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

a. Abbatial. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being abdicated. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. abdicans, p. pr. of abdicare. ] Abdicating; renouncing; -- followed by of. [ 1913 Webster ]

Monks abdicant of their orders. Whitlock. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who abdicates. Smart. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Abdicated p. pr. & vb. n. Abdicating. ] [ L. abdicatus, p. p. of abdicare; ab + dicare to proclaim, akin to dicere to say. See Diction. ] 1. To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II., to abandon without a formal surrender. [ 1913 Webster ]

The cross-bearers abdicated their service. Gibbon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

He abdicates all right to be his own governor. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

The understanding abdicates its functions. Froude. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To reject; to cast off. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Civil Law) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To give up; quit; vacate; relinquish; forsake; abandon; resign; renounce; desert. -- To Abdicate, Resign. Abdicate commonly expresses the act of a monarch in voluntary and formally yielding up sovereign authority; as, to abdicate the government. Resign is applied to the act of any person, high or low, who gives back an office or trust into the hands of him who conferred it. Thus, a minister resigns, a military officer resigns, a clerk resigns. The expression, “The king resigned his crown, ” sometimes occurs in our later literature, implying that he held it from his people. -- There are other senses of resign which are not here brought into view. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy. Burke. [ 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 ]

a. [ L. abdicativus. ] Causing, or implying, abdication. [ R. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who abdicates. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

a. Of or pertaining to the fir tree or its products; as, abietic acid, called also sylvic acid. Watts. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to abietin; as, abietinic acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to abiogenesis. Ab`i*o*ge*net"ic*al*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + E. biological. ] Pertaining to the study of inanimate things. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. abjudicatus, p. p. of abjudicare; ab + judicare. See Judge, and cf. Abjudge. ] To reject by judicial sentence; also, to abjudge. [ Obs. ] Ash. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Rejection by judicial sentence. [ R. ] Knowles. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + &unr_; growth. ] (Biol.) Non-germinal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. abortus + caedere to kill. See Abort. ] (Med.) The act of destroying a fetus in the womb; feticide. [ archaic ] AS [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to Abraham, the patriarch; as, the Abrachamic covenant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Apricot. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Chem.) Relating to the common wormwood or to an acid obtained from it. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to absolutism; absolutist. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. showing abnormal inability to act or make decisions
Syn. -- aboulic [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist. Hume. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. academicus: cf. F. académigue. See Academy. ] 1. Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the Academic sect or philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific. “Academic courses.” Warburton. “Academical study.” Berkeley. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an academical manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. The articles of dress prescribed and worn at some colleges and universities. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. académicien. See Academy. ] 1. A member of an academy, or society for promoting science, art, or literature, as of the French Academy, or the Royal Academy of arts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A collegian. [ R. ] Chesterfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. the position or state of being a member of an honorary academy. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A tenet of the Academic philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. acatalecticus, Gr. &unr_;, not defective at the end; 'a priv. + &unr_; to cease. ] (Pros.) Not defective; complete; as, an acatalectic verse. -- n. A verse which has the complete number of feet and syllables. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_;. ] Incapable of being comprehended; incomprehensible. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Ac- (perh. for the article a or for L. ad) + E. complice. See Complice. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A cooperator. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Success unto our valiant general,
And happiness to his accomplices! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) An associate in the commission of a crime; a participator in an offense, whether a principal or an accessory. “And thou, the cursed accomplice of his treason.” Johnson. It is followed by with or of before a person and by in (or sometimes of) before the crime; as, A was an accomplice with B in the murder of C. Dryden uses it with to before a thing. “Suspected for accomplice to the fire.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Abettor; accessory; assistant; associate; confederate; coadjutor; ally; promoter. See Abettor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being an accomplice. [ R. ] Sir H. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or state of being an accomplice. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + &unr_; a point, a center. ] Not centered; without a center. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or resembling, the acephalocysts. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sour or severe. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. acer maple. ] Pertaining to, or obtained from, the maple; as, aceric acid. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. acetum vinegar, fr. acere to be sour. ] (Chem.) (a) Of a pertaining to vinegar; producing vinegar; producing vinegar; as, acetic fermentation. (b) Pertaining to, containing, or derived from, acetyl, as acetic ether, acetic acid. The latter is the acid to which the sour taste of vinegar is due. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

a. Of or pertaining to acetone; as, acetonic bodies. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to Acheron; infernal; hence, dismal, gloomy; moribund. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. of or pertaining to achondrite. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. chondritic [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. (Med.) of or pertaining to achondroplasia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Gr. 'achrw`matos colorless; 'a priv. + chrw^ma, chrw`matos, color: cf. F. achromatique. ] 1. (Opt.) Free from color; transmitting light without decomposing it into its primary colors. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) Uncolored; not absorbing color from a fluid; -- said of tissue. [ 1913 Webster ]

Achromatic lens (Opt.), a lens composed usually of two separate lenses, a convex and concave, of substances having different refractive and dispersive powers, as crown and flint glass, with the curvatures so adjusted that the chromatic aberration produced by the one is corrected by other, and light emerges from the compound lens undecomposed. --
Achromatic prism. See Prism. --
Achromatic telescope, or
microscope, one in which the chromatic aberration is corrected, usually by means of a compound or achromatic object glass, and which gives images free from extraneous color. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an achromatic manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Achromatism. [ 1913 Webster ]