Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
ADJUDICATING — ADORABLENESS
ADJUDICATING, ppr. Adjudging; trying and determining.
ADJUDICATION, n.
1. The act of adjudging; the act or process of trying and determining judicially; as a ship was taken and sent into port for adjudication.
2. A judicial sentence; judgment or decision of a court.
Whose families were parties to some of the former adjudications.
3. In Scots law, an action by which a creditor attaches the heritable estate of his debtor, or his debtor’s heir, in payment or security of his debt; or an action by which the holder of an heritable right, laboring under a defect in point of form, may supply that defect.
ADJUMENT, n. [L. adjumentum.] Help; support. [Not used.]
ADJUNCT, n. [L. adjunctus, joined, from adjungo. See Join.]
1. Something added to another, but not essentially a part of it; as, water absorbed by a cloth or spunge is its adjunct. Also a person joined to another.
2. In metaphysics, a quality of the body or the mind, whether natural or acquired; as color, in the body; thinking, in the mind.
3. In grammar, words added to illustrate or amplify the force of other words; as, the History of the American revolution. The words in Italics are the adjuncts of History.
4. In music, the word is employed to denominate the relation between the principal mode and the modes of its two fifths.
The adjunct deities, among the Romans, were inferior deities which were added as assistants to the principal gods; as Bellona to Mars; to Vulcan, the Cabiri; to the Good Genius, the Lares; to the Evil, the Lemures.
In the royal academy of sciences at Paris, the adjuncts are certain members attached to the study of particular sciences. They are twelve in number, created in 1716.
Adjunct has been used for a colleague, but rarely.
ADJUNCT, a. Added to or united with, as an adjunct professor.
ADJUNCTION, n. The act of joining; the thing joined.
ADJUNCTIVE, a. Joining; having the quality of joining.
ADJUNCTIVE, n. That which is joined.
ADJUNCTIVELY, adv. In an adjunctive manner.
ADJUNCTLY, adv. In connection with; consequently.
ADJURATION, n.
1. The act of adjuring; a solemn charging on oath, or under the penalty of a curse.
2. The form of oath.
ADJURE, v.t. [L. adjuro, to sweat solemnly, or compel one to swear; from ad and juro, to swear.]
1. To charge, bind or command on oath, or under the penalty of a curse.
Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city of Jericho. Joshua 6:26.
2. To charge earnestly and solemnly, on pain of God’s wrath.
I adjure thee by the living God. Matthew 26:63; Acts 19:13.
3. To conjure; to charge, urge or summon with solemnity.
The magistrates adjured by all the bonds of civil duty.
Ye sacred stars, be all of you adjured.
The Commissioners adjured them not to let pass so favorable an opportunity of securing their liberties.
ADJURED, pp. Charged on oath, or with a denunciation of God’s wrath; solemnly urged.
ADJURER, n. One that adjures; one that exacts an oath.
ADJURING, ppr. Charging on oath or on the penalty of a curse; beseeching with solemnity.
ADJUST, v.t. [L. ad, and justus, just, exact. See Just.]
1. To make exact; to fit; to make correspondent, or conformable; as, to adjust a garment to the body, an event to the prediction, or things to a standard.
2. To put in order; to regulate or reduce to system; as to adjust a scheme; to adjust affairs.
3. To make accurate; to settle or bring to a satisfactory state, so that parties are agreed in the result; as to adjust accounts; the differences are adjusted.
ADJUSTED, pp. Made exact or conformable; reduced to a right form or standard settled.
ADJUSTER, n. A person who adjusts; that which regulates.
ADJUSTING, ppr. Reducing to due form; fitting; making exact or correspondent; settling.
ADJUSTMENT, n. The act of adjusting; regulation; a reducing to just form or order; a making fit or conformable; settlement.
ADJUTANCY, n. [See Adjutant.] The office of an adjutant; skillful arrangement.
ADJUTANT, n. [L. adjutans, aiding; from adjuto, to assist; of ad and juvo, jutum, to help.]
In military affairs, an officer whose business is to assist the Major by receiving and communicating order. Each battalion of foot, and each regiment of horse has an adjutant, who receives orders from the adjutant, who receives orders from the Brigade Major, to communicate to the Colonel, and to subalterns. He places guards, receives and distributes ammunition, assigns places of rendezvous, etc.
Adjutant-General, in an army, is the chief adjutant.
Adjutants General, among the Jesuits, were a select number of fathers, who resided with the general of the order, each of whom had a province or country assigned to his care. Their business was to correspond with that province, by their delegates, emissaries or visitors, and give information of occurrences to the father general.
ADJUTE, v.t. To help. [Not used.]
ADJUTOR, n. A helper. [Little used; its compound coadjutor is in common use.]
ADJUVANT, a. Helping; assisting.
ADLEGATION, n. [L. ad and legatio, an embassy, from lego, to send. See Legate.]
In the public law of the German Empire, a right claimed by the states, of joining their own ministers with those of the Emperor, in public treaties and negotiations, relating to the common interest of the Empire.
ADLOCUTION, n. [See Allocation.]
ADMEASURE, v.t. admezh’ur. [ad and measure. See Measure.]
1. To measure or ascertain dimensions, size or capacity; used for measure.
2. To apportion; to assign to each claimant has right; as, to admeasure dower or common of pasture.
ADMEASURED, pp. Measured; apportioned.
ADMEASUREMENT, n.
1. The measuring of dimensions by a rule, as of a ship, cask, and the like.
2. The measure of a thing, or dimensions ascertained.
In these uses the word is equivalent to measurement, mensuration and measure.
3. The adjustment of proportion, or ascertainment of shares, as of dower or pasture held in common. This is done by writ of admeasurement, directed to the sheriff.
ADMEASURER, n. One that admeasures.
ADMEASURING, ppr. Measuring; apportioning.
ADMENSURATION [Is equivalent to admeasurement, but not much used. See Mensuration.]
ADMINICLE, n. [L. adminiculum.] Help; support. [Not used.]
ADMINICULAR, a. Supplying help; helpful.
ADMINISTER, v.t. [L. administro, of ad and ministro, to serve or manage. See Minister.]
1. To act as minister or chief agent, in managing public affairs, under laws or a constitution of government, as a king, president, or other supreme officer. it is used also of absolute monarchs, who rule not in subordination; but is more strictly applicable to limited monarchs and other supreme executive officers, and to governors, vice-roys, judges and the like, who are under the authority of laws. A king or a president administers the government or laws, when he executes them or carries them into effect. A judge administers the laws, when he applies them to particular cases or persons. In short, to administer is to direct the execution or application of laws.
2. To dispense, as to administer justice or the sacrament.
3. To afford, give or furnish; as, to administer relief, that is, to act as the agent. To administer medicine is to direct and cause it to be taken.
4. To give, as an oath; to cause to swear according to law.
ADMINISTER, v.i.
1. To contribute; to bring aid or supplies; to add something; as, a shade administers to our comfort.
2. To perform the office of administrator; as, A administers upon the estate of B.
ADMINISTERED, pp. Executed; managed; governed; afforded; given; dispensed.
ADMINISTERIAL, a. Pertaining to administration, or to the executive part of government.
ADMINISTERING, ppr. Executing; carrying into effect; giving; dispensing.
ADMINISTRATE, In the place of administer, has been used, but is not well authorized.
ADMINISTRATION, n.
1. The act of administering; direction; management; government of public affairs; the conducting of any office or employment.
2. The executive part of government, consisting in the exercise of the constitutional and legal powers, the general superintendence of national affairs, and the enforcement of laws.
3. The persons collectively, who are entrusted with the execution of laws, and the superintendence of public affairs; the chief magistrate and his council; or the council alone, as in Great Britain.
4. dispensation; distribution; exhibition; as the administration of justice, of the sacrament, or of grace. 1 Corinthians 12:5; 2 Corinthians 9:12.
5. the management of the estate of an intestate person, under a commission from the proper authority. This management consists in collecting debts, paying debts and legacies, and distributing the property among the heirs.
6. The power, office or commission of an administrator.
Surrogates are authorized to grant administration.
It is more usual to say, letters of administration.
7. This name is given by the Spaniards, to the staple magazine or warehouse, at Callao, in Peru, where foreign ships must unload.
ADMINISTRATIVE, a. That administers, or by which one administers.
ADMINISTRATOR, n.
1. a man who, by virtue of a commission from the Ordinary, Surrogate, Court of Probate, or other proper authority, has the charge of the goods and estate of one dying without a will.
2. One who administers, or who directs, manages, distributes, or dispenses laws and rites, either in civil, judicial, political, or ecclesiastical affairs.
3. In Scots law, a tutor, curator or guardian, having the care of one who is incapable of acting for himself. The term is usually applied to a father who has power over his children and their estate, during their minority.
ADMINISTRATORSHIP, n. The office of an administrator.
ADMINISTRATRIX, n. A female who administers upon the estate of an intestate; also a female who administers government.
ADMIRABLE, a. [L. admirabilis.]
To be admired; worthy of admiration; having qualities to excite wonder, with approbation, esteem or reverence; used of persons or things; as, the admirable structure of the body, or of the universe.
ADMIRABLENESS, n. The quality of being admirable; the power of exciting admiration.
ADMIRABLY, adv. In a manner to excite wonder, mingled with approbation, esteem or veneration.
ADMIRAL, n. [In the Latin of the middle ages. Amira, Amiras, Admiralis, an Emir; Heb. to speak. The terminating syllable of admiral may be from the sea. This word is said to have been introduced in Europe by the Turks, Genoese or Venetains, in the 12th or 13th century.]
A marine commander in chief; the commander of a fleet or navy.
1. The Lord High Admiral, in Great Britain, is an officer who superintends all maritime affairs, and has the government of the navy. He has also jurisdiction over all maritime causes, and commissions the naval officers.
2. The Admiral of the fleet, the highest officer under the admiralty. When he embarks on an expedition, the union flag is displayed at the main top gallant mast head.
3. The Vice Admiral, an officer next in rank and command to the Admiral, has command of the second squadron. He carries his flag at the fore top gallant mast head. This name is given also to certain officers who have power to hold courts of vice-admiralty, in various parts of the British dominions.
4. The Rear Admiral, next in rank to the Vice Admiral, has command of the third squadron, and carries his flag at the mizen top gallant mast head.
5. The commander of any single fleet, or in general any flag officer.
6. The ship which carries the admiral; also the most considerable ship of a fleet of merchantmen, or of fishing vessels.
7. In zoology, a species of shell-fish. [See Voluta.]
8. Also a butterfly, which lays her eggs on the great stinging nettle, and delights in brambles.
ADMIRALSHIP, n. The office or power of an admiral. [Little used.]
ADMIRALTY, n. In Great Britain, the office of Lord High Admiral. This office is discharged by one person, or by Commissioners, called Lords of the Admiralty; usually seven in number.
The admiralty court, or court of admiralty, is the supreme court for the trial of maritime causes, held before the Lord High Admiral, or Lords of the admiralty.
In general, a court of admiralty is a court for the trial of causes arising on the high seas, as prize causes and the like. In the United States, there is no admiralty court, distinct from others; but the district courts, established in the several states by Congress, are invested with admiralty powers.
ADMIRATION, n. Wonder mingled with pleasing emotions, as approbation, esteem, love or veneration; a compound emotion excited by something novel, rare, great, or excellent; applied to persons and their works. It often includes a slight degree of surprise. Thus, we view the solar system with admiration.
Very near to admiration is the wish to admire.
It has been sometimes used in an ill sense, denoting wonder with disapprobation.
Your boldness I with admiration see.
When I saw her I wondered with great admiration. Revelation 17:6.
ADMIRATIVE, n. A note of admiration, thus! [Not used.]
ADMIRE, v.t. [L. admiror, ad and miror, to wonder; demiror. See Moor and Mar.]
1. To regard with wonder or surprise, mingled with approbation, esteem, reverence or affection.
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and be admired in all them that love him. 2 Thessalonians 1:10.
This word has been used in an ill sense, but seems now correctly restricted to the sense here given, and implying something great, rare or excellent, in the object admired.
2. To regard with affection; a familiar term for to love greatly.
ADMIRE, v.i. To wonder; to be affected with slight surprise; sometimes with at; as, to admire at his own contrivance.
To admire at sometimes implies disapprobation.
ADMIRED, pp. Regarded with wonder, mingled with pleasurable sensations, as esteem, love or reverence.
ADMIRER, n. One who admires; one who esteems or loves greatly.
ADMIRING, ppr. Regarding with wonder united with love or esteem.
ADMIRINGLY, adv. With admiration; in the manner of an admirer.
ADMISSIBILITY, n. The quality of being admissable.
ADMISSIBLE, a. [See Admit.] That may be admitted, allowed or conceded; as, the testimony is admissible.
ADMISSION, n. [L. admissio.]
1. The act or practice of admitting, as the admission of aliens into our country; also, the state of being admitted.
2. Admittancep power or permission to enter; entrance; access; power to approach; as, our laws give to foreigners easy admission to the rights of citizens; the admission of a clerk to a benefice.
3. Allowance; grant of an argument or position not fully proved.
ADMIT, v.t. [L. admitto, from ad and mitto, to send.]
1. To suffer to enter; to grant entrance; whether into a place, or an office, or into the mind, or consideration; as to admit a student into college; to admit a serious thought into the mind.
2. To give right of entrance; as, a ticket admits one into a play house.
3. To allow; to receive as true; as, the argument or fact is admitted.
4. To permit, grant or allow, or to be capable of; as, the words do not admit of such a construction. In this sense, of may be used after the verb, or omitted.
ADMITTABLE, a. That may be admitted or allowed.
ADMITTANCE, n.
1. The act of admitting; allowance. More usually,
2. Permission to enter; the power or right of entrance; and hence, actual entrance; as, he gained admittance into the church.
3. Concession; admission; allowance; as the admittance of an argument. [Not used.]
4. Shakespeare uses the word for the custom or prerogative of being admitted; “Sir John, you are a gentleman of excellent breeding, of great admittance”: but the license is unwarrantable.
ADMITTED, pp. Permitted to enter or approach; allowed; granted; conceded.
ADMITTER, n. He that admits.
ADMITTING, ppr. Permitting to enter or approach; allowing; conceding.
ADMIX, v.t. To mingle with something else. [See Mix.]
ADMIXTION, n. admixchun, [L. admixtio, or admistio; of ad and misceo, to mix. See Mix.]
A mingling of bodies; a union by mixing different substances together. It differs from composition or chimical combination; for admixtion does not alter the nature of the substances mixed, but merely blends them together; whereas in composition, the particles unite by affinity, lose their former properties, and form new compounds, with different properties.
ADMIXTURE, n. [From admix.]
The substance mingled with another; sometimes the act of mixture. We say, an admixture of sulphur with alum, or the admixture of different bodies.
ADMONISH, v.t. [L. admoneo, ad and moneo, to teach, warn, admonish.]
1. To warn or notify of a fault; to reprove with mildness.
Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 2 Thessalonians 3:15.
2. To counsel against wrong practices; to caution or advise.
Admonish one another in psalms and hymns. Colossians 3:16.
3. To instruct or direct.
Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle. Hebrews 8:5.
4. In ecclesiastical affairs, to reprove a member of the church for a fault, either publicly or privately; the first step of church discipline. It is followed by of, or against; as, to admonish of a fault committed, or against committing a fault. It has a like use in colleges.
ADMONISHED, pp. Reproved; advised; warned; instructed.
ADMONISHER, n. One who reproves or counsels.
ADMONISHING, ppr. Reproving; warning; counseling; directing.
ADMONISHMENT, n. Admonition.
ADMONITION, n. Gentle reproof; counseling against a fault; instruction in duties; caution; direction. Titus 3:10; 1 Corinthians 10:11. In church discipline, public or private reproof to reclaim an offender; a step preliminary to excommunication.
ADMONITIONER, n. A dispenser of admonitions.
ADMONITIVE, a. Containing admonition.
ADMONITOR, n. An admonisher, a monitor.
ADMONITORY, a. Containing admonition; that admonishes.
ADMORTIZATION, n. The reducing of lands or tenements to mortmain. [See Mortmain.]
ADMOVE, v.t. [L. admoveo.]
To move to; to bring one thing to another. [Little used.]
ADNASCENT, a. [L. ad and nascens, growing.]
ADNATA, n. [L. ad and natus, grown from nascor, to grow.]
1. In anatomy, one of the coats of the eye, which is also called albuginea, and is sometimes confounded with the conjunctive. It lies between the sclerotica, and conjunctiva.
2. Such parts of animal or vegetable bodies, as are usual and natural, as the hair, wool, horns; or accidental, as fungus, mistletoe, and excrescences.
3. Offsets of plants, germinating under ground as from the lily, narcissus, and hyacinth.
ADNATE, a. [L. ad and natus, grown.]
In botany, pressing close to the stem, or growing to it.
ADNOUN, n. [ad and noun.]
In grammar, an adjective, or attribute. [Little used.]
ADO, n.
Bustle; trouble; labor; difficulty; as, to make a great ado about trifles; to persuade one with much ado.
ADOLESCENCE, n. [L. adolescens, growing, of ad and olesco, to grow, from oleo. Heb. to ascend.]
The state of growing, applied to the young of the human race; youth, or the period of life between childhood and manhood.
ADOLESCENT, a. Growing; advancing from childhood to manhood.
ADONEAN, a. Pertaining to Adonis.
Fair Adonean Venus.
ADONIA, n. Festivals celebrated anciently in honor of Adonis, by females, who spent two days in lamentations and infamous pleasures.
ADONIC, a. Adonic Verse, a short verse, in which the death of Adonis was bewailed. It consists of a dactyl and spondee or trochee.
ADONIC, n. An Adonic verse.
ADONIS, n. In mythology, the favorite of Venus, said to be the son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus. He was fond of hunting, and received a mortal wound from the tusk of a wild boar. Venus lamented his death, and changed him into the flower, anemony.
ADONIS, in botany, bird’s eye or pheasant’s eye.
ADONISTS, n. [Heb. Lord, a scriptural title of the Supreme Being.]
Among critics, a sect or party who maintain that the Hebrew points ordinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Jehovah, are not the natural points belonging to that word, and that they do not express the true pronunciation of it; but that they are vowel points belonging to the words, Adonai and Elohim, applied to the ineffable name Jehovah, which the Jews were forbid to utter, and the true pronunciation of which was lost; they were therefore always to pronounce the word Adonai, instead of Jehovah.
ADOPT, v.t. [L. adopto, of ad and opto, to desire or choose. See Option.]
1. To take a stranger into one’s family, as son and heir; to take one who is not a child, and treat him as one, giving him a title to the privileges and rights of a child.
2. In a spiritual sense, to receive the sinful children of men into the invisible church, and into God’s favor and protection, by which they become heirs of salvation by Christ.
3. To take or receive as one’s own, that which is not naturally so; as, to adopt the opinions of another; or to receive that which is new; as, to adopt a particular mode of husbandry.
4. To select and take; as, which mode will you adopt?
ADOPTED, pp. Taken as one’s own; received as son and heir; selected for use.
ADOPTEDLY, adv. In the manner of something adopted.
ADOPTER, n.
1. One who adopts.
2. In chimistry, a large round receiver, with two necks, diametrically opposite to each other, one of which admits the neck of a retort, and the other is joined to another receiver. It is used in distillations, to give more space to elastic vapors, or to increase the length of the neck of a retort.
ADOPTING, ppr. Taking a stranger as a son; taking as one’s own.
ADOPTION, n. [L. adoptio.]
1. The act of adopting, or the state of being adopted; the taking and treating of a stranger as one’s own child.
2. The receiving as one’s own, what is new or not natural.
3. God’s taking the sinful children of men into his favor and protection.
Adoption of arms, an ancient ceremony of presenting arms to one for his merit or valor, which laid the person under an obligation to defend the giver.
Adoption by baptism is the spiritual affinity which is contracted by god-fathers and god-children, in the ceremony of baptism. It was introduced into the Greek church, and afterwards among the ancient Franks. This affinity was supposed to entitle the god-child to a share of the god-father’s estate.
Adoption by hair was performed by cutting off the hair of a person and giving it to the adoptive father. Thus Pope John VIII adopted Boson, king of Arles.
Adoption by matrimony is the taking the children of a wife or husband, by a former marriage, into the condition of natural children. This is a practice peculiar to the Germans; but is not so properly adoption as adfiliation.
Adoption by testament is the appointing of a person to be heir, by will, or condition of his taking the name, arms, etc. of the adopter.
In Europe, adoption is used for many kinds of admission to a more intimate relation, and is nearly equivalent to reception; as, the admission of persons into hospitals, or monasteries, or of one society into another.
ADOPTIVE, a. [L. adoptivus.]
That adopts, as an adoptive father; or that is adopted, as an adoptive son.