Dictionary: A'CORN-ED – AC-QUIR'ING

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A'CORN-ED, a.

Furnished or loaded with acorns.

AC'OR-US, n. [L. from Gr. ακορον.]

  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-COS'MI-A, n.

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

A-CO-TYL-E'DON, n. [Gr. α privative and κοτυληδων, from κοτυλη, 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. ακουστικος, from ακουω, 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. كُنْدَا 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.

AC-QUI-ES'CING, ppr.

Quietly submitting; resting content.

AC-QUIR-A-BIL'I-TY, n.

State of being acquirable. – Paley.

AC-QUIR'A-BLE, a.

That may be acquired.

AC-QUIRE', v.t. [L. acquiro, ad and quæro, to seek, that is to follow, to press, to urge; acquiro signifies to pursue to the end or object; Fr. acquerir; Sp. adquirir; Ar. قرَاَ kara; Heb. הקר to seek, to make toward, to follow. The L. quæsivi, unless contracted, is probably from a different root. See class Gr. and Gs.]

To gain, by any means, something which is in a degree permanent, or which becomes vested or inherent in the possessor; as, to acquire a title, estate, learning, habits, skill, dominion, &c. Plants acquire a green color from the solar rays. A mere temporary possession is not expressed by acquire, but by gain, obtain, procure; as, to obtain [not acquire] a book on loan. Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law. – Blackstone.

AC-QUIR'ED, pp.

Gained, obtained, or received from art, labor, or other means, in distinction from those things which are bestowed by nature. Thus we say, abilities, natural and acquired. It implies title, or some permanence of possession.

AC'QUIRE'MENT, n.

The act of acquiring, or that which is acquired; attainment. It is used in opposition to natural gifts; as, eloquence, and skill in music and painting, are acquirements; genius, the gift of nature. It denotes especially personal attainments, in opposition to material or external things gained, which are more usually called acquisitions; but this distinction is not always observed.

AC-QUIR'ER, n.

A person who acquires.

AC-QUIR'ING, n.

Acquirement.

AC-QUIR'ING, ppr.

Gaining by labor or other means, something that has a degree of permanence in the possessor.