1951. R392 A NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. A. A, is the first letter, and first vowel of the alphabet, in all the modern, and in most of the B. Jonson observes, that all our vowels are A, the English article, means one; in A. S. an. See the prefix is dropped; c. g. in Abeodan, to bid; A per se (A by itself), as denoting pre-emi- To resign; to quit, to desert, to forsake; and consequently, to reject or cast away: to repel or Chaucer. Testament of Creseide, v. 78. drive away: to banish. In beaute first so stode she makeles.-Id. Troilus, b. i. Clerc he was god ynou, and gut, as me telleth me ABACK. So that the white was aboue, as the folk y seye, And therewithall abacke she start. ABA'LIENATE, To alienate. ABANDONMENT. Abandonment, n. is used by Cotgrave in v. Abandon. The authorities quoted are very modern: Abandoning appears also to have been a common noun; but the old noun was Abandon: applied to the act, the thing, or the person. He that dredeth God, spareth not to do that him ought to do; and he that loveth God, he wol do diligence to plese God by his werkes, and abandon himself with all his might wel for to do.-Chaucer. The Persones Tale. For he that Yaue whole his hart, in will and thought, Id. The Rom. of the Rose, fol. 127. those forreiners, which came from farre, 'Tis better far the enemies t'aband Beg. Madame wife, they say that I haue dream'd Fr. Abandonner; It. Aban- Shakespeare. Tam. of S. Act i. sc. 1. And by himself given over.-Millon. Scmson Agonistes. Aurel. You form reasons, Just ones, for your abandoning the storms No shelter for her honour.-Ford. Lady's Trial, Act i. sc. 1. Beau. & Fletch. Two Noble Kinsmen, Act v. sc. 1. What is it that Sathan can despaire to perswade men unto, if he can draw them to an unnatural abandoning of life, and pursuit of death.-Hall. Occasionall Medit. 117. Then thought hee it also time to send an ambassage unto Archduke Philip, into Flanders, for the abandoning and dismissing of Perkin.-Bacon. Henry VII. p 126. Ror. I see no crime in her whom I adore, Or if I do, her beauty makes it none: Look on me as a man abandon'd o'er To an eternal lethargy of love. Dryden. Spanish Friar, Act iv. Nor let her tempt that deep, nor make the shore, Where our abandon'd youth she sees, Shipwreck'd in luxury, and lost in ease.-Prior. Ode (1692). He that abandons religion must act in such a contradiction to his own conscience and best judgment, that he abuses and spoils the faculty itself.-Watts. Sermons. Cities then Attract us, and neglected nature pines Abandon'd, as unworthy of our love.-Cowper. Task. b. ii. When thus the helm of justice is abandoned, an universal abandoning of all other posts will succeed. Burke. On Reg. Peace. Let. 4. They amount (says he) to the sacrifice of powers, that have been most nearly connected with us; the direct or indirect annexation to France of all the parts of the continent, from Dunkirk to Hamburgh; an immense accession of territory; and, in one word, the abandonment of the independence of Europe.-Id. ib. p. 81. ABA'SE. To put or bring low, to lower, to depress; to degrade, to humble, to disgrace. Our kynge hath do this thing amisse, So to abesse his roialtee; That euery man it might see, And humbled him in such a wise To them that were of none emprise.-Gower. Conf.Am. b.i. This example was shewed to teache vs, howe the teachers of Gods worde should not grutche to descend from their highnes or perfection, and abase themsolues euen to the lowlines of the weake, thereby to wynne very many to theyr Lorde.-Udall. Erasmus, S. Marke, c. 2. At this tyme also, the kinges maiestie, with the aduice of his privy counsaile, did now purpose not onely the abacyng of the sayd copper moneys, but also ment wholly to reduce them to bollion, to the intent to deliuer fine and good monies for them. The peece of ix pence was abaced to sixpence.-Grafton. Chronicle. Ed. VI. an. 5. And will she yet abase her eyes on me, Shakespeare. Rich. III. Act i. so. 2. If he that abases the prince's coin deserves to die, what is his desert, that instead of the tried silver of God's word, stamps the name and character of God upon base brazen stuff of his own?-Hales. Remains, Ser. 1. There is an abasement because of glory, and there is that lifteth up his head from a low estate.-Ecclus. xx. 2. It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye; as the Jesuits give it in precept; for there may be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances: yet this should be done with a demure abasing of your eye.-Bacon. Essay on Cunning. Let the example of our Lord's humility bring down the haughtiness of men; and when we consider how he abased himself, let us be vile in our own eyes, and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes.-Tillotson. Works, vol. iii. 217. Ser. 135. Absorb'd in that immensity I see, I shrink abas'd, & yet aspire to Thee.-Cowper. Retirement. Heaven was to be earned only by penance and mortification; by the austerities and abasement of a monk, not by the liberal, generous, and spirited conduct of a man. Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 1. ABA'SH, v. The past tense and past part. ABA'SHMENT. S of Abase was anciently written Abaisit, Abayschid; whence the word Abash appears to be formed: and is applied to The feelings of those who are abased, depressed, disgraced, humbled. In Wicliff it is applied to The feelings which overpowered, subdued, the witnesses of the miraculous restoration of the damsel by Christ. Abasshe is found in Gower, used as a substan tive. See BASH. Now is Berwick born doun, abaist is that cuntre. And anoon the damysel roos and walkide: and sche was of twelve yeer, and thei weren abayschid with a great stoneying.-Wiclif. Mark, c. 5. And as the new abashed Nightingale, Chaucer. Troilus, b. iii. fol. 173. Of stature more than wont, stood fore mine eyen. Abashed then I waxe: therewith my heare Gan start right up: my voice stuck in my throte. Surrey. Virgile, b. ii. But the water kepte his course, and wette, at length the kynges [Canute] thyes; wherwith ye kynge abasshed, sterte backe and sayde, all erthly kynges may knowe that theyr powers be vayne, and that none is worthy to have the name of a kynge, but he that has all thynges subiecte to his hestes.-Fabyan, c. 206. I sale to the, thou hast put me in a more greatte abasshement, than the feare of myne enemies.-Golden Boke, Let. 15. Why, then, (you princes) Do you with cheekes abash'd behold our workes, Shakespeare. Tro. & Cres. Act i. sc. 3. For her faint heart was with the frozen cold Basenesse of birth is a great disparagement to some men, especially if they be wealthy, bear office, and come to promotion in a common-wealth: then, if their birth be not auswerable to their calling, and to their fellows, they are much abashed and ashamed of themselves. Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 310. But when he Venus view'd without disguise, Her shining neck beheld, and radiant eyes; Awed and abash'd he turn'd his head aside, Attempting with his robe his face to hide. Congreve. Homer. Hymn to Venus. And harsh austerity, from whose rebuke Young love and smiling wonder shrink away Abash'd and chill of heart, with sager frowns Condemns the fair enchantment. Akenside. Pleasures of Imagination, b. iii. ABA'TE, v. Fr. Abbatre; It. Abbatere; Sp. ABATE, n. Abatir; A. S. Beatan, to beat. ABATEMENT. The word exists also without the ABA TER. prefix A; though more limited by modern usage in its application. See BATE. To beat or press down; to cast down; to lower, to depress; to lessen; to diminish; to reduce. The kyng did samen his men, to abate Gryffyn's pride. R. Brunne, p. 63. For that abatement he chalenges thorgh right.-Id. p. 278. As God saith, the horrible divels shul gon and comen upon the hedes of dampned folk: and this is, for as moche as the higher that they were in this present lif, the more shul they be abated and defouled in helle. Chaucer. Personnes Tales, vol. ii. p. 291. The kynge of Scottes wyth all hys hoste and power entered Norham, and sore abated the walles.-Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 5. into England:-and planted hys siege before the castell of He [the horsse] breaketh the groude wyth the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men. He layeth asyde all feare, hys stomack is not abated, neither starteth he abacke for any swerde. Bible, London, 1589. Job, c. 39. Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is, but to my judgement, your Highnesse is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindnesse appeares as well in the generall dependants, as in the duke himselfe also, and your daughter. Shakespeare. Lear, Act i. sc. 4. A day Will come (hear this, and quake, ye potent great ones) Beaumont and Fletcher. Laws of Candy, Act. v Daniel. Complaint of Rosamond. If we could arrest time, and strike off the nimble wheels of his chariot, and like Joshua, bid the sun stand still, and make opportunity tarry as long as he had occasion for it; this were something to excuse our delay, or at least to mitigate or abate the folly and unreasonableness of it. Tillotson. Works, vol. i. Ser. 14. The triall hereof (whether men weigh heavier dead than alive) cannot so well be made on the body of a man, nor will the difference be sensible in the abate of scruples or dracms. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 7. The greatest tyrants have been those, whose titles were the most unquestioned. Whenever the opinion of right becomes too predominant and superstitious, it is abated by breaking the custom: thus the revolution broke the custom of succession.-Paley, Moral Philosophy, b. vi. c. 2. ABA'WED, i. e. Abashed. Fr. Esbahi. I was abawed for marueile For euer the fairer that it was A'BBACY, n. A'BBEY. Abbas was introduced (says Skinner) into Europe from Syria with the Christian religion. It is derived from the Syriac Abba, Father. The application of this name to persons in monasteries was resisted by St. Jerome, as an infringement of the command to "call no man Father, upon the earth." An abbot; the chief or head of a religious order, house, monastery. Doztren he adde al so, Cecyly het that on And in this time was geuen vnto the kyng by the consent of the great and fatte abbottes, all religious houses that were of the value of three hundred marke and vnder, in hope, that their great monasteryes should haue continued still! but euen at that tyme one sayde in the parliament house, that these were as thornes, but the great abbottes were putrifyed old okes, and they must needes folowe. Grafton. Chron. Hen. VIII. an. 26. The abbot was elected by the monks of the monastery, at least in the greater part of abbacies. Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 1. ABBREVIATE, v. ABBREVIATE, n. ABBREVIATION. ABBREVIATOR. ABBREVIATUre. It. Abbreviare; Sp. Abreviar-from Lat. Brevis ; the Gr. Bpaxus; A. S. Bracan, to break. See ABRIDGE. To break or make short, concise; to shorten, to abridge; to bring or reduce to a smaller space or compass by breaking off, or removing parts. In all theyr wrytynge, [the Frenshe] when they come to any mater that soundyth any thynge to theyr honour, it is wrytten in the longest and mooste shewynge manoure to theyr honour and worshyp. But if it sounde any thynge to theyr dishonoure, than shall it be abreuyatyd or hyd, that the trouthe shall not be knowen.-Fabyan. Hen. III. an. 26. The epistles do conteyne counsayles and aduertisementes in the fourme of orations, recytynge diuers places, as wel out of the olde testament, as the gospels, as it were an abbreuiate, called of the Grekes and Latines, Epitoma. Elyot. The Governor, b. iii. c. 23. O happie Cato Censorine, who with suche as haue folowed his wales, are now sure fro the abatementes of fortune. The Golden Boke, ch. xxv. Hel. O weary night, O! long and tedious night, Of this Joseph, Trogus Pompeius, and also his abreuiator Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East, Justine do write in this manner: Joseph was the yongest That I may backe to Athens by day-light, among the brethren, whose excellent wit they fearing, solde From these, that my poore companie detest. him vnto straynge marchauntes, by whome he was brought Shakespeare. Mid. Night's Dream, Act iii. sc. 2. into Egypt.-Grafton. Chron. The Third Age. |