Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
SUMMER — SUPERFICE
SUMMER, n. One who casts up an account.
SUMMER, n. With us, the season of the year comprehended in the months June, July and August; during which time, the sun being north of the equator, shines more directly upon this part of the earth, which, together with the increased length of the days, renders this the hottest period of the year. In latitudes south of the equator, just the opposite takes place, or it is summer there when it is winter here.
The entire year is also sometimes divided into summer and winter, the former signifying the warmer and the latter the colder part of the year.
SUMMER, v.i. To pass the summer or warm season.
The fowls shall summer upon them. Isaiah 18:6.
SUMMER, v.t. To keep warm. [Little used.]
SUMMER, n.
1. A large stone, the first that is laid over columns and pilasters, beginning to make a cross vault; or a stone laid over a column, and hollowed to receive the first haunce of a platband.
2. A large timber supported on two stone piers or posts, serving as a lintel to a door or window, etc.
3. A large timber or beam laid as a central floor timber, inserted into the girders, and receiving the ends of the joists and supporting them. This timber is seen in old buildings in America and in France. In America, it is wholly laid aside. It is called in England summer-tree.
SUMMER-COLT, n. The undulating state of the air near the surface of the ground when heated. [Not used in America.]
SUMMER-CYPRESS, n. A plant, a species of Chenopodium.
SUMMER-FALLOW, n. [See Fallow.] Naked fallow; land lying bare of crops in summer.
SUMMER-FALLOW, v.t. To plow and work repeatedly in summer, to prepare for wheat or other crop.
SUMMER-HOUSE, n. A house or apartment in a garden to be used in summer.
1. A house for summer’s residence.
SUMMERSET, n. A high leap in which the heels are thrown over the head.
SUMMER-WHEAT, n. Spring wheat.
SUMMING, ppr. of sum. Adding together.
SUMMIST, n. One that forms an abridgment. [Little used.]
SUMMIT, n. [L. summitas, from summus, highest.]
1. The top; the highest point; as the summit of a mountain.
2. The highest point or degree; utmost elevation. The general arrived to the summit of human fame.
SUMMON, v.t. [L. submoneo; sub and moneo.]
1. To call, cite or notify by authority to appear at a place specified, or to attend in person to some public duty, or both; as, to summon a jury; to summon witnesses.
The parliament is summoned by the king’s writ or letter.
Nor trumpets summon him to war.
2. To give notice to a person to appear in court and defend.
3. To call or command.
Love, duty, safety summon us away.
4. To call up; to excite into action or exertion; with up. Summon up all your strength or courage.
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
SUMMONED, pp. Admonished or warned by authority to appear or attend to something; called or cited by authority.
SUMMONER, n. One who summons or cites by authority. In England, the sheriff’s messenger, employed to warn persons to appear in court.
SUMMONING, ppr. Citing by authority to appear or attend to something.
SUMMONS, n. with a plural termination, but used in the singular number; as a summons is prepared. [L. submoneas.]
A call by authority or the command of a superior to appear at a place named, or to attend to some public duty.
This summons he resolved not to disobey.
He sent to summon the seditious and to offer pardon; but neither summons nor pardon was regarded.
1. In law, a warning or citation to appear in court; or a written notification signed by the proper officer, to be served on a person, warning him to appear in court at a day specified, to answer to the demand of the plaintiff.
SUMOOM, n. A pestilential wind of Persia. [See Simoom.]
SUMP, n. In metallurgy, a round pit of stone, lined with clay, for receiving the metal on its first fusion.
1. A pond of water reserved for salt-works.
2. In mining, a pit sunk below the bottom of the mine.
SUMPTER, n. A horse that carries clothes or furniture; a baggage-horse; usually called a pack-horse.
SUMPTION, n. [L. sumo, sumptus.] A taking. [Not in use.]
SUMPTUARY, a. [L. sumptuarius, from sumptus, expense.]
Relating to expense. Sumptuary laws or regulations are such as restrain or limit the expenses of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc. Sumptuary laws are abridgments of liberty, and of very difficult execution. They can be justified only on the ground of extreme necessity.
SUMPTUOSITY, n. [from sumptuous.] Expensiveness; costliness. [Not in use.]
SUMPTUOUS, a. [L. sumptuosus.] Costly; expensive; hence, splendid; magnificent; as a sumptuous house or table; sumptuous apparel.
We are too magnificent and sumptuous in our tables and attendance.
SUMPTUOUSLY, adv. Expensively; splendidly; with great magnificence.
SUMPTUOUSNESS, n. Costliness; expensiveness.
I will not fall out with those who can reconcile sumptuousness and charity.
1. Splendor; magnificence.
SUN, n.
1. The splendid orb or luminary which, being in or near the center of our system of worlds, gives light and heat to all the planets. The light of the sun constitutes the day, and the darkness which proceeds form its absence, or the shade of the earth, constitutes the night. Psalm 136:8.
2. In popular usage, a sunny place; a place where the beams of the sun fall; as, to stand in the sun, that is, to stand where the direct rays of the sun fall.
3. Any thing eminently splendid or luminous; that which is the chief source of light or honor. The natives of America complain that the sun of their glory is set.
I will never consent to put out the sun of sovereignty to posterity.
4. In Scripture, Christ is called the sun of righteousness, as the source of light, animation and comfort to his disciples.
5. The luminary or orb which constitutes the center of any system of worlds. The fixed stars are supposed to be suns in their respective systems.
Under the sun, in the world; on earth; a proverbial expression.
There is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9.
SUN, v.t. To expose to the sun’s rays; to warm or dry in the light of the sun; to insolate; as, to sun cloth; to sun grain.
--Then to sun thyself in open air.
SUNBEAM, n. [sun and beam.] A ray of the sun. Truth written with a sunbeam, is truth made obviously plain.
Gliding through the even on a sunbeam.
SUN-BEAT, a. [sun and beat.] Struck by the sun’s rays; shone brightly on.
SUN-BRIGHT, a. [sun and bright.] Bright as the sun; like the sun in brightness; as a sun-bright shield; a sun-bright chariot.
How and which way I may bestow myself
To be regarded in her sun-bright eye.
SUN-BURNING, n. [sun and burning.] The burning or tan occasioned by the rays of the sun on the skin.
SUN-BURNT, a. [sun and burnt.] Discolored by the heat or rays of the sun; tanned; darkened in hue; as a sunburnt skin.
Sunburnt and swarthy though she be.
1. Scorched by the sun’s rays; as a sunburnt soil.
SUNCLAD, a. [sun and clad.] Clad in radiance or brightness.
SUNDAY, n. The christian sabbath; the first day of the week, a day consecrated to rest from secular employments, and to religious worship. It is called also the Lord’s day. Many pious persons however discard the use of Sunday, and call the day the sabbath.
SUNDER, v.t.
1. To part; to separate; to divide; to disunite in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; as, to sunder a rope or cord; to sunder a limb or joint; to sunder friends, or the ties of friendship. The executioner sunders the head from the body at a stroke. A mountain may be sundered by an earthquake.
Bring me lightning, give me thunder;
--Jove may kill, but ne’er shall sunder.
2. To expose to the sun. [Provincial in England.]
SUNDER, n. In sunder, in tow.
He cutteth the spear in sunder. Psalm 46:9.
SUNDERED, pp. Separated; divided; parted.
SUNDERING, ppr. Parting; separating.
SUN-DEW, n. [sun and dew.] A plant of the genus Drosera.
SUN-DIAL, n. [sun and dial.] An instrument to show the time of day, by means of the shadow of a gnomon or style on a plate.
SUN-DRIED, a. [sun and dry.] Dried in the rays of the sun.
SUNDRY, a. Several; divers; more than one or two. [This word, like several, is indefinite; but it usually signifies a small number, sometimes many.]
I have composed sundry collects.
Sundry foes the rural realm surround.
SUNFISH, n. [sun and fish.] A name of the diodon, a genus of fishes of a very singular form, appearing like the fore part of the body of a very deep fish amputated in the middle.
The sunfish is the Tetraodon mola of Linne.
1. The basking shark.
SUNFLOWER, n. [sun and flower.] A plant of the genus Helianthus; so called from the form and color of its flower, or from its habit of turning to the sun. The bastard sunflower is of the genus Helenium; the dwarf sunflower is of the genus Rudbeckia, and another of the genus Tetragonotheca; the little sunflower is of the genus Cistus.
SUNG, pret. and pp. of sing.
While to his harp divine Amphion sung.
SUNK, pret. and pp. of sink.
Or toss’d by hope, or sunk by care.
SUNLESS, a. [sun and less.] Destitute of the sun or its rays; shaded.
SUNLIKE, a. [sun and like.] Resembling the sun.
SUNNY, a. [from sun.] Like the sun; bright.
1. Proceeding from the sun; as sunny beams.
2. Exposed to the rays of the sun; warmed by the direct rays of the sun; as the sunny side of a hill or building.
Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores.
3. Colored by the sun.
Her sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.
SUNPROOF, a. [sun and proof.] Impervious to the rays of the sun.
SUNRISE, SUNRISING, n. [sun and rise.] The first appearance of the sun above the horizon in the morning; or more generally, the time of such appearance, whether in fair or cloudy weather.
1. The east.
SUNSET, SUNSETTING, n. [sun and set.] The descent of the sun below the horizon; or the time when the sun sets; evening.
SUNSHINE, n. [sun and shine.] The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, or the place where they fall.
But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from th’ equator.
1. A place warmed and illuminated; warmth; illumination.
The man that sits within a monarch’s heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favor.
SUNSHINE, SUNSHINY, a. Bright with the rays of the sun; clear, warm or pleasant; as a sunshiny day; sunshiny weather.
1. Bright like the sun.
--Flashing beams of that sunshiny shield.
SUP, v.t. To take into the mouth with the lips, as a liquid; to take or drink by a little at a time; to sip.
There I’ll sup
Balm and nectar in my cup.
SUP, v.i. To eat the evening meal.
When they had supped, they brought Tobias in.
SUP, v.t. To treat with supper.
Sup them well. [Not in use.]
SUP, n. A small mouthful, as of liquor or broth; a little taken with the lips; a sip.
Tom Thumb got a little sup.
SUPER, a Latin preposition, Gr. signifies above, over, excess. It is much used in composition.
SUPERABLE, a. [L. superabilis, form supero, to overcome.]
That may be overcome or conquered. These are superable difficulties.
SUPERABLENESS, n. The quality of being conquerable or surmountable.
SUPERABLY, adv. So as may be overcome.
SUPERABOUND, v.i. [super and abound.] To be very abundant or exuberant; to be more than sufficient. The country super-abounds with corn.
SUPERABOUNDING, ppr. A bounding beyond want or necessity; abundant to excess or a great degree.
SUPERABUNDANCE, n. More than enough; excessive abundance; as a superabundance of the productions of the earth.
SUPERABUNDANT, a. Abounding to excess; being more than is sufficient; as superabundant zeal.
SUPERABUNDANTLY, adv. More than sufficiently.
SUPERACIDULATED, a. [super and acidulated.] Acidulated to excess.
SUPERADD, v.t. [super and add.] To add over and above; to add to what has been added.
1. To add or annex something extrinsic.
The strength of a living creature, in those external motions, is something distinct from and superadded to its natural gravity.
SUPERADDED, pp. Added over and above.
SUPERADDING, ppr. Adding over and above; adding something extrinsic.
SUPERADDITION, n. [super and addition.]
1. The act of adding to something, or of adding something extraneous.
2. That which is added.
This superaddition is nothing but fat.
SUPERADVENIENT, a. [L. superadveniens.]
1. Coming upon; coming to the increase or assistance of something.
When a man has done bravely by the superadvenient assistance of his God--
2. Coming unexpectedly. [This word is little used.]
SUPERANGELIC, a. [super and angelic.] Superior in nature or rank to the angels. One class of Unitarians believe Christ to be a superangelic being.
SUPERANNUATE, v.t. [L. super and annus, a year.] To impair or disqualify by old age and infirmity; as a superannuated magistrate.
SUPERANNUATE, v.i. To last beyond the year. [Not in use.]
SUPERANNUATED, pp. Impaired or disqualified by old age.
SUPERANNUATION, n. The state of being too old for office of business, or of being disqualified by old age.
SUPERB, a. [L. superbus, proud, from super.]
1. Grand; magnificent; as a superb edifice; a superb colonnade.
2. Rich; elegant; as superb furniture or decorations.
3. Showy; pompous; as a superb exhibition.
4. Rich; splendid; as a superb entertainment.
5. August; stately.
SUPERBLY, adv. In a magnificent or splendid manner; richly; elegantly.
SUPERCARGO, n. [super and cargo.] An officer or person in a merchant’s ship, whose business is to manage the sales and superintend all the commercial concerns of the voyage.
SUPERCELESTIAL, a. [super and celestial.] Situated above the firmament or great vault of heaven.
SUPERCILIARY, a. [L. super and cilium, the eyebrow.] Situated or being above the eyebrow.
The superciliary arch, is the bony superior arch of the orbit.
SUPERCILIOUS, a. [L. superciliosus. See above.]
1. Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; as a supercilious officer.
2. Manifesting haughtiness, or proceeding from it; overbearing; as a supercilious air; supercilious behavior.
SUPERCILIOUSLY, adv. Haughtily; dogmatically; with an air of contempt.
SUPERCILIOUSNESS, n. Haughtiness; an overbearing temper or manner.
SUPERCONCEPTION, n. [super and conception.] A conception after a former conception.
SUPERCONSEQUENCE, n. [super and consequence.] Remote consequence. [Not used.]
SUPERCRESCENCE, n. [L. super and crescens.] That which grows upon another growing thing.
SUPERCRESCENT, a. [supra.] Growing on some other growing thing.
SUPEREMINENCE, SUPEREMINENCY, n. [L. super and emineo.] Eminence superior to what is common; distinguished eminence; as the supereminence of Cicero as an orator; the supereminence of Dr. Johnson as a writer, or of lord Chatham as a statesman.
SUPEREMINENT, a. Eminent in a superior degree; surpassing others in excellence; as a supereminent divine; the supereminent glory of Christ.
SUPEREMINENTLY, adv. In a superior degree of excellence; with unusual distinction.
SUPEREROGANT, a. Supererogatory, which see.
SUPEREROGATE, v.i. [L. super and erogatio, erogo.] To do more than duty requires. Aristotle’s followers have supererogated in observance. [Little used.]
SUPEREROGATION, n. [supra.] Performance of more than duty requires.
There is no such thing as works of supererogation.
SUPEREROGATIVE, a. Supererogatory. [Not much used.]
SUPEREROGATORY, a. Performed to an extent not enjoined or not required by duty; as supererogatory services.
SUPERESSENTIAL, a. [super and essential.] Essential above others, or above the constitution of a thing.
SUPEREXALT, v.t. [super and exalt.] To exalt to a superior degree.
SUPEREXALTATION, n. [super and exaltation.] Elevation above the common degree.
SUPEREXCELLENCE, n. [super and excellence.] Superior excellence.
SUPEREXCELLENT, a. Excellent in an uncommon degree; very excellent.
SUPEREXCRESCENCE, n. [super and excrescence.] Something superfluously growing.
SUPERFECUNDITY, n. [super and fecundity.] Superabundant fecundity or multiplication of the species.
SUPERFETATE, v.i. [L. super and foetus.] To conceive after a prior conception.
The female is said to superfetate.