Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
AGGRIEVE — AHUITZOTE
AGGRIEVE, v.t. [of ad and grieve from grief. See Grief and Grave.]
1. To give pain or sorrow; to afflict. In this sense, it is nearly superseded by grieve.
2. To bear hard upon; to oppress or injure, in one’s rights; to vex or harass by civil or political injustice.
AGGRIEVE, v.i. To mourn; to lament. [Not used. See Grieve.]
AGGRIEVED, pp. Pained; afflicted, civilly or politically oppressed.
AGGRIEVING, ppr. Afflicting; imposing hardships on; oppressing.
AGGROUP, AGGROOP, v.t. [See Group.]
To bring together; to group; to collect many persons in a crowd, or many figures into a whole, either in statuary, painting or description.
AGGROUPED, AGGROOPED, pp. Collected into a group or assemblage.
AGHAST, more correctly AGAST, a. or adv. [Perhaps the participle of agaze; otherwise from the root of ghastly and ghost.]
Struck with amazement; stupefied with sudden fright or horror.
AGILE, a. [L. agilis, from ago. See Act.]
Nimble; having the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; brisk; active.
And bending forward, stuck his agile heels.
AGILENESS, n. Nimbleness; activity; the faculty of moving the limbs quickly; agility.
AGILITY, n. [L. agilitas.]
The power of moving the limbs quickly; nimbleness; briskness; activity; quickness of motion.
AGIO, n.
1. In commerce, the difference between bank notes and current coin. In Holland, the agio is three or four per cent; in Rome, from fifteen to twenty five per cent; in Venice, twenty per cent: but the agio is subject to variation.
2. Premium; sum given above the nominal value.
AGIST, v.t.
In law, to take the cattle of others to graze, at a certain sum; to feed or pasture the cattle of others; used originally for the feeding of cattle in the king’s forest.
AGISTMENT, n. The taking and feeding other men’s cattle in the king’s forest, or on one’s own land; also, the price paid for such feeding. it denotes also a burden, charge or tax. [In canon law, a modus, or composition.]
AGISTOR, AGISTATOR, n. An officer of the king’s forest, who has the care of cattle agisted, and collects the money for the same; hence called gist-taker, which in England is corrupted into guest-taker.
AGITABLE, a. [See Agitate.] That may be agitated, shaken or discussed.
AGITATE, v.t. [L. agito, from ago. See Act.]
1. To stir violently; to move back and forth with a quick motion; to shake or move briskly; as, to agitate water in a vessel.
2. To move or force into violent irregular action; as, the wind agitates the sea.
3. To disturb, or excite into tumult; as, to agitate the mind or passions.
4. To discuss; to debate; to controvert; as, to agitate a question.
5. To consider on all sides; to revolve in the mind, or view in all its aspects; to contrive by mental deliberation; as, politicians agitate desperate designs.
6. To move or actuate. [Not used.]
AGITATED, pp. Tossed from side to side; shaken; moved violently and irregularly; disturbed; discussed; considered.
AGITATING, ppr. Shaking; moving with violence; disturbing; disputing; contriving.
AGITATION, n.
1. The act of shaking; the state of being moved with violence, or with irregular action; commotion; as, the sea after a storm is in agitation.
2. Disturbance of tranquility in the mind; perturbation; excitement of passion.
3. Discussion; examination of a subject in controversy.
4. A state of being deliberated upon, with a view to contrivance, or plan to be adopted; as, a scheme is in agitation.
AGITATO, in music, denotes a broken style of performance, adapted to awaken surprise or perturbation.
AGITATOR, n. One who agitates; also, an insurgent; one who excites sedition or revolt. In antiquity, a charioteer, that is, a driver. In Cromwell’s time, certain officers appointed by the army to manage their concerns, were called agitators.
AGLET, AIGLET, n.
1. A tag of a point curved into the representation of an animal, generally of a man; a small plate of metal.
2. In botany, a pendant at the ends of the chives of flowers, as in the rose and tulip.
AGLET-BABY, n. A small image on the top of a lace.
AGMINAL, a. [L. agmen, a troop or body of men arrayed from ago.] Pertaining to an army or troop. [Little used.]
AGNAIL, n. [ad and nail. See Nail.]
A disease of the nail; a whitlow; an inflammation round the nail.
AGNATE, a. [L. agnatus.] Related or akin by the father’s side.
AGNATE, n. [L. agnatus, adnascor, of ad and nascor, to be born. See Nature.] Any male relation by the father’s side.
AGNATIC, a. Pertaining to descent by the male line of ancestors.
AGNATION, n. Relation by the father’s side only, or descent in the male line, distinct from cognation, which includes descent in the male and female lines.
AGNEL, n. [From agnus, a lamb, the figure struck on the coin.]
An ancient French coin, value twelve sols, six deniers. It was called also mouton d’or and agnel d’or.
AGNITION, n. [L. agnitio, agnosco.] Acknowledgment. [Little used.]
AGNIZE, v.t. To acknowledge. [Not in use.]
AGNOMINATE, v.t. [L. agnomino; ad and nomino, nomen, name.]
To name. [Little used.]
AGNOMINATION, n. [L. agnomen, a surname, of ad and nomen. See Name.]
1. An additional name, or title; a name added to another, as expressive of some act, achievement, etc.; a surname.
2. Allusion of one word to another by sound.
AGNUS CASTUS. A species of vitex, so called from the Gr. chaste, or from a negative, and seed, from its imagined virtue of preserving chastity. The Athenian ladies reposed on the leaves of this plant at the feast of Ceres. The Latin Castus, chaste, now added to the name, forms a duplication of the sense.
AGNUS DEI. [Lamb of God.]
In the Romish Church, a cake of wax stamped with the figure of a lamb, supporting the banner of the cross. It is supposed to possess great virtues in preserving those who carry it, in faith and from accidents, etc. Also a part of the mass in which these words are repeated by the priest.
AGNUS SCYTHICUS. [Scythian Lamb.]
A name applied to the roots of a species of fern, Aspidium Baromez, covered with brown wooly scales, and, in shape, resembling a lamb; found in Russia and Tartary.
AGO, adv. or a. [See Go.] Past; gone; as a year ago.
AGOG, adv.
In a state of desire; highly excited by eagerness after an object.
The gaudy gossip when she’s set agog.
AGOING, [The participle of go, with the prefix a.]
In motion, as to set a mill agoing; or about to go; ready to go; as, he is agoing immediately. The latter use is vulgar.
AGON, n. [Gr.] The contest for the prize. [Not used.]
AGONE, pp. agawn;, [See Ago and Gone.] Ago; past; since.
[Nearly Obs.]
AGONISM, n. [Gr.] Contention for a prize.
AGONIST, n. One who contends for the prize in public games. Milton has used Agonistes in this sense, and so called his tragedy, from the similitude of Sampson’s exertions, in slaying the Philistines, to prize fighting. In church history, the disciples of Donatus are called agonistics.
AGONISTIC, AGONISTICAL, a. Pertaining to prize-fighting, contests of strength, or athletic combats.
AGONISTICALLY, adv. In an agonistic manner; like prize-fighting.
AGONIZE, v.t. [Gr. to strive. See Agony.]
To write with extreme pain; to suffer violent anguish.
To smart and agonize at every pore.
AGONIZE, v.t. To distress with extreme pain; to torture.
AGONIZING, ppr. Suffering severe pain; writhing with torture.
AGONIZINGLY, adv. With extreme anguish.
AGONY, n. [Gr. a contest with bodily exertion; a word used to denote the athletic games, in Greece; whence anguish, solicitude; from L. ago. Gr. to strive. See Act.]
1. In strictness, pain so extreme as to cause writhing or contortions of the body, similar to those made in the athletic contests in Greece. Hence,
2. Extreme pain of body or mind; anguish; appropriately, the pangs of death, and the sufferings of our Savior in the garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44.
3. Violent contest or striving.
AGOOD, adv. In earnest. [Not used.]
AGOUTY, n. [L. acutus.]
A quadruped of the order Rodentia; arranged by naturalist in the genus Cavia. It is of the size of a rabbit. The upper part of the body is brownish, with a mixture of red and black; the belly yellowish. Three varieties are mentioned, all peculiar to South America and West Indies. It burrows in the ground, or in hollow trees; lives on vegetables; is voracious like a pig, and makes a similar grunting noise. It holds its meat in its fore paws, like a squirrel. When scared or angry, its hair is erect, and it strikes the ground with its hind feet. Its flesh is white and well tasted.
AGRARIAN, a. [L. agrarius, from ager, a field.]
Relating to lands. appropriately, denoting or pertaining to an equal division of lands; as, the agrarian laws of Rome, which distributed the conquered and other public lands equally among all the citizens, limiting the quantity which each might enjoy. Authors sometimes use the word as a noun; an agrarian, for agrarian law.
An agrarian distribution of land or property, would make the rich, poor, but would not make the poor, rich.
AGREE, v.i. [L. gratia. the primary sense is advancing, from the same root as L. gradior.]
1. To be of one mind; to harmonize in opinion.
In the expediency of the law, all the parties agree.
2. To live in concord, or without contention; as, parents and children agree well together.
3. To yield assent; to approve or admit; followed by to; as, to agree to an offer, or to an opinion.
4. To settle by stipulation, the minds of parties being agreed, as to the terms; as,
Didst thou not agree with me for a penny a day? Matthew 20:13.
To agree on articles of partnership
5. To come to a compromise of differences; to be reconciled.
Agree with thy adversary quickly. Matthew 5:25.
6. To come to one opinion or mind; to concur; as, to agree on a place of meeting.
This sense differs not essentially from the fourth, and it often implies a resolving to do an act. John 9:22.
7. To be consistent; to harmonize; not to contradict, or be repugnant.
Their witness agreed not together. Mark 14:56.
This story agrees with what has been related by others.
8. To resemble; to be similar; as, the picture does not agree with the original.
9. To suit; to be accommodated or adapted to; as, the same food does not agree with every constitution.
AGREE, v.t. To admit, or come to one mind concerning; as, to agree the fact. Also, to reconcile or make friends; to put an end to variance; but these senses are unusual and hardly legitimate. Let the parties agree the fact, is really elliptical; let them agree on the fact.
AGREEABILITY, n. Easiness of disposition. [Not used.]
AGREEABLE, a.
1. Suitable; conformable; correspondent; consistent with; as, the practice of virtue is agreeable to the law of God and our own nature.
2. In pursuance of; in conformity with; as, agreeable to the order of the day, the house took up the report of the committee. It is not correctly followed by with. In this sense, some writers use agreeably, for agreeable, but in violation of the true principles of construction; for the word is an adjective or attribute, in agreement with the last clause of the sentence. The house took up the report of a committee, (which taking up was) agreeable to the order of the day. The use of agreeably in this sentence would pervert the sense.
3. Pleasing, either to the mind or senses; as, agreeable manners; fruit agreeable to the taste.
AGREEABLENESS, n.
1. Suitableness; conformity; consistency; as, the agreeableness of virtue to the laws of God.
2. The quality of pleasing; that quality which gives satisfaction or moderate pleasure to the mind or senses; as, an agreeableness of manners; there is an agreeableness in the taste of certain fruits. This is the usual sense of the word.
3. Resemblance; likeness; with to or between; as,
The agreeableness between man and other parts of creation. Obs.
AGREEABLY, adv.
1. Pleasingly; in an agreeable manner; in a manner to give pleasure; as, to be agreeably entertained with a discourse.
2. Suitably; consistently; conformably;
The effect of which is, that marriages grow less frequent, agreeably to the maxim above laid down.
This is a gross error, proceeding from mistake. Agreeably signifies, in an agreeable manner; but this is not the sense, nor does the word modify the verb grow. The sense is, marriages grow less frequent, which [fact, or whole member of the sentence, or proposition] is agreeable to the maxim above laid down. This use of agreeably is common, but grossly erroneous.
3. Alike; in the same manner.
Both armed agreeably. Obs.
AGREED, pp.
1. Being in concord or harmony of opinion; of one mind.
Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3.
2. Assented to; admitted; as, a proposition is agreed to.
3. Settled by consent; implying bargain or contract; as, the terms were agreed to, or agreed upon.
AGREEING, ppr. Living in concord; concurring; assenting; settling by consent.
AGREEINGLY, adv. In conformity to. [Little used.]
AGREEMENT, n.
1. Concord; harmony; conformity.
What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? 2 Corinthians 6:16.
2. Union of opinions or sentiments; as, a good agreement subsists among the members of the council.
3. Resemblance; conformity; similitude.
Expansion and duration have this farther agreement.
4. Union of minds in regard to a transfer of interest; bargain; compact; contract; stipulation.
Make an agreement with me by a present. 2 Kings 18:31.
He made an agreement for the purchase of a house.
AGRESTIC, AGRESTICAL, a. [L. agrestis; ager, a field, or the same root.]
Rural; rustic; pertaining to fields or the country, in opposition to the city; unpolished.
AGRICULTOR, n. [L. ager, a field, and cultor, a cultivator.]
One whose occupation is to till the ground; a farmer; a husbandman; one skilled in husbandry.
AGRICULTURAL, a. Pertaining to husbandry, tillage, or the culture of the earth.
AGRICULTURE, n. [L. ager, a field, and cultura, cultivation. See Acre and Culture.]
In general sense, the cultivation of the ground, for the purpose of producing vegetables, and fruits, for the use of man and beast; or the art of preparing the soil, sowing and planting seeds, dressing the plants, and removing the crops. In this sense, the word includes gardening, or horticulture, and also the raising and feeding of cattle, or stock. But in a more common and appropriate sense, it is used to signify that species of cultivation which is intended to raise grain and other crops for man and beast. It is equivalent to husbandry.
Agriculture is the most general occupation of man.
AGRICULTURISM, n. The art or science of agriculture. [Little used.]
AGRICULTURIST, n. One skilled in the art of cultivating the ground; a skilful husbandman.
AGRIMONY, n. [L. agremonia, from the Gr. Thus it is written by Pliny. But in lower Latin it is written agrimonia. Said to be from Gr. the web or pearl of the eye from white, which this plant was supposed to cure. See Theoph 887.]
A genus of plants, of several species. Of these, the eupatoria or common agrimony, and the odorata or sweet scented, are the most useful.
AGRIPPINIANS, n. In Church history, the followers of Agrippinus, bishop of Carthage, in the third century, who first taught and defended the doctrine of rebaptization.
AGRISE, v.i. To shiver. [Not in use.]
AGRISE, v.t. To terrify; also, to make frightful. [Not in use.]
AGROM, n. A disease frequent in Bengal, and other parts of the E. Indies, in which the tongue chaps and cleaves, becomes rough and sometimes covered with white spots. The remedy is some chalybeate liquor, or the juice of mint.
AGROSTEMMA, n. A genus of plants of several species, containing the common corn cockle, wild lychnis or campion, etc.
AGROSTIS, n. [Gr.] Bent grass; a genus of many species.
AGROUND, adv. [Of a, at or on, and ground.]
1. On the ground; a marine term, signifying that the bottom of a ship rests on the ground, for want of sufficient depth of water. When the ground is near the shore, the ship is said to be ashore or stranded.
2. Figuratively, stopped; impeded by insuperable obstacles.
AGUAPECACA, n. The Jacana, a Brazilian bird, about the size of a pigeon. In the extremity of each wing, it has a sharp prickle which is used for defense.
AGUE, n. a’gu,
1. The cold fit which precedes a fever, or a paroxysm of fever in intermittents. It is accompanied with shivering.
2. Chilliness; a chill, or state of shaking with cold, though in health.
3. It is used for a periodical fever, an intermittent, whether quotidian, tertian, or quartan. In this case, the word, which signifies the preceding cold fit, is used for the disease.
AGUE, v.t. To cause a shivering in; to strike with a cold fit.
AGUE-CAKE, n. A hard tumor on the left side of the belly, lower than the false ribs; supposed to be the effect of intermitting fevers.
AGUED, a. Chilly; having a fit of ague; shivering with cold or fear.
AGUE-FIT, n. A paroxysm of cold, or shivering; chilliness.
AGUE-PROOF, n. Able to resist agues; proof against agues.
AGUERRY, v.t. To inure to the hardships of war; to instruct in the art of war. [Not in use.]
AGUE-SPELL, n. A charm or spell to cure or prevent ague.
AGUE-STRUCK, a. Struck with ague.
AGUE-TREE, n. A name sometimes applied to sassafras, on account of its febrifuge qualities.
AGUISE, v.t. [See Guise.] To dress; to adorn. [Not in use.]
AGUISE, n. Dress. [Not in use.]
AGUISH, a. Chilly; somewhat cold or shivering; also, having the qualities of an ague.
Her aguish love now glows and burns.
AGUISHNESS, n. Chilliness; the quality of being aguish.
AGUILLANEUF, n. [From a, to, gui, misleto, and l’an neuf, the new year.]
A form of rejoicing among the ancient Franks, on the first day of the year; derived from the druidical custom of cutting misleto, which was held sacred by the druids, and on the first day of the year, consecrating it by crying, aguillaneuf, the year to the misleto. This cry is said to be still observed in some parts of France; and the term came to signify also a begging of New Year’s gifts.
AGUL, n. A species of the hedysarum.
AH, An exclamation, expressive of surprise, pity, complaint, contempt, dislike, joy, exultation, etc., according to the manner of utterance.
AHA, n.
1. An exclamation expressing triumph, contempt, or simple surprise; but the senses are distinguished by very different modes of utterance, and different modification of features.
2. A sunk fence, not visible, without near approach.
AHANIGER, n. A name of the gar-fish.
AHEAD, adv. Ahed’, [a and head, or at head.]
1. Further forward than another thing; in front; originally a sea term, denoting further forward than another ship, or on the point to which the stem is directed, in opposition to astern.
2. Onward; forward; towards the point before the stem or head; as, move ahead.
3. Headlong; without restraint; precipitantly; as children suffered to run ahead. [Not used.]