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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![ACQ, tional, things of your own and foreign countries; and, above all, be well acquainted with God and your- selves; learn animal nature, and the workings of your own spirits. Watts^s Logick. 2. To inform. With is more in use before the object, than of But for some other reasons, my grave Sir, Which is not fit you know, I not acquaint My father of this business. Shaksp. Twelfth Night. A friend in the country acquaints me, that two or three men of the town are got among them, and have brought words and phrases, which were never before in those parts. Taller. Acquaintance, ak-kwantanse. n.s. [ac- cointance, Fr.] 1. The state of being acquainted with; fa- miliarity, knowledge. It is applied, as well to persons as things, with the par- ticle with. Nor was his acquaintance less with the famous poets of his age, than icith the noblemen and ladies. Dryden. Our admiration of a famous man lessens, upon our nearer acquaintance icith him; and we seldom hear of a celebrated person, without a catalogue of some notorious weaknesses and infirmities. Addison. Would we be admitted into an acquaintance with God, let us study to resemble him. We must be partakers of a divine nature, in order to partake of this high privilege and alliance. Atterbury. 2. Familiar knowledge; simply, without a preposition. Brave soldier, pardon me, That any accent, breaking from my tongue, Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. Shakspeare. This keeps the understanding long in converse with an object, and long converse brings acquain- tance. South. In what manner he lived with those, who were of his neighbourhood and acquaintance; how obliging his carriage was to them, what kind offices he did, and was always ready to do them; I forbear parti- cularly to say. Jilterbury. 3. A slight or initial knowledge, short of friendship, as applied to persons. I hope, I am pretty near seeing you; and there- fore I would cultivate an acquaintance: because, if you do not know me, when we meet; you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face; for my face and letters are counterparts of my heart. Swift to Pope. A long noviciate of acquaintance should precede ♦he vows of friendship. Bolingbroke. 4. The person with whom we are acquaint- ed; him, of whom we have some know- ledge, without the intimacy of friend- ship. In this sense, the plural is, in some authors, acquaintance; in others, ac- quaintances. But she, all vow'd unto the red-cross knight, His wand'ring peril closely did lament; Ne in this new acquaintance could delight, But her dear heart with anguish did torment. Fairy Queen. That young men navel under some tutor, I allow well; so that he be such a one, that may be able to tell them, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth. Bacon. This, my lord, has justly acquired you as many friends, as there are persons, who have the honour to be known to you; mere acquaintance you have none; you have drawn them all into a nearer line; and they, who have conversed with you, are for ever after inviolably yours. Dryden. We see, he is ashamed of his nearest acquain- tances. Boyle against Bentley. Acquainted, ak-kwant'ed. adj. [from acquaint.'] Familiar,well known; notnew. ac a Now call we our high court of parliament; That war or peace, or both at once, may be As things acquainted and familiar to us. Shaksp. Acque'st, ak-kwest'. n. s. [acquest, Fr from acquerir; written by some acquist, with a view to the word acquire, or ac- quisita.] Attainment, acquisition; the thing gained. New acquests are more burden than strength. Bacon. Mud, reposed near the ostea of rivers, makes con- tinual additions to the land, thereby excluding the sea; and preserving these shells, as trophies and signs of its new acquests and encroachments. Woodward. To ACQUIE'SCE, ak-kwe-ess'.x;. n. [ac- quiescer, Fr. acquiescere, Lat.] To rest in, or remain satisfied with, without op- position or discontent. It has in, before the object. Others will, upon account of the receivedness of the proposed opinion, think it rather worthy to be examined, than acquiesced in. Boyle. Neither a bare approbation of, nor a mere wish- ing, nor unactive complacency in; nor, lastly, a natural inclination to things virtuous and good, can pass before God for a man's willing of such things: and, consequently, if men, upon this account, will needs take up and acquiesce in an airy ungrounded persuasion, that they will those things which really they not will; they fall thereby into a gross and fatal delusion. South. He hath employed his transcendent wisdom and power, that by these he might make way for his benignity; as the end, wherein they ultimately ac- quiesce. Grew. Acquiescence, ak-kwe-ess'ense. n. s. [from acquiesce.] 1. A silent appearance of content; distin- guished on one side, from avowed con- sent; on the other, from opposition. Neither from any of the nobility, nor of the cler- gy, who were thought most averse from it, there appeared any sign of contradiction to that; but an entire acquiescence in all, the bishops thought fit to do. Clarendon. 2. Satisfaction, rest, content. Many indeed have given over their pursuits after fame, either from disappointment, or from expe- rience of the little pleasure which attends it, or the better informations or natural coldness of old age; but seldom from a full satisfaction and acquiescence in their present enjoyments of it. Addison. 3. Submission, confidence. The greatest part of the world take up their per- suasions concerning good and evil, by an implicit faith, and a full acquiescence in the word of those, who shall represent things to them under these cha- racters. South. Acquirable, ak-kwi'ra-bl.40S adj. [from acquire.] That, which may be acquired or obtained; attainable. Those rational instincts, the connate principles engraven in the human soul, though they are truths acquirable and deducible by rational consequence and argumentation, yet seem to be inscribed in the very crasis and texture of the soul, antecedent to any acquisition by industry or the exercise of the discur- sive faculty in man. Hale's Origin of Mankind. If the powers of cogitation and volition and sen- sation, are neither inherent in matter as such, nor acquirable to matter by any motion or modification of it; it necessarily follows, that they proceed from some cogitative substance, some incorporeal inhabi- tant within us, which we call spirit and soul. Bentley. To ACQUI'RE, ak-kwire'. v.a. [acquerir, Fr. acquiro, Lat.] 1. To gain, by one's own labour or power; to obtain, what is not received from na- ture, or transmitted by inheritance. ACQ, Better to leave undone, than by our deed Acquire too high a fame; while he, we serve, '»• away. Shaksp. Antony and Cleopatra. 2. To come to; to attain. Motion cannot be perceived, without the percep- tion of its terms; viz. the parts of space, which it immediately left; and those, which it next acquires. Glanville's Scepsis. Acqui'red, ak-kwl'red.362 fiartici/i. adj, [from acquire.] Gained by one's self; in opposition to those things, which arc be- stowed by nature. We are seldom at ease, and free enough from the solicitation of our natural or adopted desires- but a constant succession of uneasinesses, out of thai stock, which natural wants or acquired habits have heaped up, take the will in their turns. Locke. Acqui'rer, ak-kwi'rur.08 n. s. [from ac- quire.] The person, that acquires; a gainer. Acquirement, ak-kwire'ment. n. s. [from acquire.] That, which is acquired; gain; attainment. The word may be properly used, in opposition to the gifts of nature. These his acquirements, by industry, were exceed- ingly both enriched and enlarged, by many excel- lent endowments of nature. Hayward on Edward VI. By a content and acquiescence in every species of truth, we embrace the shadow thereof; or so much, as may palliate its just and substantial acquirements'. Brown's Vulgar Errours. It is veiy difficult, to lay down rules for the ac- quirement of a taste: the faculty must, in some de- gree, be born with us. Addison. Acquisition, ak-kwe-zish'shun. n. * [acquisitio, Lat ] 1. The act of acquiring or gaining. Each man has but a limited right to the good things of the world; and the natural allowed way by which he is to compass the possession of thest things, is by his own industrious acquisition of them South. 2. The thing gained; acquirement. Great Sir, all acquisition Of glory as of empire, here I lay before Your royal feet. DenhanVs Sophj. A state can never arrive to its period, in a more deplorable crisis; than, when some prince lies ho- vering like a vulture, to dismember its dying carcase; by which means it becomes only an acquisition to some mighty monarchy, without hopes of a resur- rection. Swift. Acquisitive, ak-kwlz'ze-tlv.157 adj. [ac- quisitivus, Lat.] That, which is acquired or gained. He died not in his acquisitive, but in his native soil; nature herself, as it were, claiming a final in- terest in his body, when fortune had done with him. Wotlon. Aoqui'st, ak-kwist'. n.s. [See Acquest.] Acquirement; attainment; gain. Not in use. His servent he, with new acquist Of true experience from this great event, With peace and consolation hath dismist. Milton. To ACQUIT, ak-kwit'.41 v. a. [acquiter, Fr. See Quit.] 1. To set free. Ne do I wish (for wishing were but vain) To be acquit from my continual smart; But joy, her thralf for ever to remain, And yield for pledge my poor captiv'd heart. Spenser. 2 To clear from a charge of guilt; to ab- solve; opposed to condemn, either simply with an accusative, as, the jury acquitted him; or with the particles from or of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21133803_0154.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
