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n. [ L. Of unknown origin. ] A mystical word or collocation of letters written as in the figure. Worn on an amulet it was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A material used for grinding, as emery, sand, powdered glass, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. adactus, p. p. of adigere. ] To compel; to drive. [ Obs. ] Fotherby. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + &unr_; finger. ] (Zool.) (a) Without fingers or without toes. (b) Without claws on the feet (of crustaceous animals). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. the Babylonian god of storms and wind. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ F. adage, fr. L. adagium; ad + the root of L. aio I say. ] An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb. [ 1913 Webster ]

Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ”
Like the poor cat i' the adage. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Axiom; maxim; aphorism; proverb; saying; saw; apothegm. See Axiom. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to an adage; proverbial. “Adagial verse.” Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖ n. A piece of music in adagio time; a slow movement; as, an adagio of Haydn. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖a. & adv. [ It. adagio; ad (L. ad) at + agio convenience, leisure, ease. See Agio. ] (Mus.) Slow; slowly, leisurely, and gracefully. When repeated, adagio, adagio, it directs the movement to be very slow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The name given in the Bible to the first man, the progenitor of the human race. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (As a symbol) “Original sin;” human frailty. [ 1913 Webster ]

And whipped the offending Adam out of him. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Adam's ale, water. [ Coll. ] --
Adam's apple. 1. (Bot.) (a) A species of banana (Musa paradisiaca). It attains a height of twenty feet or more. Paxton. (b) A species of lime (Citris limetta). 2. The projection formed by the thyroid cartilage in the neck. It is particularly prominent in males, and is so called from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit (an apple) sticking in the throat of our first parent. --
Adam's flannel (Bot.), the mullein (Verbascum thapsus). --
Adam's needle (Bot.), the popular name of a genus (Yucca) of liliaceous plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. same as adamancy.
Syn. -- obstinacy, obduracy, unyieldingness, adamancy [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. 1. obstinacy.
Syn. -- obstinacy, obduracy, unyieldingness, adamance [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. 1. North American orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) bearing a single leaf and yellowish-brown flowers.
Syn. -- puttyroot. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. adamaunt, adamant, diamond, magnet, OF. adamant, L. adamas, adamantis, the hardest metal, fr. Gr. 'ada`mas, -antos; 'a priv. + dama^, n to tame, subdue. In OE., from confusion with L. adamare to love, be attached to, the word meant also magnet, as in OF. and LL. See Diamond, Tame. ] 1. A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Opposed the rocky orb
Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Lodestone; magnet. [ Obs. ] “A great adamant of acquaintance.” Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

As true to thee as steel to adamant. Greene. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. adamantēus. ] Of adamant; hard as adamant. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. adamantinus, Gr. &unr_;. ] 1. Made of adamant, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; as, adamantine bonds or chains. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Min.) Like the diamond in hardness or luster. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ad + E. ambulacral. ] (Zool.) Next to the ambulacra; as, the adambulacral ossicles of the starfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Of or pertaining to Adam, or resembling him. [ 1913 Webster ]

Adamic earth, a name given to common red clay, from a notion that Adam means red earth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Adam. ] 1. A descendant of Adam; a human being. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of visionaries, who, professing to imitate the state of Adam, discarded the use of dress in their assemblies. [ 1913 Webster ]

See under Adam. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Dancing. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Dangling. Browning. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ From Adanson, a French botanist. ] (Bot.) A genus of great trees related to the Bombax. There are two species, Adansonia digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread of Africa and India, and Adansonia Gregorii, the sour gourd or cream-of-tartar tree of Australia. Both have a trunk of moderate height, but of enormous diameter, and a wide-spreading head. The fruit is oblong, and filled with pleasantly acid pulp. The wood is very soft, and the bark is used by the natives for making ropes and cloth. D. C. Eaton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖[ Babylonian. ] n. 1. a demigod or first man: "seed of mankind"; sometimes identified with Adam. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. 1 extinct small mostly diurnal lower primates that fed on leaves and fruit; abundant in North America and Europe 30 to 50 million years ago; their descendents probably include the lemurs and lorises; some authorities consider them ancestral to anthropoids but others consider them only cousins.
Syn. -- Adapid group [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Fitted; suited. [ Obs. ] Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Adapted; p. pr. & vb. n. Adapting. ] [ L. adaptare; ad + aptare to fit; cf. F. adapter. See Apt, Adept. ] To make suitable; to fit, or suit; to adjust; to alter so as to fit for a new use; -- sometimes followed by to or for. [ 1913 Webster ]

For nature, always in the right,
To your decays adapts my sight. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

Appeals adapted to his [ man's ] whole nature. Angus. [ 1913 Webster ]

Streets ill adapted for the residence of wealthy persons. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being adapted. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. The quality of being adaptable; suitableness. “General adaptability for every purpose.” Farrar. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. adaptation, LL. adaptatio. ] 1. The act or process of adapting, or fitting; or the state of being adapted or fitted; fitness. “Adaptation of the means to the end.” Erskine. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The result of adapting; an adapted form. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. 1 having a capacity for adaptation. Opposed to maladaptive.
Syn. -- adaptive, adaptative [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Adaptive. Stubbs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being adapted; suitableness; special fitness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who adapts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Chem.) A connecting tube; an adopter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Adaptation. Cheyne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Suited, given, or tending, to adaptation; characterized by adaptation; capable of adapting. Coleridge. -- A*dapt"ive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. The quality of being adaptive; capacity to adapt. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Astron.) an optical system used in some telescopes since the 1980's which rapidly changes the shape of the primary reflecting mirror to adjust for distortions of light which are caused by atmospheric turbulence. By reducing the distortions caused by the atmosphere, telescopes fitted with such optics can achieve a higher resolving power than normal telescopes with static mirrors. [ PJC ]

n. 1. (Palaeontology) the evolutionary generation of multiple specialized life forms from one ancestral form, evidenced in the fossil record. The inverse of extinction. [ PJC ]

adv. In a suitable manner. [ R. ] Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Adaptedness. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Adaptive. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Heb. adär. ] The twelfth month of the Hebrew ecclesiastical year, and the sixth of the civil. It corresponded nearly with March. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L. adarce, adarca, Gr. &unr_;. ] A saltish concretion on reeds and grass in marshy grounds in Galatia. It is soft and porous, and was formerly used for cleansing the skin from freckles and tetters, and also in leprosy. Dana. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. A fine cotton cloth of India. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ OE. adaunten to overpower, OF. adonter; à (L. ad) + donter, F. dompter. See Daunt. ] To daunt; to subdue; to mitigate. [ Obs. ] Skelton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. OE. adawe of dawe, AS. of dagum from days, i. e., from life, out of life. ] To subdue; to daunt. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The sight whereof did greatly him adaw. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. & i. [ OE. adawen to wake; pref. a- (cf. Goth. us-, Ger. er-) + dawen, dagon, to dawn. See Daw. ] To awaken; to arouse. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A man that waketh of his sleep
He may not suddenly well taken keep
Upon a thing, ne seen it parfitly
Till that he be adawed verily. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]