Emily Dickinson Lexicon

angle, n. [OE angul < IE ank- to bend.]

1. Vertex; intersecting point; perpendicular mark; crossing place; meeting of two lines not in the same direction.
2. Limit; border; boundary; edge; [fig.] veil; point between life and death.
3. Perspective; projection; twist; curve; diagonal line; point at which nature intersects itself.

angled, verbal adj. [see angle, n.]

Twisted; slanted; curving; crooked; difficult.

angleworm (Angle Worm), n. [see angle, n. + worm, n.]

Earthworm; tiny creature that birds like to eat; small, soft, line-shaped creature that fishermen use on a hook or angle.

Anglo-Florentine, proper n. [L. Anglo- < OE Angl-us + L. Flōrentīn-us, of or pertaining to Florence, the chief city of Tuscany.]

Phrase. “The Anglo-Florentine”: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861); nineteenth-century English poet who lived in Italy, particularly Florence.

anguish, n. [OFr anguisse, the painful sensation of choking < L. angustia, straitness, tightness < ang(u)-ěre, to strangle.] (webplay: agony, despair, mind, narrowness, pain, passion, sorrow, spirit).

1. Grief; tribulation; distress; extreme suffering of body or mind; keen distress from sorrow, remorse, despair, or similar emotion.
2. Extreme ecstasy; powerful transport; passionate feeling; painfully intense emotion.
3. [Fig.] Fall of Man; sin, death, and separation from the presence of God; physical and spiritual consequences of Adam and Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden (see Jeremiah 4:31).
4. [Fig.] expiration; cessation of breath.

animal (-s), n. [L. anima, air, breath, life.]

Creature; beast; living thing, with properties of sensation and movement.

ankle (-es, ancle, ancles), n. [OE oncléow.] (webplay: joint).

1. Topmost part of the foot; connection of the foot to the leg.
2. [Dual number] feet; legs.
3. [Metonymy] body walking; person stepping; someone striding.

anneal (-ed), v. [an- + OE ælan, set on fire; burn; bake (tiles); fuse minerals by heat; burn glaze or enamel on pottery, glass, or metal; NW says: < OE ælan, kindle, inflame, heat, anoint with oil < OE æl, oil.]

Temper; strengthen; fortify; prove; refine by fire; make malleable and less brittle by subjecting to heat; subject to fire for strengthening and beautification; [fig.] anoint as sacred; sanctify by distress; purify by sacrifice.

annihilate (-ing), v. [L. ad, to + nihil, nothing.] (webplay: exhistence [sic]).

1. Obliterate; wipe out; completely destroy; totally demolish; reduce to nothing.
2. Remove; abolish; eliminate; erase; take out; [fig.] negate; deny; contradict; disprove.
3. Completely unsettle; totally disrupt.

annihilation, n. [see annihilate, v.] (webplay: exists).

Destruction; desolation; reduction to nothingness.