or tending to abbreviate; shortening; abridging. [ 1913 Webster ]

See Abb. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abdicatio: cf. F. abdication. ] The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who abdicates. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abditorium. ] A place for hiding or preserving articles of value. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abdomen (a word of uncertain etymol.): cf. F. abdomen. ] 1. (Anat.) The belly, or that part of the body between the thorax and the pelvis. Also, the cavity of the belly, which is lined by the peritoneum, and contains the stomach, bowels, and other viscera. In man, often restricted to the part between the diaphragm and the commencement of the pelvis, the remainder being called the pelvic cavity. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) The posterior section of the body, behind the thorax, in insects, crustaceans, and other Arthropoda. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; E. pl. Abdominals, L. pl. Abdominales. A fish of the group Abdominales. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. abdominal. ] 1. Of or pertaining to the abdomen; ventral; as, the abdominal regions, muscles, cavity. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Having abdominal fins; belonging to the Abdominales; as, abdominal fishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

Abdominal ring (Anat.), a fancied ringlike opening on each side of the abdomen, external and superior to the pubes; -- called also inguinal ring. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., masc. pl. ] (Zool.) A group including the greater part of fresh-water fishes, and many marine ones, having the ventral fins under the abdomen behind the pectorals. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., neut. pl. ] (Zool.) A group of cirripeds having abdominal appendages. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abdomen + Gr. skopei^n to examine. ] (Med.) Examination of the abdomen by means of a laparoscope to detect abdominal diseases. [ 1913 Webster + AS ]

a. Relating to the abdomen and the thorax, or chest. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a protuberant belly; pot-bellied. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gorgonius sits, abdominous and wan,
Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. 1 distension of the stomach area due to overweight.
Syn. -- paunchiness [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. abductio: cf. F. abduction. ] 1. The act of abducing or abducting; a drawing apart; a carrying away. Roget. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Physiol.) The movement which separates a limb or other part from the axis, or middle line, of the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) The wrongful, and usually the forcible, carrying off of a human being; as, the abduction of a child, the abduction of an heiress. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Logic) A syllogism or form of argument in which the major is evident, but the minor is only probable. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ NL. ] 1. One who abducts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Anat.) A muscle which serves to draw a part out, or form the median line of the body; as, the abductor oculi, which draws the eye outward. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. 1. 1 A genus of tropical coarse herbs having large lobed leaves and often yellow flowers.
Syn. -- genus Abelmoschus [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ NL. abelmoschus, fr. Ar. abu-l-misk father of musk, i. e., producing musk. See Musk. (or Ar. &hsdot_;abb-al-mosk, musk seed RHUD 1.3 ] (Bot.) An evergreen shrub (Abelmoschus moschatus -- formerly Hibiscus moschatus), of the East and West Indies and Northern Africa, whose musky seeds are used in perfumery and to flavor coffee; -- sometimes called musk mallow. The seeds produce ambrette-seed oil. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

{ } n. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect in Africa (4th century), mentioned by St. Augustine, who states that they married, but lived in continence, after the manner, as they pretended, of Abel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. aberratio: cf. F. aberration. See Aberrate. ] 1. The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type. “The aberration of youth.” Hall. “Aberrations from theory.” Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A partial alienation of reason. “Occasional aberrations of intellect.” Lingard. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Astron.) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Opt.) The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; called spherical aberration, when due to the spherical form of the lens or mirror, such form giving different foci for central and marginal rays; and chromatic aberration, when due to different refrangibilities of the colored rays of the spectrum, those of each color having a distinct focus. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Physiol.) The passage of blood or other fluid into parts not appropriate for it. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Law) The producing of an unintended effect by the glancing of an instrument, as when a shot intended for A glances and strikes B. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Insanity; lunacy; madness; derangement; alienation; mania; dementia; hallucination; illusion; delusion. See Insanity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Characterized by aberration. [ 1913 Webster ]