Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages). Noah Webster
affair is one that has gone wrong, and is difficult to adjust.
C. J. Smith.
3. Perverse; adverse; untoward. [Obs.] ½Awkward casualties.¸ ½Awkward wind.¸
Shak.
O blind guides, which being of an awkward religion, do strain out a gnat, and swallow up a cancel.
Udall.
Syn. Ð Ungainly; unhandy; clownish; lubberly; gawky; maladroit; bungling; ?nelegant; ungraceful; unbecoming. Ð Awkward, Clumsy, Uncouth. Awkward has a special reference to outward deportment. A man is clumsy in his whole person, he is awkward in his gait and the movement of his limbs. Clumsiness is seen at the first view. Awkwardness is discovered only when a person begins to move. Hence the expressions, a clumsy appearance, and an awkward manner. When we speak figuratively of an awkward excuse, we think of a want of ease and grace in making it; when we speak of a clumsy excuse, we think of the whole thing as coarse and stupid. We apply the term uncouth most frequently to that which results from the want of instruction or training; as, uncouth manners; uncouth language.
Ð Awk¶wardÏly (?), adv. Ð Awk¶wardÏness, n.
Awl (?), n. [OE. aul, awel, al, AS. ?l, awel; akin to Icel. alr, OHG. ¾la, G. ahle, Lith. yla, Skr. ¾r¾.] A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinetmakers, etc. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad awl, saddler's awl, shoemaker's awl, etc.
Aw¶less (?), a. 1. Wanting reverence; void of respectful fear. ½Awless insolence.¸
Dryden.
2. Inspiring no awe. [Obs.] ½The awless throne.¸
Shak. [Written also aweless.]
Aw¶lessÏness, n. The quality of being awless.
Awl¶Ðshaped· (?), a. 1. Shaped like an awl.
2. (Nat. Hist.) Subulate. See Subulate.
Gray.
Awl¶wort· (?), n. [Awl + wort.] (Bot.) A plant (Subularia aquatica), with awlÐshaped leaves.
Awm (?m), n. See Aam.
Awn (?), n. [OE. awn, agune, from Icel. ”gn, pl. agnir; akin to Sw. agn, Dan. avne, Goth. ahana, OHG. agana, G. agen, ahne, chaff, Gr. ?, AS. egla; prob. from same root as E. acute. See 3d Ear. ?1.] (Bot.) The bristle or beard of barley, oats, grasses, etc., or any similar bristlelike appendage; arista.
Gray.
Awned (?), a. (Bot.) Furnished with an awn, or long bristleÐshaped tip; bearded.
Gray.
Awn¶ing (?), n. [Origin uncertain: cf. F. auvent awing, or Pers. ¾wan,¾wang, anything suspended, or LG. havening a place sheltered from wind and weather, E. haven.] 1. A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind.
2. (Naut.) That part of the poop deck which is continued forward beyond the bulkhead of the cabin.
Awn¶inged (?), a. Furnished with an awning.
Awn¶less, a. Without awns or beard.
Awn¶y (?), a. Having awns; bearded.
AÏwork¶ (?), adv. [Pref. aÏ + work.] At work; in action. ½Set awork.¸
Shak.
AÏwork¶ing, adv. [Pref. aÏ + working.] At work; in action. [Archaic or Colloq.]
Spenser.
AÏwreak¶, AÏwreke¶,} (?), v. t. & i. To avenge. [Obs.] See Wreak.
AÏwrong¶ (?), adv. [Pref. aÏ + wrong.] Wrongly.
Ford.
AÏwry¶ (?), adv. & a. [Pref. aÏ + wry.] 1. Turned or twisted toward one side; not in a straight or true direction, or position; out of the right course; distorted; obliquely; asquint; with oblique vision; as, to glance awry. ½Your crown's awry.¸
Shak.
Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry.
Into the devious air.
Milton.
2. Aside from the line of truth, or right reason; unreasonable or unreasonably; perverse or perversely.
Or by her charms
Draws him awry, enslaved.
Milton.
Nothing more awry from the law of God and nature than that a woman should give laws to men.
Milton.
Aw¶some (?), a. Same as Awesome.
Ax, Axe,} (?), n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, ‘x, acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel. ”x, ”xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ”kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr. ?, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.] A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.
The ancient battleÐax had sometimes a double edge.
µ The word is used adjectively or in combination; as, axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft; axÐshaped; axlike.
This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable: as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe, etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its exclusion here.
½The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has of late become prevalent.¸
New English Dict. (Murray).
Ax (?), v. t. & i. [OE. axien and asken. See Ask.] To ask; to inquire or inquire of.
µ This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in the United States. ½And Pilat axide him, Art thou kyng of Jewis?¸ ½Or if he axea fish.¸
Wyclif.
½The king axed after your Grace's welfare.¸
Pegge.
Ax¶al (?), a. [See Axial.] [R.]
Axe (?), Axe¶man (?), etc. See Ax, Axman.
Ax¶iÏal (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to an axis; of the nature of, or resembling, an axis; around an axis.
To take on an axial, and not an equatorial, direction.
Nichol.
2. (Anat.) Belonging to the axis of the body; as, the axial skeleton; or to the axis of any appendage or organ; as, the axial bones.
Axial line (Magnetism), the line taken by the magnetic force in passing from one pole of a horseshoe magnet to the other.
Faraday.
Ax¶iÏalÏly (?), adv. In relation to, or in a line with, an axis; in the axial (magnetic) line.
Ax¶il (?), n. [L. axilla. Cf. Axle.] (Bot.) The angle or point of divergence between the upper side of a branch, leaf, or petiole, and the stem or branch from which it springs.
Gray.
Ax¶ile (?), a. Situated in the axis of anything; as an embryo which lies in the axis of a seed.
Gray.
Ø AxÏil¶la (?), n.; pl. Axillae (?). [L.] (Anat.) The armpit, or the cavity beneath the junction of the arm and shoulder.
2. (Bot.) An axil.
Ax¶ilÏlar (?), a. Axillary.
Ax¶ilÏlaÏries (?), Ax¶ilÏlars (?),} n. pl. (Zo”l.) Feathers connecting the under surface of the wing and the body, and concealed by the closed wing.