Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-BAN'DON-EE, n.

In law, one to whom any thing is abandoned.

A-BAN'DON-ER, n.

One who abandons.

A-BAN'DON-ING, n.

A forsaking; total desertion. He hoped his past meritorious actions might outweigh his present abandoning the thought of future actions. Clarendau.

A-BAN'DON-ING, ppr.

Forsaking or deserting wholly; renouncing; yielding one's self without restraint.

A-BAN'DON-MENT, n.

1. A total desertion; a state of being forsaken.
2. In commerce, the relinquishing to underwriters all the prop. city saved from loss by shipwreck, capture, or other peril stated in the policy. This abandonment must be made before the insured can demand indemnification for a total loss. Park.

A-BAND'UM, n.

In old law, any thing forfeited or confiscated.

A-BAN'GA, n.

The ady; a species of palm-tree. [See Ady.]

AB-AN-NI'TION, n. [Law Lat.]

A banishment for one or two years for manslaughter. [Not much used.] Dict.

A-BAP-TIS'TON, n.

The perforating part of the trephine, an instrument used in trepanning. Coxe.

A-BARE, v.t. [Sax. abartan. bee Bare.]

To make bare; to uncover. [Not in use.]

AB-AR-TIC-U-LA'TION, a. [See Articulate.]

In anatomy, that species of articulation or structure of joints, which admits of manifest or extensive motion; called also diarthrosis and dearticulation. Encyc. Coxe.

A-BAS', n.

A weight in Persia used in weighing pearls, one eighth less than the European carat. Encyc.

A-BASE', v.t. [Fr. abaisser, from bas, low, or the bottom; W. bais Latin and Gr. {foreign}; Eng. base; It. abbassare; Sp. baxo, low. See Abash.]

1. The literal sense of abase is to lower or depress, to throw or cast down, as used by Bacon, "to abase the eye." But the word is seldom used in reference to material things.
2. To cast down; to reduce low; to depress; to humble; to degrade; applied to the passions, rank, office, and condition in life. Those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Dan. iv. Whoever exalteth himself shall be abased. Mat. xxiii. Job xl. 2 Cor. xi.

A-BAS'-ED, pp.

Reduced to a low state, humbled, depressed. In heraldry, it is used of the wings of eagles, when the tops are turned downward toward the point of the shield; or when the wings are shut, the natural way of bearing them being spread, with the top pointing to the chief of the angle. Bailey. Chambers.

A-BASE'MENT, n.

The act of humbling or bringing low; also a state of depression, degradation, or humiliation.

A-BASH', v.t. [Heb. and Ch. {foreign} bosh, to be confounded, or ashamed.]

To make the spirits to fail; to cast down the countenance; to make ashamed; to confuse or confound, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, error, inferiority, &c. They heard and were abashed. Nitta.

A-BASH'ED, pp.

Confused with shame; confounded; put to silence: followed by at.

A-BASH'ING, ppr.

Putting to shame or confusion.

A-BASH'MENT, n.

Confusion from shame.

A-BAS'ING, ppr.

Humbling, depressing, bringing low.

A-BAS'SI, or A-BAS'SIS, n.

A silver coin of Persia of the value of twenty cents, about ten pence sterling. Encyc.

A-BAT'A-BLE, a.

That may or can be abated; as, an abatable writ or nuisance.

A-BATE', v.i.

1. To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as, pain abates; a storm abates.
2. To fail; to be defeated, or come to naught; as, a writ abates. By the civil law a legacy to a charity does not abate by deficiency of assets.
3. In law, to enter into a freehold after the death of the last occupant, and before the heir or devisee takes possession. Blackstone.
4. In horsemanship, to perform well a downward motion. A horse is said to abate, or take down his curvets, when, working upon curvets, he puts both his hind legs to the ground at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times. Encyc.

A-BATE', v.t. [Fr. abattre, to beat down; bathe, to beat, to strike; Sp. boar, abatir; Port. bater, abater; It. battere, abattere; Heb. Ch. {foreign}, habat; to beat; Syr. {foreign} id. Ar. {foreign} gabata, to beat, and {foreign} kabala, to beat down, to prostrate. The Saxon has the participle gebatod, abated. The prefix is sunk to a in abate, and lost in beat. See Class Bd. No. 23, 33.]

1. To beat down; to pull down; to destroy in any manner; as, to abate a nuisance.
2. To lessen; to diminish; to moderate; as, to abate zeal; to abate pride; to abate a demand; to abate courage.
3. To lessen; to mitigate; as, to abate pain or sorrow.
4. To overthrow; to cause to fail; to frustrate by judicial sentence; as, to abate a writ.
5. To deject; to depress; as, to abate the soul. [Obs.]
6. To deduct. Nothing to add and nothing to abate. Pope.
7. To cause to fail; to annul. By the English law, a legacy to a charity is abated by a deficiency of assets.
8. To remit; as, to abate a tax.

A-BAT'-ED, pp.

Lessened; decreased; destroyed; mitigated; defeated; remitted; overthrown.