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n. [ F. abstinence, L. abstinentia, fr. abstinere. See Abstain. ] 1. The act or practice of abstaining; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. [ 1913 Webster ]

The abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes, a very great one. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The practice of self-denial by depriving one's self of certain kinds of food or drink, especially of meat. [ 1913 Webster ]

Penance, fasts, and abstinence,
To punish bodies for the soul's offense. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Abstinence. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. abstinent, L. abstinens, p. pr. of abstinere. See Abstain. ] Refraining from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect who appeared in France and Spain in the 3d century. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. With abstinence. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

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

a. [ F. acoustique, Gr. &unr_; relating to hearing, fr. &unr_; to hear. ] Pertaining to the sense of hearing, the organs of hearing, or the science of sounds; auditory. [ 1913 Webster ]

Acoustic duct, the auditory duct, or external passage of the ear. --
Acoustic telegraph, a telegraph making audible signals; a telephone. --
Acoustic vessels, brazen tubes or vessels, shaped like a bell, used in ancient theaters to propel the voices of the actors, so as to render them audible to a great distance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A medicine or agent to assist hearing. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to acoustics. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In relation to sound or to hearing. Tyndall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One versed in acoustics. Tyndall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Names of sciences in -ics, as, acoustics, mathematics, etc., are usually treated as singular. See -ics. ] (Physics.) The science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena, and laws. [ 1913 Webster ]

Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very considerable branch of physics. Sir J. Herschel. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The science is, by some writers, divided, into diacoustics, which explains the properties of sounds coming directly from the ear; and catacoustica, which treats of reflected sounds or echoes. [ 1913 Webster ]

pr>(&unr_;), n. [ Gr. &unr_;; &unr_; extreme + &unr_; order, line, verse. ] 1. A composition, usually in verse, in which the first or the last letters of the lines, or certain other letters, taken in order, form a name, word, phrase, or motto. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A Hebrew poem in which the lines or stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular order (as Psalm cxix.). See Abecedarian. [ 1913 Webster ]

Double acrostic, a species of enigma, in which words are to be guessed whose initial and final letters form other words. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. Pertaining to, or characterized by, acrostics. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. After the manner of an acrostic. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. 1 advocating a cause or engaged in activism [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Pertaining to matters indifferent in faith and practice. Shipley. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ . } (Aëronautics) A small plane or surface, usually capable of adjustment but not of manipulation, for preserving lateral balance in an aëroplane or flying machine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Tending to adjust. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That may be burnt. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. adustio, fr. adurere, adustum: cf. F. adustion. ] 1. The act of burning, or heating to dryness; the state of being thus heated or dried. [ Obs. ] Harvey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Surg.) Cauterization. Buchanan. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

a. [ L. aestivalis, aestivus, fr. aestas summer. ] Of or belonging to the summer; as, æstival diseases. [ Spelt also estival. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ L. aestivare, aestivatum. ] 1. To spend the summer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) To pass the summer in a state of torpor. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Spelt also estivate. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) The state of torpidity induced by the heat and dryness of summer, as in certain snails; -- opposed to hibernation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) The arrangement of the petals in a flower bud, as to folding, overlapping, etc.; prefloration. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Spelt also estivation. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Asiatic epithet for Rhea or Cybele. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Gr. 'a priv. + &unr_; knowing, &unr_; to know. ] Professing ignorance; involving no dogmatic; pertaining to or involving agnosticism. -- Ag*nos"tic*al*ly adv. [1913 Webster]

n. One who professes ignorance, or denies that we have any knowledge, save of phenomena; one who supports agnosticism, neither affirming nor denying the existence of a personal Deity, a future life, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. of or pertaining to agnosticism; agnostic.
Syn. -- agnostic. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither asserts nor denies. Specifically: (Theol.) The doctrine that the existence of a personal Deity, an unseen world, etc., can be neither proved nor disproved, because of the necessary limits of the human mind (as sometimes charged upon Hamilton and Mansel), or because of the insufficiency of the evidence furnished by physical and physical data, to warrant a positive conclusion (as taught by the school of Herbert Spencer); -- opposed alike dogmatic skepticism and to dogmatic theism. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Gr. &unr_;. See Agonism. ] Pertaining to violent contests, bodily or mental; pertaining to athletic or polemic feats; athletic; combative; hence, strained; unnatural. [ 1913 Webster ]

As a scholar, he [ Dr. Parr ] was brilliant, but he consumed his power in agonistic displays. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an agonistic manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The science of athletic combats, or contests in public games. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. agrestis, fr. ager field. ] Pertaining to fields or the country, in opposition to the city; rural; rustic; unpolished; uncouth. “Agrestic behavior.” Gregory. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Agrestic. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fr. Gr. &unr_;. ] A genus of grasses, including species called in common language bent grass. Some of them, as redtop (Agrostis vulgaris), are valuable pasture grasses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Affected with albinism. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Relating to or practicing alchemy. [ 1913 Webster ]

Metaphysical and alchemistical legislators. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

a., n., a., n. See Alchemic, Alchemist, Alchemistic, Alchemy. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. altruiste, a. See Altruism.. ] Regardful of others; beneficent; unselfish; -- opposed to egoistic or selfish. Bain. -- Al`tru*is"tic*al*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. [ L. ambustio. ] (Med.) A burn or scald. [ Obs. ] Blount. [ 1913 Webster + AS ]

a. [ L. amethystinus, Gr. &unr_;. ] 1. Resembling amethyst, especially in color; bluish violet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Composed of, or containing, amethyst. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Causing loss of memory. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of or pertaining to amnesia. [ PJC ]

n. A drug causing loss of memory. Stedman. [ PJC ]

a. [ Gr. 'amfi` + blastiko`s tending to sprout. ] (Biol.) Segmenting unequally; -- said of telolecithal ova with complete segmentation. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Amylum + -plastic. ] Starch-forming; amylogenic. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

{ } a. Relating or attributed to the Anabaptists, or their doctrines. Milton. Bp. Bull. [ 1913 Webster ]