*aton*

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

n. the absence of a key; alternative to the diatonic system.
Syn. -- atonalism. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Atoned p. pr. & vb. n. Atoning. ] [ From at one, i. e., to be, or cause to be, at one. See At one. ] 1. To agree; to be in accordance; to accord. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He and Aufidius can no more atone
Than violentest contrariety. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To stand as an equivalent; to make reparation, compensation, or amends, for an offense or a crime. [ 1913 Webster ]

The murderer fell, and blood atoned for blood. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

The ministry not atoning for their former conduct by any wise or popular measure. Junius. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To set at one; to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To unite in making. [ Obs. & R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The four elements . . . have atoned
A noble league. Ford. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make satisfaction for; to expiate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Or each atone his guilty love with life. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Literally, a setting at one.) Reconciliation; restoration of friendly relations; agreement; concord. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

By whom we have now received the atonement. Rom. v. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

He desires to make atonement
Betwixt the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Satisfaction or reparation made by giving an equivalent for an injury, or by doing of suffering that which will be received in satisfaction for an offense or injury; expiation; amends; -- with for. Specifically, in theology: The expiation of sin made by the obedience, personal suffering, and death of Christ. [ 1913 Webster ]

When a man has been guilty of any vice, the best atonement be can make for it is, to warn others. Spectator. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Phocians behaved with, so much gallantry, that they were thought to have made a sufficient atonement for their former offense. Potter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Day of Atonement (Jewish Antiq.), the only fast day of the Mosaic ritual, celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishri), according to the rites described in Leviticus xvi. Also called Yom Kippur. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who makes atonement. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ See At one. ] [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Down he fell atones as a stone. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. atonique. See Atony. ] 1. (Med.) Characterized by atony, or lack of vital energy; as, an atonic disease. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Gram.) Unaccented; as, an atonic syllable. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Destitute of tone vocality; surd. Rush. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Gram.) A word that has no accent. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An element of speech entirely destitute of vocality, or produced by the breath alone; a nonvocal or surd consonant; a breathing. Rush. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Med.) A remedy capable of allaying organic excitement or irritation. Dunglison. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. 1 lack of normal muscular tension or tonus.
Syn. -- atony. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_; slackness; 'a priv. + &unr_; tone, strength, &unr_; to stretch: cf. F. atonie. ] (Med.) Want of tone; weakness of the system, or of any organ, especially of such as are contractile. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. L. Automata E. Automatons [ L. fr. Gr. &unr_;, neut. of &unr_; self-moving; &unr_; self + a root ma, man, to strive, think, cf. &unr_; to strive. See Mean, v. i. ] 1. Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action. Huxley. [ 1913 Webster ]

So great and admirable an automaton as the world. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

These living automata, human bodies. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A self-moving machine, or one which has its motive power within itself; -- applied chiefly to machines which appear to imitate spontaneously the motions of living beings, such as men, birds, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bâton. See Baston. ] 1. A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal; the baton of a conductor in musical performances. [ 1913 Webster ]

He held the baton of command. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Her.) An ordinary with its ends cut off, borne sinister as a mark of bastardy, and containing one fourth in breadth of the bend sinister; -- called also bastard bar. See Bend sinister. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. katatonos, stretching down, depressed, fr. kata` down + to`nos stretching, straining, tone (sound). Stedman. ] (Psychiatry) an abnormal behavioral syndrome characterized by stupor, negativism, and muscular rigidity, sometimes alternating with purposeless excitement, and seen most frequently in schizophrenia; called also catatonic schizophrenia. [ PJC ]

adj. 1. of or pertaining to catatonia; suffering from catatonia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. appearing mentally stupefied, unresponsive, and motionless, or almost so; seemingly unaware of one's environment. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

n. a person suffering from catatonia. [ PJC ]

a. [ L. Catonionus. ] Of, pertaining to, or resembling, the stern old Roman, Cato the Censor; severe; inflexible. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Ciclatoun. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Gilded leather. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. diatonicus, diatonus, Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, fr. &unr_; to stretch out; dia` through + &unr_; to stretch: cf. F. diatonique. See Tone. ] (Mus.) Pertaining to the scale of eight tones, the eighth of which is the octave of the first. [ 1913 Webster ]

Diatonic scale (Mus.), a scale consisting of eight sounds with seven intervals, of which two are semitones and five are whole tones; a modern major or minor scale, as distinguished from the chromatic scale. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a diatonic manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fr. Gr. "ype`rbaton, fr. "yperbato`s transposed, fr. "yperbai`nein to step over; "ype`r over + bai`nein to step. ] (Gram.) A figurative construction, changing or inverting the natural order of words or clauses; as, “echoed the hills” for “the hills echoed.” [ 1913 Webster ]

With a violent hyperbaton to transpose the text. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Gr. ke`ras, -atos, horn + &unr_; puncture. ] (Med.) The operation of removing a cataract by thrusting a needle through the cornea of the eye, and breaking up the opaque mass. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. Latten, 1. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mus.), The natural diatonic scale, which has semitones between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth notes, and whole tones between the other notes; the scale of the major mode, of which the third is major; also called major scale. See Scale, and Diatonic. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Physiology) A hormone secreted by the pineal gland. Chemically it is N-acety-5-methoxytryptamine. Research has indicated that there are daily rhythms in secretion of melatonin, in particular due to the depressing effect on melatonin production by light received by the retina. Conversely it appears that melatonin may influence the circadian rhythms of animals. There is some experimental evidence that administration of melatonin may increase the amount of sleep in people with sleep disorders. However, the evidence is not convincing and the effect is not profound. Nevertheless, the deregulation of melatonin and its availability over-the-counter has led to many people taking melatonin to help sleep, without consulting a physician. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

A role for melatonin in sleep facilitation has been inferred from its effect on electroencephalogram patterns, but it has not been possible to demonstrate that wakefulness sleep cycles are driven by periodic accumulation, depletion, or regeneration of melatonin. Uwe Ackermann, Essentials of Human Physiology, 1992

a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling, Neoplatonism or the Neoplatonists. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A Neoplatonist. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Neo- + Platonism. ] A pantheistic eclectic school of philosophy, of which Plotinus was the chief (a. d. 205-270), and which sought to reconcile the Platonic and Aristotelian systems with Oriental theosophy. It tended to mysticism and theurgy, and was the last product of Greek philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who held to Neoplatonism; a member of the Neoplatonic school. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Palato-, and Nares. ] (Anat.) The posterior nares. See Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F., fr. parer to parry + tonnerre thunderbolt. ] A conductor of lightning; a lightning rod. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. patte d'once paw of an ounce. ] (Her.) Having the arms growing broader and floriated toward the end; -- said of a cross. See Illust. 9 of Cross. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A follower of Plato; a Platonist. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. Platonicus, Gr. &unr_;: cf. F. platonique. ] 1. Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical. [ 1913 Webster ]

Platonic bodies, the five regular geometrical solids; namely, the tetrahedron, hexahedron or cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. --
Platonic love, a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; -- a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate. --
Platonic year (Astron.), a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; -- called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 26, 000 years. Barlow. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a Platonic manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. Platonisme. ] 1. The doctrines or philosophy by Plato or of his followers. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Plato believed God to be an infinitely wise, just, and powerful Spirit; and also that he formed the visible universe out of preëxistent amorphous matter, according to perfect patterns of ideas eternally existent in his own mind. Philosophy he considered as being a knowledge of the true nature of things, as discoverable in those eternal ideas after which all things were fashioned. In other words, it is the knowledge of what is eternal, exists necessarily, and is unchangeable; not of the temporary, the dependent, and changeable; and of course it is not obtained through the senses; neither is it the product of the understanding, which concerns itself only with the variable and transitory; nor is it the result of experience and observation; but it is the product of our reason, which, as partaking of the divine nature, has innate ideas resembling the eternal ideas of God. By contemplating these innate ideas, reasoning about them, and comparing them with their copies in the visible universe, reason can attain that true knowledge of things which is called philosophy. Plato's professed followers, the Academics, and the New Platonists, differed considerably from him, yet are called Platonists. Murdock. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An elevated rational and ethical conception of the laws and forces of the universe; sometimes, imaginative or fantastic philosophical notions. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato. Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Platonized p. pr. & vb. n. Platonizing. ] To adopt the opinion of Plato or his followers. Milner. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To explain by, or accomodate to, the Platonic philosophy. Enfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who Platonizes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Raccoon. ] A small rat. [ Obs. ] Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Sp. zapaton, a large shoe, F. sabot a wooden shoe. ] A round-toed, armed covering for the feet, worn during a part of the sixteenth century in both military and civil dress. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Ciclatoun. ] A kind of gilt leather. See Checklaton. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_; an army. ] Of or pertaining to an army. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., fr. Gr. &unr_;; te`tra- (see Tetra-) + &unr_; a letter. ] The mystic number four, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four letters among some ancient nations; as, the Hebrew JeHoVaH, Greek qeo`s, Latin deus, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Not capable of being brought into harmony; irreconcilable. “Unatonable matrimony.” [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Incapable of being atoned for; inexpiable. [ 1913 Webster ]