1. To make crazy; to infatuate. [Not in use.] [See Crazy.] NWAD ACRAZE.2
2. To impair; to destroy. [Not in use.] NWAD ACRAZE.3
In medical authors, an excess or predominancy of one quality above another, in mixture, or in the human constitution. NWAD ACRASY.2
1. A quantity of land, containing 160 square rods or perches or 4840 square yards. This is the English statute acre. The acre of Scotland contains 6150 2-5 square yards. The French arpent is nearly equal to the Scottish acre, about a fifth larger than the English. The Roman juger was 3200 square yards. NWAD ACRE.2
2. In the Mogul’s dominions, acre is the same as lack, or 100,00 rupees, equal to 12,500 sterling, or $55,500. NWAD ACRE.3
Acre-fight, a sort of duel in the open field, formerly fought by English and Scotch combatants on their frontiers. NWAD ACRE.4
Acre-tax, a tax on land in England, at a certain sum for each acre, called also acre-shot. NWAD ACRE.5
Sharp; pungent; bitter; sharp or biting to the taste; acrimonious; as acrid salts. NWAD ACRID.2
1. Sharp; bitter; corrosive; abounding with acrimony. NWAD ACRIMONIOUS.2
2. Figuratively, sharpness or severity of temper; bitterness of expression proceeding from anger, ill-nature, or petulance. NWAD ACRIMONIOUS.3
A state or condition of which no right judgment can be formed; that of which no choice is made; matter in dispute; injudiciousness. [Little used.] NWAD ACRISY.2
An acrid quality; bitterness to the taste; biting heat. NWAD ACRITUDE.2
Abstruse; pertaining to deep learning; an epithet applied to the secret doctrines of Aristotle. NWAD ACROAMATIC.2
Abstruse; pertaining to deep learning; and opposed to exoteric. Aristotle’s lectures were of two kinds, acroatic, acroamatic, or esoteric, which were delivered to a class of select disciples, who had been previously instructed in the elements of learning; and exoteric, which were delivered in public. The former respected being, God, and nature; the principal subjects of the latter were logic, rhetoric, and policy. The abstruse lectures were called acroatics. NWAD ACROATIC.2
An epithet applied to certain mountains between Epirus and Illyricum, in the 41st degree of latitude. They project into the Adriatic, and are so termed from being often struck with lightning. NWAD ACROCERAUNIAN.2
In anatomy, that part of the spine of the scapula, which receives the extreme part of the clavicle. NWAD ACROMION.2
A shoot, or sprout of a seed; the plume, or plumule, so called from its spiral form. NWAD ACROSPIRE.2
1. From side to side, opposed to along, which is in the direction of the length; athwart; quite over; as, a bridge is laid across a river. NWAD ACROSS.2
2. Intersecting; passing over at any angle; as a line passing across another. NWAD ACROSS.3
A composition in verse, in which the first letter of the lines, taken in order, form the name of a person, kingdom, city, etc., which is the subject of the composition, or some title or motto. NWAD ACROSTIC.2
Among ecclesiastical writers, an appellation given to any thing added to the end of a psalm, or hymn; as a doxology. NWAD ACROTELEUTIC.2
In architecture, a small pedestal, usually with out a base, anciently placed at the two extremes, or in the middle of pediments or frontispieces, serving to support the statues, etc. It also signifies the figures placed as ornaments on the tops of churches, and the sharp pinnacles that stand in ranges about flat buildings with rails and balusters. Anciently the word signified the extremities of the body, as the head, hands, and feet. NWAD ACROTER.2
Among physicians, a species of wart, with a narrow basis and broad top, having the color of thyme. It is call Thymus. NWAD ACROTHYMION.2
1. To exert power; as, the stomach acts upon food; the will acts upon the body in producing motion. NWAD ACT.2
2. To be in action or motion; to move NWAD ACT.3
He hangs between in doubt to act or rest. NWAD ACT.4
3. To behave, demean, or conduct, as in morals, private duties, or public offices; as, we know not why a minister has acted in this manner. But in this sense, it is most frequent in popular language; as, how the man acts or has acted. NWAD ACT.5
To act up to, is to equal in action; to fulfil or perform a correspondent action; as he has acted up to his engagement or his advantages. NWAD ACT.6
1. To perform; to represent a character on the state. NWAD ACT.8
Act well your part, there all the honor lies. NWAD ACT.9
2. To feign or counterfeit. Obs. NWAD ACT.10
With acted fear the villain thus pursued. NWAD ACT.11
3. To put in motion; to actuate; to regulate movements. NWAD ACT.12
Most people in the world are acted by levity. NWAD ACT.13
[In this latter sense, obsolete and superseded by actuate, which see.] NWAD ACT.14
1. The exertion of power; the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; as, the act of giving or receiving. In this sense it denotes an operation of the mind. Thus, to discern is an act of the understanding; to judge is an act of the will NWAD ACT.16
2. That which is done; a deed exploit, or achievement, whether good or ill. NWAD ACT.17
And his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt. Deuteronomy 11:3. NWAD ACT.18
3. Action; performance; production of effects; as, an act of charity. But this sense is closely allied to the foregoing. NWAD ACT.19
4. A state of reality or real existence, as opposed to a possibility. NWAD ACT.20
The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterwards grow to be. NWAD ACT.21
5. In general, act denotes action completed; but preceded by in, it denotes incomplete action. NWAD ACT.22
She was taken in the very act. John 8:4. NWAD ACT.23
In act is used also to signify incipient action, or a state of preparation to exert power; as,”In act to strike,” a poetical use. NWAD ACT.24
6. A part or division of a play, to be performed without interruption; after which the action is suspended to give respite to the performers. Acts are divided into smaller portions, called scenes. NWAD ACT.25
7. The result of public deliberation, or the decision of a prince, legislative body, council court of justice, or magistrate; a decree, edict, law, judgment, resolve, award, determination; as an act of parliament, or of congress. The term is also transferred to the book, record, or writing, containing the laws and determinations. Also, any instrument in writing to verify facts. NWAD ACT.26
In the sense of agency, or power to produce effects, as in the passage cited by Johnson, from Shakespeare, the use is improper. NWAD ACT.27
To try the vigor of them and apply Allayments to their act. NWAD ACT.28
Act, in English Universities, is a thesis maintained in public, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student. At Oxford, the time when masters and doctors complete their degrees is also called the act, which is held with great solemnity. At Cambridge, as in the United States, it is called commencement. NWAD ACT.29
Act of faith, auto da fe, in Catholic countries, is a solemn day held by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of accused persons found innocent; or it is the sentence of the Inquisition. NWAD ACT.30
Acts of the Apostles, the title of a book in the New Testament, containing a history of the transactions of the Apostles. NWAD ACT.31
Acta Diurna, among the Romans, a sort of Gazette, containing an authorized account of transactions in Rome, nearly similar to our newspapers. NWAD ACT.32
Acta populi, or acta publica, the Roman registers of assemblies, trials, executions, buildings, births, marriages, and deaths of illustrious persons, etc. NWAD ACT.33
Acta Senatus, minutes of what passed in the Roman senate, called also commentarii, commentaries. NWAD ACT.34
A mineral, called, by Werner, strahlstein, ray-stone, nearly allied to hornblend. It occurs in prismatic crystals, which are long, and incomplete, and sometimes extremely minute and even fibrous. Its prevailing color is green of different shades, or shaded with yellow or brown. There are several varieties, as the common, the massive, the acicular, the glassy, and the fibrous. NWAD ACTINOLITE.2
Actinolite is crystalized, asbestiform, and glassy. NWAD ACTINOLITE.3
1. Literally, a driving; hence, the state of acting or moving; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; or action is the effect of power exerted on one body by another; motion produced. Hence, action is opposed to rest. Action, when produced by one body on another, is mechanical; when produced by the will of living being, spontaneous or voluntary. [See Def. 3.] NWAD ACTION.2
2. An act or thing done; a deed. NWAD ACTION.3
The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him are actions weighed. 1 Samuel 2:3. NWAD ACTION.4
3. In mechanics, agency; operation; driving impulse; effort of one body upon another; as, the action of wind upon a ship’s sails. Also the effect of such action. NWAD ACTION.5
4. In ethics, the external signs or expression of the sentiments of a moral agent; conduct; behavior; demeanor; that is, motion or movement, with respect to a rule or propriety. NWAD ACTION.6
5. In poetry, a series of events, called also the subject or fable; this is of two kinds; the principal action which is more strictly the fable, and the incidental action or episode. NWAD ACTION.7
6. In oratory, gesture or gesticulation; the external deportment of the speaker, or the accommodation of his attitude, voice, gestures, and countenance to the subject, or to the thoughts and feelings of the mind. NWAD ACTION.8
7. In physiology, the motions or functions of the body, vital, animal and natural; vital and involuntary, as the action of the heart and lungs; animal, as muscular, and all voluntary motions; natural, as manducation, deglutition, and digestion. NWAD ACTION.9
8. In law, literally, an urging for right; a suit or process, by which a demand is made of a right; a claim made before a tribunal. Actions are real, personal or mixed; real, or feudal, when the demandant claims a title to real estate; personal when a man demands a debt, personal duty, or damages in lieu of it, or satisfaction for an injury to person or property; and mixed, when real estate is demanded, with damages for a wrong sustained. Actions are also civil or penal; civil, when instituted solely in behalf of private persons, to recover debts or damages; penal, when instituted to recover a penalty, imposed by way of punishment. The word is also used for a right of action; as, the law gives an action for every claim. NWAD ACTION.10
A chose in action, is a right to a thing, in opposition to the possession. A bond or note is a chose in action and gives the owner a right to prosecute his claim to the money, as he has an absolute property in a right, as well as in a thing, in possession. NWAD ACTION.11
9. In some countries of Europe, action is a share in the capital stock of a company, or in the public funds, equivalent to our term share; and consequently, in a more general sense, to stocks. The word is also used for movable effects. NWAD ACTION.12
10. In painting and sculpture, the attitude or position of the several parts of the body, by which they seem to be actuated by passions; as, the arm extended, to represent the act of giving or receiving. NWAD ACTION.13
11. Battle; fight; engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water, or by a greater or smaller number of combatants. This and the 8th definition exhibit the literal meaning of action - a driving or urging. NWAD ACTION.14
Quantity of action, in physics, the product of the mass of a body by the space it runs through and its velocity. NWAD ACTION.15
In many cases action and act are synonymous; but some distinction between them is observable. Action seems to have more relation to the power that acts, and its operation and process of acting; and act, more relation to the effect or operation complete. Action is also more generally used for ordinary transactions; and act, for such as are remarkable, or dignified; as, all our actions should be regulated by prudence; a prince is distinguished by acts of heroism or humanity. NWAD ACTION.16
Action taking, in Shakespeare, is used for litigious. NWAD ACTION.17
1. That has the power or quality of acting; that contains the principle of action, independent of any visible external force; as, attraction is an active power: or it may be defined, that communicates action or motion, opposed to passive, that receives action; as, the active powers of the mind. NWAD ACTIVE.2
2. Having the power of quick motion, or disposition to move with speed; nimble; lively; brisk; agile; as an active animal. NWAD ACTIVE.3
Hence, NWAD ACTIVE.4
3. Busy; constantly engaged in action; pursuing business with vigor and assiduity; opposed to dull, slow, or indolent; as an active officer. It is also opposed to sedentary, as an active life. NWAD ACTIVE.5
4. Requiring action or exertion; practical; operative; producing real effects; opposed to speculative; as, the active duties of life. NWAD ACTIVE.6
5. In grammar, active verbs are those which not only signify action, but have a noun or name following them, denoting the object of the action or impression; called also transitive, as they imply the passing of the action expressed by the verb to the object; as a professor instructs his pupils. NWAD ACTIVE.7
6. Active capital, or wealth, is money, or property that may readily be converted into money, and used in commerce or other employment for profit. NWAD ACTIVE.8
7. Active commerce, the commerce in which a nation carries its own productions and foreign commodities in its own ships, or which is prosecuted by its own citizens; as contradistinguished from passive commerce, in which the productions of one country are transported by the people of another country. NWAD ACTIVE.9
The commerce of Great Britain and of the United States is active; that of China is passive. NWAD ACTIVE.10
It may be the interest of foreign nations to deprive us, as far as possible, of an active commerce in our own bottoms. NWAD ACTIVE.11
Sphere of activity, is the whole space in which the virtue, power, or influence of any object, is exerted. NWAD ACTIVITY.2
To put in activity, a French phrase, for putting in action or employment. NWAD ACTIVITY.3
1. He that acts or performs; an active agent. NWAD ACTOR.2
2. He that represents a character or acts a part in a play; a stage player. NWAD ACTOR.3
3. Among civilians, an advocate or proctor in civil courts or causes. NWAD ACTOR.4
1. Real or effective, or that exists truly and absolutely; as, actual heat, opposed to that, which is virtual or potential; actual cautery, or the burning by a red-hot iron, opposed to a cautery or caustic application, that may produce the same effect upon the body by a different process. NWAD ACTUAL.2
2. Existing in act; real; in opposition to speculative, or existing in theory only; as an actual crime. NWAD ACTUAL.3
3. In theology, actual sin is that which is committed by a person himself, opposed to original sin, or the corruption of nature supposed to be communicated from Adam. NWAD ACTUAL.4
4. That includes action. NWAD ACTUAL.5
Besides her walking and other actual performances. [Hardly legitimate.] NWAD ACTUAL.6
A register or clerk; a term of the civil law, and used originally in courts of civil law jurisdiction; but in Europe used for a clerk or register generally. NWAD ACTUARY.2
To put into action; to move or incite to action; as, men are actuated by motives, or passions. It seems to have been used formerly in the sense of invigorate, noting increase of action; but the use is not legitimate. NWAD ACTUATE.3
To sharpen; to make pungent, or corrosive. [Little used.] NWAD ACUATE.2
The sharpening of medicines to increase their effect. NWAD ACUITION.2
1. In botany, having prickles, or sharp points; pointed; used chiefly to denote prickles fixed in the bark, in distinction from thorns, which grow from the wood. NWAD ACULEATE.2
2. In zoology, having a sting. NWAD ACULEATE.3
The fruit or acorn of the ilex, or scarlet oak. NWAD ACULON.2
A sharp point; and figuratively, quickness of perception, the faculty of nice discrimination. NWAD ACUMEN.2
Ending in a sharp point; pointed. NWAD ACUMINATE.2
Among the Chinese, a surgical operation, performed by pricking the part affected with a needle, as in head-aches and lethargies. NWAD ACUPUNCTURE.2
1. The needle-fish or gar-fish. NWAD ACUS.2
2. The ammodyte or sand eel. NWAD ACUS.3
3. The oblong cimex. NWAD ACUS.4
1. Sharp at the end; ending in a sharp point; opposed to blunt or obtuse. An acute angle in geometry, is one which is less than a right angle, or which subtends less than ninety degrees. An acute angled triangle is one whose three angles are all acute, or less than ninety degrees each. NWAD ACUTE.2
2. Figuratively, applied to mental powers; penetrating; having nice discernment; perceiving or using minute distinctions; opposed to dull or stupid; as an acute reasoner. NWAD ACUTE.3
3. Applied to the senses; having nice or quick sensibility; susceptible of slight impressions; having power to feel or perceive small objects; as, a man of acute eyesight, hearing, or feeling. NWAD ACUTE.4
4. An acute disease, is one which is attended with violent symptoms, and comes speedily to a crisis, as a pleurisy; opposed to chronic. NWAD ACUTE.5
5. An acute disease, is one which is attended with violent symptoms, and comes speedily to a crisis, as a pleurisy; opposed to chronic. NWAD ACUTE.6
6. In music, acute is applied to a tone which is sharp, or high; opposed to grave. NWAD ACUTE.7
7. In botany, ending in an acute angle, as a leaf or perianth. NWAD ACUTE.8
1. Sharpness; but seldom used in this literal sense, as applied to material things. NWAD ACUTENESS.2
2. Figuratively, the faculty of nice discernment or perception; applied to the senses, or the understanding. By an acuteness of feeling, we perceive small objects or slight impressions; by an acuteness of intellect, we discern nice distinctions. NWAD ACUTENESS.3
3. Sharpness, or elevation of sound, in rhetoric or music. NWAD ACUTENESS.4
4. Violence of a disease, which brings it speedily to a crisis. NWAD ACUTENESS.5
Ad hominem, to the man, in logic, an argument, adapted to touch the prejudices of the person addressed. NWAD AD.2
Ad inquirendum, in law, a judicial writ commanding inquiry to be made. NWAD AD.3
Ad libitum [L.] at pleasure NWAD AD.4
Ad valorem, according to the value, in commerce and finance, terms used to denote duties or charges laid upon goods, at a certain rate per cent, upon their value, as stated in their invoices; in opposition to a specific sum upon a given quantity or number. NWAD AD.5
A proverb; an old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a wise observation handed down from antiquity. NWAD ADAGE.2
In music, a slow movement. As an adverb, slowly, leisurely, and with grace. When repeated, adagio, adagio, it directs the movement to be very slow. NWAD ADAGIO.2
Adam’s apple, a species of citron [See Citron.] also the prominent part of the throat. NWAD ADAM.2
Ad’am’s needle, the popular name of the yucca, a plant of four species, cultivated in gardens. Of the roots, the Indians made a kind of bread. [See Yucca.] NWAD ADAM.3
A very hard or impenetrable stone; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness. The name has often been given to the load stone; but in modern mineralogy, it has no technical signification. NWAD ADAMANT.2
Adamantine Spar, a genus of earths, of three varieties. The color of the first is gray, with shades of brown or green; the form when regular, a hexangular prism, two sides large and four small, without a pyramid; its surface striated, and with a thin covering of white mica, interspersed with particles of red felspar; its fracture, foliaceous and sparry. The second variety is whiter, and the texture more foliaceous. The third variety is of a reddish brown color. This stone is very hard, and of difficult fusion. NWAD ADAMANTINE.2
A variety of corrundum. NWAD ADAMANTINE.3
To make suitable; to fit or suit; as, to adapt an instrument to its uses; we have provision adapted to our wants. It is applied to things material or immaterial. NWAD ADAPT.2
A saltish concretion on reeds and grass in marshy grounds in Galatia. It is lax and porous, like bastard spunge, and used to clear the skin in leprosy, tetters, etc. NWAD ADARCE.2
1. To set or put together, join or unite, as one thing or sum to another, in an agreegate; as, add three to four, the sum is seven. NWAD ADD.2
2. To unite in idea or consideration; to subjoin. NWAD ADD.3
To what has been alledged, let this argument be added. NWAD ADD.4
3. To increase number. NWAD ADD.5
Thou shalt add three cities more of refuge. Deuteronomy 19:9. NWAD ADD.6
4. To augment. NWAD ADD.7
Rehoboam said, I will add to your yoke. 1 Kings 12:14. NWAD ADD.8
Ye shall not add to the word which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2. NWAD ADD.9
As here used, the verb is intransitive, but there may be an ellipsis. NWAD ADD.10
To add to, is used in scripture, as equivalent to give, or bestow upon. Genesis 30:24; Matthew 6:33. In Galatians 2:6, the word is understood to signify instruction. “In conference they added nothing to me.” In narration, he or they added, is elliptical; he added words, or what follows, or he continued his discourse. NWAD ADD.11
In general, when used of things, add implies a principal thing, to which a smaller is to be annexed, as a part of the whole sum, mass, or number. NWAD ADD.12
To take, or to ascertain tithes. NWAD ADDECIMATE.2
A venomous serpent or viper, of several species. NWAD ADDER.2