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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    of the great duke, amicki the four slaves, chained to his pedestal, are very noble sights. Addison. 2. Mingled with; surrounded by; in the ambit of another thing. Jimid my flock with woe my voice I tear, And, but bewitched, who to his flock would moan? Sidney. So hills amid the air, encounter'd hills, ■ Hurl'd to and fro with jaculatiou dire. Milton. What have I done, to name that wealthy swain, The boar amidst my chrystal streams 1 bring, And southern winds to blast my flow'ry spring. Dryden. Amata's breast the fury thus invades, And fires with rage amid the sylvan shades. Dryden. 3. Amongst; conjoined with. What tho' no real voice nor sound Amid their radiant orbs be found ? In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, For ever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine. Jlddison Ami'ss, S-miss. adv. [from a, which, in this form of composition, often signifies ac- cording to, and miss, the English parti- cle, which shows any thing, like the Greek -a-x^ec, to be wrong, as, to mis- count, to count erroneously; to misdo, to commit a crime; amiss therefore sig- nifies not right, or out of order.] 1. Faulty; criminal. For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss, Is yet amiss, when it is truly done. Shaksp. K. John 2. Faultily; criminally. We hope therefore to reform ourselves, if at any time we have done amiss, is not to sever ourselves from the church we were of before. Hooker. 0 ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! Jlddison. 3. In an ill sense. She sigh'd withal, they constru'd all amiss, And thought she wish'd to kill who long'd to kiss. Fairfax. 4. Wrong; improper; unfit. Examples have not generally the force of laws, which all men ought to keep, but of counsels only and persuasions, not amiss to be followed by them, whose case is the like. Hooker. Methinks though a man had all science, and all principles, yet it might not be amiss to have some conscience. Tillotson. 5. Wrong; not according to the perfection of the thing, whatever it be. Your kindred is not much amiss, 'tis true; Yet I am somewhat better born than you. Dryden. I built a wall, and when the masons plaid the knaves, nothing delighted me so much as to stand by, while my servants threw down what was amiss. Swift. 6. Reproachful; irreverent. Every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Mes- hach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because time is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Daniel, iii. 29. 7. Impaired in health; as, I was somewhat amiss yesterday; but am well to-day. 8. A?niss is marked as an adverb, though it cannot always be adverbially render- ed; because it always follows the sub- stantive to which it relates, contrary to the nature of adjectives in English; and though we say the action was amiss, we never say an enniss action. 9. Amiss is used by S/iaks/ieare as a noun substantive. VOL. 1. To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss Hamlet. AlMi'ssion, a-mish'un. n. s. [amissio, Lat] Loss. To Ami't, a-m!t'. v. a. [amitto, Lat.] To lose: a word little in use. Ice is water congealed by the frigidity of the air, whereby it acquireth no new form, but rather a con- sistence or determination of its diffluency, and amit- teth not its essence, but condition of fluidity. Brown's Vulgar Errours. A'mity, am'me-te. 6Urc. s. [amitie, Fr. ami- citia, Lat.] Friendship, whether publick between nations, opposed to war; or among the people; opposed to discord; or between private persons. The prophet David did think, that the very meet- ing of men together, and their accompanying one another to the house of God, should make the bond of their love insoluble, and tie them in a league of inviolable amity. Hooker. The monarchy of Great Britain was in league and amity with all the world. Sir John Davits. You have a noble and true conceit Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly In bearing thus the absence of your Lord. Shaksp. And ye, oh Tyrians, with immortal hate Pursue this race, this service dedicate To my deplored ashes; let there be 'Twixt us and them no league nor amity. Denham. AMMONFAC, am-mo'ne-ak.605 n.s. The name of a drug. Gum Ammoniac is brought from the East Indies, and is supposed to ooze from an umbelliferous plant. Dioscorides says, it is the juice of a kind of ferula growing in Barbary, and the plant is called agasyllis. Pliny calls the tree metapion, which, he says, grows near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, whence the gum takes its name. It ought to be in dry drops, white within, yellowish without, easily fusible, re- sinous, somewhat bitter, and of a very sharp taste and smell, somewhat like garlick. This gum is said to have served the ancients for incense, in their sa- crifices. Savary. Trtvovx. Sal Ammoniac is a volatile salt of two kinds, ancient and modern. The ancient sort, described by Pliny and Dioscorides, was a native salt, generated in those large inns where the crowds of pilgrims, com- ing from the temple of Jupiter Ammon, used to lodge; who travelling upon camels, and those crea- tures in Cyrene, where that celebrated temple stood, urining in the stables, or in the parched sands, out of this urine, which is remarkably strong, arose a kind of salt, denominated sometimes from the tem- ple, Ammoniac, and sometimes from the country, Cyreniac. No more of this salt is produced there; and, from this deficiency, some suspect there never was any such thing: but this suspicion is removed, by the large quantities of a salt, nearly of the same nature, thrown out by mount JEtna. The modern sal ammoniac is made in Egypt; where long-necked glass bottles, filled with soot, a little sea salt, and the urine of cattle, and having their mouths luted with a piece of wet cotton, are placed over an oven or furnace, in a thick bed of ashes, nothing but the necks appearing, and kept there two days and a night, with a continual strong fire. The steam swells up the cotton, and forms a paste at the vent hole, hindering the salts from eva- porating; which stick to the top of the bottle, and are taken out in those large cakes, which they send to England. Only soot exhaled from dung, is the proper ingredient in this preparation; and the dung of camels affords the strongest. Our chymists imitate the Egyptian sal ammoniac, by adding one part of common salt to five of urine; with which some mix that quantity of soot, and put- ting the whole in a vessel, they raise from it, by sublimation, a white, friable, farinaceous substance, which they call sal ammoniac. Chambers. Ammoni'acal, am-mo-ni'a-kal.806 adj. AM 0 [from ammoniac.'] Having the propel ties of ammoniac salt. Human blood calcined, yields no fixed salt; nor is it a sat ammoniac; for that remains immutable after repeated distillations; and distillation destroy; the ammoniacal quality of animal salts, and turns them alkaline: so that it is a salt neither quite fix- ed, nor quite volatile, nor quite acid, nor quite alka- line, nor quite ammoniacal; but soft and benign, approaching nearest to the nature of sal ammoniac. Arbuthnot. Ammunition, am-mu-nish'un. n. s. [sup- posed by some to come from amonitio. which, in the barbarous ages, seems to have signified supply of provision; but it surely may be more reasonably deri- ved from munitio, fortification; choses a munitions, things for the fortresses.* Military stores. They must make themselves defensible against strangers; and must have the assistance of some able military man, and convenient arms and ammunition for their defence. Bacon The colonel staid to put in the ammunition he brought with him; which was only twelve barrels ol powder, and twelve hundred weight of match. Clarendon All the rich mines of learning ransackt are, To furnish ammunition for this war. Denham. But now his stores of ammunition spent, His naked valour is his only guard: Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent, And solitary guns are scarcely heard. Dryden. Ammunition bread, am-mu-nlsh'un- bred. n. s. Bread for the supply of the armies or garrisons. A'mnesty, am'nes-te. n. s. [ct/*.vt)riet.] An act of oblivion; an act by which crimes against the government, to a certain time, are so obliterated, that they can never be brought into charge. I never read of a law enacted to take away the force of all laws, by which a man may safely com- mit upon the last of June, what he would infallibly be hanged for, if he committed it on the first of Ju- ry; by which the greatest criminals may escape, provided they continue long enough in power to an- tiquate their crimes, and, by stifling them a while, deceive the legislature into an amnesty. Swift. Amni'colist, am-nik'ko-list. n. s. [amni- cola, Lat.] Inhabiting near a river. Diet. Amni'genous, am-ned'je-nus.314^. s. [am- nigenus, Lat.] Born of a river. Diet. A'MNION; am'ne-6n.«*6 ) «. ,. [Lat. per- A'MJVIOS, am'ne-6s.160 $ haps fr. «jw®-.] The innermost membrane with which the foetus in the womb is more immediately covered, and with which the rest of the secundines, the chorion, and alantois, are ejected after birth. It is whiter and thin- ner than the chorion. It also contains a nutritious humour, separated by glands for that purpose, with which the foetus is preserved. It is outwardly cloath- ed with the urinary membrane and the chorion, which sometimes stick so close to one another, that they can scarce be separated. It has also its vessels from the same origin as the chorion. Qtiincy. A MO' MUM, a-mo'mum. n. s. [Lat.] A sort of fruit. The commentators on Pliny and Dioscorides sup- pose it to be a fruit different from ours. The modern amomum appears to be the sison of the ancients, or bastard stone-parsley. It resembles the muscat grape. This fruit is brought from the East Indies, and makes part of treacle. It is of a hot spicy taste and smell. Trevoux. Chambers. Amo'ng, a-mung'.1 7 firefi: [amang, Amo'ngst, a-mungst'.16*5 geman^Sax.]