A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers : to which are prefixed a history of the language, and an English grammar (Volume 1).
- Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784.
- Date:
- 1819
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers : to which are prefixed a history of the language, and an English grammar (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![abstract.'] Having the power or quality of abstracting. Abstractly, ab-strakt'-le. adv. [from abstract.] In an abstract manner, ab- solutely, without reference to any thing else. Matter, abstractly and absolutely considered, can- not have born an infinite duration now past and ex- pired. Bentley's Sermons. ABSTRA'cTNESs,ab-strakt'-ndss.w.s. [from abstract.'] Subtilty; separation from all matter or common notion. I have taken some pains, to make plain and fa- miliar to your thoughts, truths; which, established prejudice, or the abstractness of the ideas themselves, might render difficult. Locke. Abstracted, ab-strlkt'-M.fiart. adj. [ab- strictus, Lat.] Unbound. Diet. To Abstri'nge, ab-strinje'. v. a. To un- bind. Diet. To ABSTHU'DE, ab-strude'. v. a. [ab- strudo, Lat.] To thrust off, or pull away. Diet. Abstru'se, ab-struse'.*27 adj. [abstrusus, Lat. thrust out of sight.] 1. Hidden. Th' eternal eye, whose sight discerns Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, And from within the golden lamps that burn Nightly before him, saw, without their light, Rebellion rising. Milton's Paradise Lost, b. v. I. 712. 2. Difficult; remote from conception or apprehension. It is opposed to obvious and easy. So spake our Sire, and by his countenance seem'd Ent'ring on studious thoughts abstruse. Paradise Lost, b. viii. The motions and figures within the mouth are abstruse, and not easy to be distinguished, especially those of the tongue; which is moved, through the help of many muscles, so easily and habitually and variously; that we are scarce able, to give a judg- ment of motions and figures thereby framed. Holder. No man could give a rule of the greatest beau- ties, and the knowledge of them was so abstruse, that there was no manner of speaking, which could express them. Dryd. Dufresnoy. Abstru'sely, ab-struse'-le. adv. In an abstruse manner; obscurely, not plainly, or obvious^. Abstru'seness, ab-struse'-ness. n. s. [from abstruse.] The quality of being abstruse; difficulty, obscurity. It is not oftentimes so much, what the scripture gays, as what some men persuade others it says, that makes it seem obscure; and that, as to some other passages that are so indeed (since it is the tbstruseness of what is taught in them, that makes them almost inevitably so) it is little less saucy, upon such a score, to find fault with the style of the scripture, than to do so with the author for making us but men. Boyle on the Scripture. Abstru'sity, ab-stru'-se-te.1 n. s. [from abstruse.] 1. Abstruseness. 2. That which is abstruse. A word sel- dom used. Authors are also suspicious, nor greedily to be swallowed; who pretend to write of secrets, to de- liver antipathies, sympathies, and the occult ab- strusities of tilings. Brown's Vulg. Errours. To Absu'me, ab-sume'. v. a. [absumo, Lat] To bring to an end by a gradual waste; to eat up. An uncommon word. That which had been burning an infinite time could never be burnt; no, not so much as any part of it: for, if it had burned part after part, the whole must needs be absumed in a portion of time. Hale's Origin of Mankind. ABSU'RDjab-surd'. adj. [absurdus, Lat.] 1. Unreasonable; without judgment, as used of men. Seeming wise men may make shift to get opinion; but let no man chuse them for employment: for cer- tainly you had better take for business a man some- what absurd, than over formal. Bacon. A man, who cannot write with wit on a proper subject, is dull and stupid; but one, who shews it in an improper place, is as impertinent and absurd. Jlddison, Spectator, No. 291. 2. Inconsistent, contrary to reason; used of sentiments or practices. The thing itself appeared desirable to him; and accordingly he could not but like and desire it: but then, it was after a very irrational absurd way, and contrary to all the methods and principles of a ra- tional agent; which never wills a thing really and properly, but it applies to the means, by which it is to be acquired. South's Sermons. But grant, that those can conquer, these can cheat; 'Tis phrase absurd, to call a villain great: Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. Pope's Essay on Man. Absu'rdity, ab-sur'-de-te.811 n. s. [from absurd.] 1. The quality of being absurd; want of judgment, applied to men; want of pro- priety, applied to things. How clear soever this idea of the infinity of num- ber be, there is nothing more evident, than the ab- surdity of the actual idea of an infinite number. Locke. 2. That which is absurd; as, his travels were full of absurdities. In which sense it has a plural. That satisfaction we receive from the opinion of some pre-eminence in ourselves, when we see the absurdities of another, or when we reflect on any past absurdities of our own. Jlddison. Absu'rdly, ab-surd'-le. adv. [from ab- surd.] After an absurd manner; impro- perly; unreasonably. But man, we find the only creature; Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries, Forbear, With obstinacy fixes there; And, where his genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs. Sioift's Miscel. We may proceed yet further, with the atheist; and convince him, that not only his principle is absurd, but his consequences also as absurdly deduced from it. Bentley's Sermons. Absu'b dness, ab-siird'-ness. n. s. [from ab- surd.] The quality of being absurd; in- judiciousness; impropriety. See Absur- dity; which is more frequently used. Abu'ndance, a-bun'-danse. n. s. [abun- dance, Ft.] 1. Plenty; a sense chiefly poetical. At the whisper of thy word, Crown'd abundance spreads my board. Crashaw. The doubled charge, his subjects' love supplies; Who, in that bounty, to themselves are kind: So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise, And, in his plenty, their abundance find. Ih'yd. Ann. Mir. 2. Great numbers. The river Inn is shut up between mountains, co- vered with woods of fir-trees. Abundance of pea- sants are employed, in hewing down the largest of these trees; that, after they are barked and cut into shape, are tumbled down. Addison on Italy. 3. A great quantity. Their chief enterprise was the recovery of the Holy Land: in which worthy, but extremely ditiicult, action, it is lamentable to remember, what abun- dance of noble blood hath been shed, with very small benefit unto the Christian state. Sir Walter Raleigh's Essays. 4. Exuberance; more than enough. For well I wot, most mighty sovereign, That all this famous antique history, Of some, th' abundance of an idle brain, Will judged be, and painted forgery. Spenser. Abu'ndant, a-bun'-dant. adj. [abu?idans, Lat.] 1. Plentiful. Good, the more Communicated, more abundant grows; The author not impair'd, but honour'd more. Paradise Lost, b. v. 2. Exuberant. If the vessels are in a state of too great rigidity, so as not to yield, a strong projectile motion occa- sions their rupture, and haemorrhages, especially in the lungs, where the blood is abundant. Arbuthnot on Aliments. 3. Fully stored. It is followed sometimes by in, commonly by ivilh. The world began but some ages before these were found out; and was abundant with all things at first; and men not very numerous; and therefore were not put so much to the use of their wits, to find out ways for living commodiously. Burnet. 4. It is applied generally to things, some- times to persons. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Exod. xxxiv. 6. Abu'ndantly, a-bun'-dant-le. adv. [from abundant.] In plenty. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. Genesis, i. 20. God on thee Abundantly his gifts hath also pour'd; Inward and outward both, his image fair. Paradise Lost, b. viii. 2. Amply, liberally, more than sufficiently. Ye saw the French tongue abundantly purified. Sprat. Heroic poetry has ever been esteemed the great- est work of human nature. In that rank has Aristotle placed it: and Longinus is so full of the like ex- pressions, that he abundantly confirms the other's testimony. Dryden's State of Innocence, Pref. What the example of our equals wants of au- thority, is abundantly supplied in the imaginations of friendship, and the repeated influences of a constant conversation. Rogers's Serm. To ABU'SE, a-buze'.4 v. a. [abutor, abusus, Lat.] In abuse the verb, s has the sound of z; in the noun, the common sound. 1. To make an ill use of. They, that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away. 1 Cm: vii. 31. He has fixed and determined the time for our re- pentance, beyond which he will no longer await the perverseness of men, no longer suffer his compassion to be abused. Rogers's Sermons. 2. To violate; to defile. Arachne figured, how Jove did abuse Europa like a bull, and on his back Her through the sea did bear. Spenser. 3. To deceive; to impose upon, He perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he1 is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. Sluikspeare's Hamlet. The world hath been much abused, by the opinion of making gold: the work itself, I judge to be pos- sible; but the means, hitherto propounded, art (in the practice) full of error. Bacon's A*. Hist. No. 126,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21133803_0143.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
