Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

ASSECURATION — ASSUASIVE

ASSECURATION, n. assurance; a making secure. [Not used.]

ASSECURE, v.t. To secure. [Not used.]

ASSECUTION, n. [L. assequor.] an obtaining or acquiring.

ASSEMBLAGE, n.

1. A collection of individuals, or of particular things; the state of being assembled.

2. Rarely, the act of assembling.

ASSEMBLANCE, n. Representation; an assembling. [Not in use.]

ASSEMBLE, v.t. [L. simul.]

To collect a number of individuals or particulars into one place, or body; to bring or call togethe; to convene; to congregate.

ASSEMBLE, v.i. To meet or come together; to convene, as a number of individuals.

ASSEMBLED, pp. collected into a body; congregated.

ASSEMBLER, n. One who assembles.

ASSEMBLING, ppr. Coming together; collecting into one place.

ASSEMBLING, n. A collection or meeting together. Hebrews 10:25.

ASSEMBLY, n.

1. A company or collection of individuals, in the same place; usually for the same purpose.

2. A congregation or religious society convened.

3. In some of the United States, the legislature, consisting of different houses or branches, whether in session or not. In some states, the popular branch or House of Representatives is denominated an assembly. [See the constitutions of the several states.]

4. a collection of persons for amusement; as a dancing assembly.

5. A convocation, convention or council of ministers and ruling elders delegated from each presbytery; as the General Assembly of Scotland or of the United States.

6. In armies, the second beating of the drum before a march, when the soldiers strike their tents.

7. An assemblage. [Not in use.]

ASSEMBLY-ROOM, n. a room in which persons assemble.

ASSENT, n. [L. assensus, from assentior, to assent, of ad and sentio, to thing.]

1. The act of the mind in admitting, or agreeing to, the truth of a proposition.

Faith is the assent to any proposition, on the credit of the proposer.

2. Consent; agreement to a proposal, respecting some right or interest; as, the bill before the house has the assent of a great majority of the members.

The distinction between assent and consent seems to be this: assent is the agreement to an abstract proposition. We assent to a statement, but we do not consent to it. Consent is an agreement to some proposal or measure which affects the rights or interest of the consenter. We consent to a proposal of marriage. This distinction however is not always observed. [See Consent.]

3. Accord; agreement. 2 Chronicles 18:12.

ASSENT, v.i. To admit as true; to agree, yield or concede, or rather to express an agreement of the mind to what is alleged, or proposed.

The Jews also assented, saying these things are so. Acts 24:9.

It is sometimes used for consent, or an agreement to something affecting the rights or interest of the person assenting. But to assent to the marriage of a daughter is less correct than to consent.

ASSENTATION, n. [L. assentatio, from assentor, to comply.]

Compliance with the opinion of another, from flattery or dissimulation.

ASSENTATOR, n. A flatterer.

ASSENTATORILY, adv. With adulation. [Not in use.]

ASSENTER, n. One who assents, agrees to, or admits.

ASSENTING, ppr. Agreeing to, or admitting as true; yielding to.

ASSENTINGLY, adv. In a manner to express assent; by agreement.

ASSENTMENT, a. Assent; agreement. [Rarely used.]

ASSERT, v.t. [L. assero, assertum, to claim or challenge, to maintain or assert; of ad and sero. The sense of sero is to sow, properly to throw or set. To assert is to throw or set firmly.]

1. To affirm positively; to declare with assurance; to aver.

2. To maintain or defend by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties.

ASSERTED, pp. Affirmed positively; maintained; vindicated.

ASSERTING, ppr. Declaring with confidence; maintaining; defending.

ASSERTION, n.

1. The act of asserting; the maintaining of a claim.

2. Positive declaration or averment; affirmation; position advanced.

ASSERTIVE, a. Positive; affirming confidently; peremptory.

ASSERTIVELY, adv. Affirmatively

ASSERTOR, n. One who affirms positively; one who maintains or vindicates a claim; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator.

ASSERTORY, a. Affirming; maintaining.

ASSESS, v.t. [L. assideo, ad and sedeo.]

1. To set, fix or charge a certain sum upon one, as a tax; as, to assess each citizen in due proportion.

2. To value; to fix the value of property, for the purpose of being taxed; as by the law of the United States. Also, to value or fix the profits of business, for the purpose of taxation.

3. To set, fix or ascertain; as, it is the province of a jury to assess damages.

ASSESS, n. Assessment. [Not used.]

ASSESSABLE, a. That may be assessed.

ASSESSED, pp. Charged with a certain sum; valued; set; fixed; ascertained.

ASSESSING, ppr. Charging with a sum; valuing; fixing; ascertaining.

ASSESSION, n. A sitting down by a person. [Not used.]

ASSESSIONARY, a. Pertaining to assessors.

ASSESSMENT, n.

1. A valuation of property or profits of business, for the purpose of taxation. An assessment is a valuation made by authorized persons according to their discretion, as opposed to a sum certain or determined by law. It may be a direct charge of the tax to be paid; or a valuation of the property of those who are to pay the tax, for the purpose of fixing the proportion which each man shall pay; on which valuation the law imposes a specific sum upon a given amount.

2. A tax or specific sum charged on the person or property.

3. The act of assessing; the act of determining the amount of damages by a jury.

ASSESSOR, n.

1. One appointed to assess the person or property.

2. An inferior officer of justice, who sits to assist the judge.

3. One who sits by another, as next in dignity.

ASSETS, n. plu. [L. sat, satis, enough.]

Goods or estate of a deceased person, sufficient to pay the debts of the deceased. But the word sufficient, though expressing the original signification of assets, is not with us necessary to the definition. In present usage, assets are the money, goods or estate of a deceased person, subject by law to the payment of his debts and legacies. Assets are real or personal; real assets are lands which descend to the heir, subject to the fulfillment of the obligations of the ancestor; personal assets are the money or goods of the deceased, or debts due to him, which come into the hands of the executor or administrator, or which he is bound to collect and convert into money.

ASSEVER, ASSEVERATE, v.t. [L. assevero, from ad and swear.]

To affirm or aver positively, or with solemnity.

ASSEVERATION, n. Positive affirmation or assertion; solemn declaration. This word is not, generally, if ever, used for a declaration under an official oath, but for a declaration accompanied with solemnity.

ASS-HEAD, n. [ass and head.] One dull, like the ass; one slow of apprehension; a blockhead.

ASSIDEANS, CHASIDEANS, n. [Heb. pious.]

A sect of Jews who resorted to Mattathias to fight for the laws of their God and the liberties of their country. They were men of great zeal, and observed the traditions of the elders. From these sprung the Pharisees and Essenes.

ASSIDENT, a. [L. assideo, assidens, of ad and sedeo, to sit.]

Assident signs, in medicine, are such as usually attend a disease, but not always; distinguished from pathognomic signs, which are inseparable from it.

ASSIDUATE, a. Daily. [Not in use.]

ASSIDUITY, n. [L. assiduitas. See Assiduous.]

1. Constant or close application to any business or enterprise; diligence.

2. Attention; Attentiveness to persons. Assiduities, in plural, are services rendered with zeal and constancy.

ASSIDUOUS, a. [L. assiduus, from assideo, to sit close, ad and sedeo; Eng. to sit.]

1. Constant in application; as a person assiduous in his occupation.

2. Attentive; careful; regular in attendance; as an assiduous physician or nurse.

3. Performed with constant diligence or attention; as assiduous labor.

ASSIDUOUSLY, adv. Diligently; attentively; with earnestness and care; with regular attendance.

ASSIDUOUSNESS, n. Constant or diligent application.

ASSIENTO, n. [L. assideo.]

A contract or convention between the king of Spain and other powers, for furnishing slaves for the Spanish dominions in south America.

ASSIGN, v.t. [L. assigno, of ad and signo, to allot to mark out, signum, a mark. The primary sense of sign is to send, or to set.]

1. To allot; to appoint or grant by distribution or apportionment.

The priests had a portion assigned them. Genesis 47:22.

2. To designate or appoint for a particular purpose.

They assigned Bezer, a city of refuge. Joshua 20:8.

3. To fix, specify or designate; as an assigned quantity.

4. To make or set over; to transfer, sell or convey, by writing, as by indorsing a note, or by any writing on a separate paper.

5. To allege or show in particular; as, to assign a reason for one’s conduct.

6. In law, to show or set forth with particularity; as, to assign error in a writ; to assign false judgment.

ASSIGN, n. A person to whom property or an interest is or may be transferred; as, a deed to a man and his heirs and assigns.

ASSIGNABLE, a.

1. That may be allotted, appointed or assigned.

2. That may be transferred by writing; as an assignable note, or bill.

3. That may be specified, shown with precision or designated; as an assignable error.

ASSIGNAT, n. A public note or bill in France; paper currency.

ASSIGNATION, n.

1. An appointment of time and place for meeting; used chiefly of love-meetings.

2. A making over by transfer of title. [See Assignment.]

3. In Russia, a public note or bank bill; paper currency.

ASSIGNED, pp. Appointed; allotted; made over; shown or designated.

ASSIGNEE, n. A person to whom an assignment is made; a person appointed or deputed to do some act, perform some business or enjoy some right, privilege or property; as an assignee of a bankrupt. An assignee may be by special appointment or deed, or be created by law; as an executor.

ASSIGNER, n. One who assigns, or appoints.

ASSIGNING, ppr. Allotting; appointing; transferring; showing specially.

ASSIGNMENT, n.

1. An allotting, or an appointment to a particular person or use.

2. A transfer of title or interest by writing, as of a lease, bond, note, or bill of exchange.

3. The writing by which an interest is transferred.

4. The appointment or designation of causes or actions in court, for trial on particular days.

5. In law, the conveyance of the whole interest which a man has in an estate, usually for life or year. It differs from a lease, which is the conveyance of a less term than the lessor has in the estate.

ASSIGNOR, n. an assigner; a person who assigns or transfers an interest; as the assignor of a bill of exchange.

ASSIMILABLE, a. That may be assimilated.

ASSIMILATE, v.t. [L. assimilo, of ad and similis, like. See Similar.]

1. To bring to a likeness; to cause to resemble.

2. To convert into a like substance; as, food is assimilated by conversion into animal substances, flesh, chyle, blood, etc.

ASSIMILATE, v.i.

1. To become similar.

2. To be converted into a like substance.

ASSIMILATED, pp. Brought to a likeness; changed into a like substance.

ASSIMILATING, ppr. Causing to resemble; converting into a like substance.

ASSIMILATION, n.

1. The act of bringing to a resemblance.

2. The act or process by which bodies convert other bodies into their own nature and substance; as, flame assimilates oil, and the food of animals is by assimilation converted into the substances which compose their bodies.

Mineral assimilation is the property which substances possess, in the earth, of appropriating and assimilating to themselves other substances with which they are in contact; a property which seems to be the basis of the natural history of the earth.

ASSIMILATIVE, a. having power of converting to a likeness, or to a like substance.

ASSIMULATE, v.t. [L. assimulo.] To feign. [Not used. See Simulate.]

ASSIMULATION, n. A counterfeiting. [Not used. See Simulation.]

ASSIST, v.t. [L. assisto, of ad and sisto, to stand up; English, to stand by.]

To help; to aid; to succor; to give support to in some undertaking or effort, or in time of distress.

ASSIST, v.i. To lend aid.

ASSISTANCE, n. Help; aid; furtherance; succor; a contribution of support in bodily strength or other means.

ASSISTANT, a. Helping; lending aid or support; auxiliary.

ASSISTANT, n. One who aids, or who contributes his strength or other means to further the designs of welfare of another; an auxiliary.

ASSISTED, pp. Helped; aided.

ASSISTER, n. One that lends aid.

ASSISTING, ppr. Helping; aiding; supporting with strength or means.

ASSISTLESS, a. Without aid or help.

ASSIZE, ASSIZES, n. [L. assideo, to sit by, of ad and sedeo, to sit.]

1. Originally, an assembly of knights and other substantial men, with a bailiff or justice, in a certain place and at a certain time, for public business. The word was sometimes applied to the general council, or Wittenagemote, of England.

2. A court in England, held in every county by special commission to one of the judges, who is called a justice of the assize, and empowered to take assizes, that is, the verdict of a jury, called the assize.

3. A jury. In this sense the word was applied to the grand assize, for the trial of property, and to the petty assize, for the trial of possession. In Scotland, the assize consists of fifteen men, selected from a greater number.

4. A writ; as an assize of novel disseisin, which is given to recover the possession of lands, tenements, rents, common, etc., of which the tenant has been lately disseised; assize of mort d’ancestor, which lies against an abator, who enters upon land after the death of the tenant, and before the heir enters; assize of darrein presentment, which lies against a stranger who presents a clerk to a benefice.

5. A particular species of rents, established and not subject to be varied.

6. The time or place of holding the court of assize.

7. In a more general sense, any court of justice.

8. A statute of regulation; an ordinance regulating the weight, measure and price of articles sold in market; and hence the word came to signify the weight, measure or price itself; as the assize of bread.

This word is, in a certain sense, now corrupted into size, which see.

ASSIZE, v.t. To fix the weight, measure or price of commodities, by an ordinance or regulation of authority.

ASSIZED, pp. Regulated in weight, measure or price, by an assize or ordinance.

ASSIZER, n. An officer who has the care or inspection of weights and measures.

ASSIZOR, n. In Scotland, a juror.

ASS-LIKE, a. Resembling an ass.

ASSOBER, v.t. [See Sober.] To keep under. [Not used.]

ASSOCIABILITY, n. The quality of being capable of association; the quality of suffering some change by sympathy, or of being affected by the affections of another part of the body.

ASSOCIABLE, a. assoshable. [See Associate.]

1. That may be joined to or associated.

2. In a medical sense, liable to be affected by sympathy, or to receive from other parts correspondent feelings and affections. “The stomach, the most associable of all the organs of the animal body.”

ASSOCIATE, v.t. assoshate. [L. associo, of ad and socio, to join.]

1. To join in company, as a friend, companion, partner or confederate; as, to associate others with us in business, or in an enterprise.

It conveys the idea of intimate union.

2. To unite in the same mass; as, particles of matte associated with other substances.

ASSOCIATE, v.i.

1. To unite in company; to keep company, implying intimacy; as, congenial minds are disposed to associate.

2. To unite in action, or be affected by the action of a different part of the body.

ASSOCIATE, a.

1. Joined in interest or purpose; confederate.

2. Joined in employment or office; as an associate judge.

ASSOCIATE, n.

1. A companion; one frequently in company with another, implying intimacy or equality; a mate; a fellow.

2. A partner in interest, as in business; or a confederate in a league.

3. A companion in a criminal transaction; an accomplice.

ASSOCIATED, pp. United in company or in interest; joined.

ASSOCIATESHIP, n. The state or office of an associate.

ASSOCIATING, ppr. Uniting in company or in interest; joining.

ASSOCIATION, n.

1. The act of associating; union; connection of persons.

2. Union of persons in a company; a society formed for transacting or carrying on some business for mutual advantage; a partnership. It is often applied to a union of states or a confederacy.

3. Union of things; apposition, as of particles of matter.

4. Union or connection of ideas. An association of ideas is where two or more ideas constantly or naturally follow each other in the mind, so that one almost infallibly produces the other.

5. An exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensory residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequence of some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions.

6. In ecclesiastical affairs, a society of the clergy, consisting of a number of pastors of neighboring churches, united for promoting the interests of religion and the harmony of the churches.

ASSOCIATIONAL, a. Pertaining to an association of clergymen.

ASSOCIATIVE, a. Having the quality of associating, or of being affected by sympathy.

ASSOIL, v.t. [L. absolvo.] To solve; to release; to absolve.

ASSOIL, v.t. To soil; to stain. Obs.

ASSONANCE, n. [L. ad and sono, to sound. See Sound.]

Resemblance of sounds. In rhetoric and poetry, a resemblance in sound or termination, without making rhyme.

ASSONANT, a. Having a resemblance of sounds. In Spanish poetry, assonant rhymes are those in which a resemblance of sounds serves instead of a natural rhyme; as, ligera, tierra.

ASSORT, v.t. [See Sort.]

1. To separate and distribute into classes things of the like kind, nature or quality, or things which are suited to a like purpose. It is sometimes applied to persons as well as things.

2. To furnish with all sorts.

ASSORT, v.i. To agree; to be in accordance with; to suit.

ASSORTED, pp.

1. Distributed into sorts, kinds or classes.

2. Furnished with an assortment, or with a variety; as a well assorted store.

ASSORTING, ppr. Separating into sorts; supplying with an assortment.

ASSORTMENT, n.

1. The act of distributing into sorts, kinds of classes, or of selecting and suiting things.

2. A mass or quantity distributed into kinds or sorts; or a number of things assorted.

3. A number of things of the same kind, varied in size, color, quality, price, form, or the like, to suit the market, the wants of people, or various purposes; as an assortment of thread, of silks, of calicoes, etc.

An assortment of paintings.

4. A variety of sorts or kinds adapted to various wants, demands or purposes; as an assortment of goods.

ASSOT, v.t. [See Sot.] To infatuate; to besot. [Not used.]

ASSUAGE, v.t.

To soften, in a figurative sense; to allay, mitigate, ease or lessen, as pain or grief; to appease or pacify, as passion or tumult. In strictness, it signifies rather to moderate, than to quiet, tranquilize or reduce to perfect peace or ease.