Dictionary: AT-TENT'IVE – AT'TI-CIZE

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AT-TENT'IVE, a. [Fr. attentif.]

Heedful; intent; observant; regarding with care. It is applied to the senses of hearing and seeing, as an attentive ear or eye; to the application of the mind, as in contemplation; or to the application of the mind, together with the senses above mentioned, as when a person is attentive to the words, the manner and matter of a speaker at the same time.

AT-TENT'IVE-LY, adv.

Heedfully; carefully; with fixed attention.

AT-TENT'IVE-NESS, n.

The state of being attentive; heedfulness; attention.

AT-TEN'U-ANT, a. [See Attenuate.]

Making thin, as fluids; diluting; rendering less dense and viscid.

AT-TEN'U-ANT, n.

A medicine which thins the humors, subtilizes their parts, dissolves viscidity, and disposes the fluids to motion, circulation and secretion; a diluent. – Coxe.

AT-TEN'U-ATE, a.

Made thin, or less viscid; made slender. – Bacon.

AT-TEN'U-ATE, v.t. [L. attenuo, of ad and tenuo, to make thin; L. tenuis; W. tenau; Ir. tana or tanaidhe; Eng. thin; which see.]

  1. To make thin or less consistent; to subtilize or break the humors of the body into finer parts; to render less viscid; opposed to condense, incrassate or thicken.
  2. To comminute; to break or wear solid substances into finer or very minute parts. This uninterrupted motion must attenuate and wear away the hardest rocks. – Trans. of Chaptal's Chimistry.
  3. To make slender; to reduce in thickness.

AT-TEN'U-A-TED, pp.

Made thin or less viscid; comminuted; made slender. In botany, growing slender toward an extremity.

AT-TEN'U-A-TING, ppr.

Making thin, as fluids; making fine, as solid substances; making slender or lean.

AT-TEN-U-A'TION, n.

  1. The act of making thin, as fluids; as, the attenuation of the humors.
  2. The act of making fine, by comminution, or attrition. The action of the air facilitates the attenuation of these rocks. – Trans. Chaptal.
  3. The act or process of making slender, thin or lean.

AT'TE-RATE, v.t. [L. attero, to wear.]

  1. To wear away.
  2. To form or accumulate by wearing.

AT'TE-RA-TED, pp.

Formed by wearing. – Ray.

AT-TE-RA'TION, n.

The operation of forming land by the wearing of the sea, and the wearing of the earth in one place and deposition of it in another. – Ray.

AT-TEST', n.

Witness; testimony; attestation. [Little used.]

AT-TEST', v.t. [Fr. attester; L. attestor; of ad and testor, to affirm or bear witness, from testis. See Testify.]

  1. To bear witness to; to certify; to affirm to be true or genuine; to make a solemn declaration in words or writing, to support a fact; appropriately used for the affirmation of persons in their official capacity; as, to attest the truth of a writing; to attest a copy of record. Persons also attest writings by subscribing their names.
  2. To bear witness, or support the truth of a fact, by other evidence than words; as, the ruins of Palmyra attest its ancient magnificence.
  3. To call to witness; to invoke as conscious. The sacred streams which heaven's imperial state Attests in oaths, and fears to violate. – Dryden.

AT-TEST-A'TION, n.

Testimony; witness; a solemn or official declaration, verbal or written, in support of a fact; evidence. The truth appears from the attestation of witnesses, or of the proper officer. The subscription of a name to a writing is an attestation.

AT-TEST'ED, pp.

Proved or supported by testimony, solemn or official; witnessed; supported by evidence.

AT-TEST'ING, ppr.

Witnessing; calling to witness; affirming in support of.

AT-TEST'OR, n.

One who attests.

AT'TIC, a. [L. Atticus; Gr. Αττικος.]

Pertaining to Attica in Greece, or to its principal city, Athens. Thus, Attic wit, Attic salt, a poignant, delicate wit, peculiar to the Athenians; Attic faith, inviolable faith. Attic base, a peculiar base used by the ancient architects in the Ionic order, or column; and by Palladio and others, in the Doric. – Encyc. Attic order, an order of small square pillars at the uppermost extremity of a building. This had its origin in Athens, and was intended to conceal the roof. These pillars should never exceed one third of the length of the order in which they are placed, nor be less than one quarter of it. – Encyc. Attic story, a story in the upper part of a house, where the windows usually are square. – Encyc.

AT-TIC, n.

  1. A small square pillar with its cornice on the uppermost part of a building. Attics properly form the crown of the building, or a finishing for the other orders, when they are used in the structure. – Encyc.
  2. An Athenian; an Athenian author. – Jones's Greek Grammar.

AT'TIC-AL, a.

Pertaining to Athens; pure, classical. – Hammond.

AT'TI-CISM, n.

  1. The peculiar style and idiom of the Greek language, used by the Athenians; refined and elegant Greek; concise and elegant expression. – Encyc. Art. Philos.
  2. A particular attachment to the Athenians. – Mitford.

AT'TI-CIZE, v.i.

To use atticisms, or the idiom of the Athenians.

AT'TI-CIZE, v.t.

To conform or make conformable to the language or idiom of Attica. Adjectives in ος, when atticized, become ως. Jones's Greek Grammar.