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
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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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    It imports the misrepresentation of the qualities of things and actions, to the common apprehensions of men, abusing their minds with false notions; and so, by this artifice, making evil pass for good, and good for evil, in all the great concerns of life. Soulh's Sermons. Nor be with all these tempting words abused; These tempting words were all to Sappho us'd. Pope. 4. To treat with rudeness; to reproach. I am no strumpet; but of life as honest, As you that thus abuse me. Shaksp. Othello. But he mocked them, and laughed at them, and abtised them shamefully, and spake proudly. 1 Mac. vii. 34. Some praise at morning, what they blame at night; But ahvays think the last opinion right. A muse by these is, like a mistress, us'd; This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abused. Pope's Essay on Criticism. The next criticism seems to be introduced for no other reason, but to mention Mr. BickerstafT, whom the author every where endeavours to imitate and abuse. Addison. Abu'se, a-bu'se.437 n. s. [from the verb abuse.] 1. The ill use of any thing. The casting away things profitable for the suste- nance of man's life, is an unthankful abuse of the fruits of God's good providence towards mankind. Hooker, b. v. § 9. Little knows Any, but God alone, to value right The good before him, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. Paradise Lost, b. iv. 2. A corrupt practice, bad custom. The nature of things is such, that, if abuses be not remedied, they will certainly increase. Swift for Advancement of Religion. 3. Seducement. Was it not enough for him, to have deceived me: and, through the deceit, abused me; and, after the abuse, forsaken me: but, that he must now, of all the company, and before all the company, lay want of beauty to my charge? Sidney, b. ii. 4. Unjust censure, rude reproach, con- tumely. I dark in light, expos'd To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong. Sampson Agonistes. Abu'se r, a-bu'-zur. n. s. [from the verb abuse.] 1. He that mal.esan ill use. 2. He that deceives. Next thou, the abuser of thy prince's car. Denham's Sophy. 3. He, that reproaches with rudeness. 4. A ravisher, a violater. Abu'sive, a-lm'-siv.428 adj. [from abuse.'] 1. Practising abuse. The tongue mov'd gently first, and speech was low; Till wrangling science taught it noise and show, And wicked wit arose, thy most abusive foe. Pope's Miscellanies. Dame Nature, as the learned shew, Provides each animal its foe: Hounds hunt the hare; the wily fox Devours your geese, the wolf your flocks: Thus envy pleads a natural claim, To persecute the muse's fame; On poets, in all times, abusive; From Homer, down to Pope, inclusive. StrifCs Miscel. 2. Containing abuse; as, an abusive lam- poon. Next, Comedy appear'd with great applause, Till her licentious and abusive tongue Waken'd the magistrate's coercive power. Roscom. 3. Decei»ful; a sense little used, yet not improper. It is verified, by a number of examples; that what- soever is gained by an abusive treaty, ought to be restored in integrum. Bacon's Considerations on War icith Spain. Abu'sively, a-bu'-siv-le. adv. [irom abuse.] 1. Improperly, by a wrong use. The oil (abusively called spirit) of roses swims at the top of the water, in the form of a white butter; which I remember not to have observed in any other oil drawn in any limbeck. Boyle's Sceptical Chymist. 2. Reproachfully. Abu'siveness, a-bu'-slv-n£ss. n. s. [from abuse.] The quality of being abusive; foulness of language. Pick out of mirth, like stones out of thy ground, Profaneness, filthiness, abusiveness: These are the scum, with which coarse wits abound; The fine may spare these well, yet not go less. Herbert. To ABU'T, a-but'. v. n. obsolete, [aboutir, to touch at the end, Fr.] To end at, to border upon; to meet, or appi'oach to, with the particle ufion. Two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The narrow perilous ocean parts asunder. Shakspeare's Henry V. The Looes are two several corporations, distin- guished by the addition of east and west, abutting upon a navigable creek, and joined by a fair bridge of many arches. Careio. Abu'ttal, a-but'-tal.157. n. s. [from abut.] The butting or boundaries of any land. A writing, declaring on what lands, high- ways, or other places, it does abut. Diet. Abu'tment, a-but'-me'nt. n. s. [from abut.] That, which abuts, or borders, upon another. ABv'sM,a-bim'. n. s.[abys7neyo\d Fr. now written contractedly abime.] A gulf; the same with abyss. My good stars, that were my former guides, Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires Into the abysm of hell. Shakspeare's Ant. and Cleop. Aby'ss, a-biss'.n. s. [abyssus, Lat. «£We-©- bottomless, Gr.] 1. A depth without bottom. Who shall tempt with wand'ring feet The dark, unbottom'd, infinite abyss; And, through the palpable obscure, find out This uncouth way. Milton's Paradise Lost. Thy throne is darkness, in th' abyss of light; A blaze of glory, that forbids the sight. 0 teach me, to believe thee thus conceal'd; And search no farther, than thyself reveal'd. Dryden. Jove was not more pleas'd With infant nature, when his spacious hand Had rounded this huge ball of earth and seas, To give it the first push, and see it roll Along the vast abyss. Addison, Guard. No. 110. 2. A great depth, a gulf; hyperbolically. The yawning earth disclos'd th' abyss of hell. Dry den's Virg. Georg. i. 3 In a figurative sense; that, in which any thing is lost. For sepulchres themselves must crumbling fall In time's abyss, the common grave of all. Dryden's Juvenal, Sat. x. If, discovering how far we have clear- and distinct ideas, we confine our thoughts within the contempla- tion of those things, that are'within the reach of our understandings; and launch not out into that abyss of darkness, out of a presumption that nothing is be- yond our comprehension. Locke. 4. The body of waters, supposed at the centre of the earth. A U A We are here to consider, what is generally un- derstood by the great abyss, in the common explica- tion of the deluge; and 'tis commonly interpreted, either to be the sea, or subterraneous waters, hid in the bowels of the earth. Burnet's Theory. 5. In the language of divines, hell. From that insatiable abyss, Where flames devour, and serpents hiss, Promote me to thy seat of bliss. Roscommon. Ac, Ak, or Are, ak, ak, a'ke. Being initials in the names of places, as Acton, signify an oak, from the Saxon ac, an oak. Gibson's Camden. ACA'CIA, a-ka'-she-a.eos n. s. [Lat.] 1. A drug, brought from Egypt; which, being supposed the inspissated juice of a tree, is imitated by the juice of sloes, boiled to ihe same consistence. Dictionnaire de Comm. Savary. Tre- voux. 2. A tree, commonly so called here; though different from that, which produces the true acacia; and therefore termed fiseu- docacia, or Virginian acacia. Miller. Acade'mial, ak-a-de'-me-al. adj. [from academy^] Relating to an academy, be- longing to an academy. Acadf/mian, ak-a-de'-me-an. n. s. [from academy.] A scholar of an academy or university; a member ot an university. Wood, in his Athena? Ojconienses, mtD- tions a great feast made for the academi- ans. Acade'mick, ak-a-de'm'ik. n. s. [from academy.] A student of an university. A young academic shall dwell upon a journal, that treats of trade, and be lavish in the praise of the author; while persons, skilled in those subjects, hear the tattle with contempt. Watts's Improvement of the Mini. Acade'mick, ak-a-de'm'ik. adj. [aca- drmicus, Lat] Relating to an university. While through poetic scenes the genius roves, Or wanders wild in academic groves. Dunciad, b. iv. I. 481. Acade'mical, ak-a-d£m'me-kal. adj. [academicus, Lat.] Belonging to an uni- versity. He drew him first into the fatal circle, from a kind of resolved privateness: where, after the aca- demical life, he had taken such a taste of the rural, as I have heard him say, that he could well have bent his mind to a retired course. Wotton. Academi'cian, ak-a-de-mish'an, n. s. [academicien, Fr.] The member of an academy. It is generally used, in speak- ing of the professors in the academies of France. Aca'demist, a-cad'de-mist, or ak'a-ddm- ist. n. s. [from acadnny.] The member of an academy. This is not often used. It is observed, by the Parisian academists, that some amphibious quadrupeds, particularly the sea- calf or seal, hath his epiglottis extraordinarily large. Ray on the Creation. A'CADEMY, a-kad'de-me, or aka- d£m'e n. s. [anciently, ai'd properly, with the accent on the first syllable, now fre- quently on the second Accdemia, Lat. from Academus of Athens, whose house was turned intoa school, from whom the Groves of Academe, in Milton.] I. An assembly or society of men, uniting for the promotion of some art. Our court shall be a little academy,