Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AC-NES'TIS, n. [Gr. α priv. and {foreign}, to rub or gnaw.]

That part of the spine in quadrupeds which extends from the metaphrenon, between the shoulder blades, to the loins; which the animal can not reach to scratch. Coxe. Quincy.

AC'O, n.

A Mediterranean fish, called also Sarachus.

AC'O-LIN, n.

A bird of the partridge kind in Cuba. Its breast and belly are white; its back and tail of a dusky yellow brown. Dict. of Nat. Hist.

A-COL'O-GY, n. [Gr. {foreign} and {foreign}.]

The doctrine of remedies, or the materia medica.

A-COL'O-THIST, or AC'O-LYTE, n. [Gr. {foreign}]

In the ancient Church, one of the subordinate officers, who lighted the lamps, prepared the elements of the sacraments, attended the bishops, &c. An officer of the like character is still employed in the Romish Church. Encyc.

AC'ON-ITE, n. [L. aconitum; Gr. {foreign}.]

The herb wolf's bane, or monks-hood, a poisonous plant; and in poetry, used for poison in general.

A-CON'TI-AS, n. [Gr. {foreign}; {foreign}, a dart, from {foreign}.]

1. A species of serpent, called dart-snake, or jaculum, from its manner of darting on its prey. This serpent is about three feet in length; of a light gray color with black spots resembling eyes; the belly perfectly white. It is a native of Africa and the Mediterranean isles; is the swiftest of its kind, and coils itself upon a tree, from which it darts upon its prey.
2. A comet or meteor resembling the serpent.

A-COP', adv. [a and cope.]

At the top. [Obs.] Jonson.

A'CORN, n. [Sax. æcern, from æc or ac, oak, and corn, a grain.]

1. The seed or fruit of the oak; an oval nut which grows in a rough permanent cup. The first settlers of Boston were reduced to the necessity of feeding on clams, muscles, ground nuts, and acorns. B. Trumbull.
2. In marine language, a small ornamental piece of wood, of a conical shape, fixed on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast head, to keep the vane from being blown off. Mar. Dict.
3. In natural history, the Lepas, a genus of shells of several species found on the British coast. The shell is multivalvular, unequal, and fixed by a stem; the valves are parallel and perpendicular, but they do not open, so that the animal performs its functions by an aperture on the top. These shells are always fixed to some solid body.

A'CORN-ED, a.

Furnished or loaded with acorns.

AC'OR-US, n. [L. from Gr. {foreign}.]

1. Sweet flag, or sweet rush.
2. In natural history, blue coral, which grows in the form of a tree, on a rocky bottom, in some parts of the African seas. It is brought from the Camarones and Benin. Encyc.
3. In medicine, this name is sometimes given to the great galangal. Encyc.

A-COSMI-A, n.

A bad state of health, and a loss of natural color. Knowles.

A-CO-TYL-E'DON, n. [Gr. α priv. and {foreign}, from {foriegn}, a hollow.]

In botany, a plant whose seeds have no side lobes, or cotyledons. Martyn.

A-CO-TYL-E'DON-OUS, a.

Having no side lobes.

A-COUS'TIC, a. [Gr. {foreign}, from {foreign}, to hear.]

Pertaining to the ears, to the sense of hearing, or to the doctrine of sounds. Acoustic duct, in anatomy, the meatus auditorius, or external passage of the ear. Acoustic vessels, in ancient theaters, were brazen tubes or vessels, shaped like a bell, used to propel the voice of the actors, so as to render them audible to a great distance; in some theaters at the distance of 400 feet. Encyc. Acoustic instrument, or auricular tube, called in popular language, a speaking-trumpet. Encyc. Acoustics, or Acousmatics, was a name given to such of the disciples of Pythagoras as had not completed their five years probation.

A-COUS'TICS, n.

1. The science of sounds, teaching their cause, nature, and phenomena. This science is, by some writers, divided into diacoustics, which explains the properties of sounds coining directly from the sonorous body to the ear; and catacoustics, which treats of reflected sounds. But the distinction is considered of little real utility.
2. In medicine, this term is sometimes used for remedies for deafness, or imperfect hearing. Quincy.

AC-QUAINT', v.t. [Old Fr. accointer, to make known, whence accointance, acquaintance. Qu. Per. {foreign} kunda, knowing, intelligent; Ger. kunde, knowledge; kund, known, public; D. kond or kunde, knowledge; Sw. kănd, known; Dan. kiender, to know, to be acquainted with. These words seem to have for their primitive root the Goth. and Sax. kunnan, to know, the root of cunning; Ger. kennen; D. kunnen, kan; Eng. can and ken; which see.]

1. To make known; to make fully or intimately known; to make familiar. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isa. liii.
2. To inform; to communicate notice to; as, a friend in the country acquaints me with his success. Of before the object, – as, to acquaint a man of this design, – has been used, but is obsolete or improper.
3. To acquaint one's self, is to gain an intimate or particular knowledge of. Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace. Job xxii.

AC-QUAINT'-ANCE, n.

1. Familiar knowledge; a state of being acquainted, or of having intimate or more than slight or superficial knowledge; as, I know the man, but have no acquaintance with him. Sometimes it denotes a more slight knowledge.
2. A person or persons well known; usually persons we have been accustomed to see and converse with; sometimes, persons more slightly known. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness. Ps. lxxxviii. My acquaintance are estranged from me. Job xix. Acquaintances, in the plural, is used, as applied to individual persons known; but more generally, acquaintance is used for one or more. Acquaintant, in like sense is not used.

AC-QUAINT-ANCE-SHIP, n.

State of being acquainted. Chalmers.

AC-QUAINT'-ED, pp.

Known; familiarly known; informed; having personal knowledge.

AC-QUAINT'-ING, ppr.

Making known to; giving notice, or information to.

AC-QUEST', n. [L. acquisitus, acquiro.]

1. Acquisition; the thing gained. Bacon.
2. Conquest; a place acquired by force.

AC-QUI-ESCE, v.i. [acquiess'; L. acquiesco, of ad and quiesco, to be quiet; quies, rest; Fr. acquiescer.]

1. To rest satisfied, or apparently satisfied, or to rest without opposition and discontent; usually implying previous opposition, uneasiness, or dislike, but ultimate compliance, or submission; as, to acquiesce in the dispensations of Providence.
2. To assent to, upon conviction; as, to acquiesce in an opinion; that is, to rest satisfied of its correctness, or propriety. Acquiesced in, in a passive sense, complied with; submitted to, without opposition; as, a measure has been acquiesced in.

AC-QUI-ES'CENCE, n.

A quiet assent; a silent submission, or submission with apparent content; distinguished from avowed consent on the one hand, and on the other, from opposition or open discontent; as, an acquiescence in the decisions of a court, or in the allotments of Providence.

AC-QUI-ES'CENT, a.

Resting satisfied; easy; submitting; disposed to submit. Johnson.