Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1st 100 Pages). Noah Webster
or reaction is obtained, as the cylinder head of a steam engine, the fulcrum of a lever, etc. (c) In breechÐloading firearms, the block behind the barrel which receives the pressure due to recoil.
AÏbut¶tal (#), n. The butting or boundary of land, particularly at the end; a headland.
Spelman.
AÏbut¶ter (#), n. One who, or that which, abuts. Specifically, the owner of a contiguous estate; as, the abutters on a street or a river.
AÏbuzz¶ (#), a. [Pref. aÏ + buzz.] In a buzz; buzzing. [Colloq.]
Dickens.
AÏby¶, AÏbye¶ } (#), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Abought (#).] [AS. ¾bycgan to pay for; pref. ¾Ï (cf. Goth. usÏ, Ger. erÏ, orig. meaning out) + bycgan to buy. See Buy, and cf. Abide.] 1. To pay for; to suffer for; to atone for; to make amends for; to give satisfaction. [Obs.]
Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.
Shak.
2. To endure; to abide. [Obs.]
But nought that wanteth rest can long aby.
Spenser.
AÏbysm¶ (#), n. [OF. abisme; F. abime, LL. abyssimus, a superl. of L. abyssus; Gr. ?. See Abyss.] An abyss; a gulf. ½The abysm of hell.¸
Shak.
AÏbys¶mal (#), a. Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.
Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space.
Carlyle.
AÏbys¶malÏly, adv. To a fathomless depth; profoundly. ½Abysmally ignorant.¸
G. Eliot.
AÏbyss¶ (#), n. [L. abyssus a bottomless gulf, fr. Gr. ? bottomless; ? priv. + ? depth, bottom.] 1. A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable, and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit.
Ye powers and spirits of this nethermost abyss.
Milton.
The throne is darkness, in the abyss of light.
Dryden.
2. Infinite time; a vast intellectual or moral depth.
The abysses of metaphysical theology.
Macaulay.
In unfathomable abysses of disgrace.
Burke.
3. (Her.) The center of an escutcheon.
µ This word, in its leading uses, is associated with the cosmological notions of the Hebrews, having reference to a supposed illimitable mass of waters from which our earth sprung, and beneath whose profound depths the wicked were punished.
Encyc. Brit.
AÏbyss¶al (#), a. [Cf. Abysmal.] Belonging to, or resembling, an abyss; unfathomable.
Abyssal zone (Phys. Geog.), one of the belts or zones into which Sir E. Forbes divides the bottom of the sea in describing its plants, animals, etc. It is the one furthest from the shore, embracing all beyond one hundred fathoms deep. Hence, abyssal animals, plants, etc.
Ab·ysÏsin¶iÏan (#), a. Of or pertaining to Abyssinia.
Abyssinian gold, an alloy of 90.74 parts of copper and 8.33 parts of zink.
Ure.
Ab·ysÏsin¶iÏan, n. 1. A native of Abyssinia.
2. A member of the Abyssinian Church.
AÏca¶ciÏa (#), n. (Antiq.) A roll or bag, filled with dust, borne by Byzantine emperors, as a memento of mortality. It is represented on medals.
AÏca¶cia (#), n.; pl. E. Acacias (#), L. Acaci‘ (#). [L. from Gr. ?; orig. the name of a thorny tree found in Egypt; prob. fr. the root ak to be sharp. See Acute.] 1. A genus of leguminous trees and shrubs. Nearly 300 species are Australian or Polynesian, and have terete or vertically compressed leaf stalks, instead of the bipinnate leaves of the much fewer species of America, Africa, etc. Very few are found in temperate climates.
2. (Med.) The inspissated juice of several species of acacia; Ð called also gum acacia, and gum arabic.
Ac¶aÏcin, Ac¶aÏcine (#), n. Gum arabic.
Ac·aÏdeme¶ (#), n. [L. academia. See Academy.] An academy. [Poetic]
Shak.
Ac·aÏde¶miÏal (#), a. Academic. [R.]
Ac·aÏde¶miÏan (#), n. A member of an academy, university, or college.
{ Ac·aÏdem¶ic (#), Ac·aÏdem¶icÏal (#), } a. [L. academicus: cf. F. acad‚migue. See Academy.] 1. Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the Academic sect or philosophy.
2. Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific. ½Academic courses.¸ Warburton. ½Academical study.¸ Berkeley.
Ac·aÏdem¶ic, n. 1. One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist.
Hume.
2. A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician.
Ac·aÏdem·icÏalÏly, adv. In an academical manner.
Ac·aÏdem¶icÏals (#), n. pl. The articles of dress prescribed and worn at some colleges and universities.
Ac·aÏdeÏmi¶cian (#; 277), n. [F. acad‚micien. 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.
2. A collegian. [R.]
Chesterfield.
Ac·aÏdem¶iÏcism (#), n. 1. A tenet of the Academic philosophy.
2. A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy.
AÏcad¶eÏmism (#), n. The doctrines of the Academic philosophy. [Obs.]
Baxter.
AÏcad¶eÏmist (#), n. [F. academiste.] 1. An Academic philosopher.
2. An academician. [Obs. or R.]
Ray.
AÏcad¶eÏmy (#), n.; pl. Academies (#). [F. acad‚mie, L. academia. Cf. Academe.] 1. A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.
2. An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.
3. A place of training; a school. ½Academies of fanaticism.¸
Hume.
4. A society of learned men united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science; as, the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology.
5. A school or place of training in which some special art is taught; as, the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music.
Academy figure (Paint.), a drawing usually half lifeÐsize, in crayon or pencil, after a nude model.
AÏca¶diÏan (#), a. Of or pertaining to Acadie, or Nova Scotia. ½Acadian farmers.¸ Longfellow. Ð n. A native of Acadie.
Acadian epoch (Geol.), an epoch at the beginning of the American paleozoic time, and including the oldest American rocks known to be fossiliferous. See Geology. Ð Acadian owl (Zo”l.), a small North American owl (Nyctule Acadica); the sawÐwhet.
Ø Ac¶aÏjou (#), n. [F. See Cashew.] (Bot.) (a) The cashew tree; also, its fruit. See Cashew. Ð (b) The mahogany tree; also, its timber.
Ac¶aÏleph (#), Ac·aÏle¶phan (#) } n.; pl. Acalephs (#), Acalephans (#). [See Acaleph‘.] (Zo”l.) One of the Acaleph‘.
Ø Ac·aÏle¶ph‘ (#), n. pl. [NL., from Gr. ?, a nettle.] A group of Coelenterata,