Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A'CRED, a.

Possessing acres or landed property. Pope.

AC'RID, a. [Fr. acre; L. acer.]

Sharp; pungent; bitter; sharp or biting to the taste; acrimonious; as acrid salts.

AC'RID-NESS, n.

A sharp, bitter, pungent quality.

AC-RI-MO'NI-OUS, a.

1. Sharp; bitter; corrosive; abounding with acrimony.
2. Figuratively, severe; sarcastic; applied to language or temper.

AC-RI-MO'NI-OUS-LY, adv.

With sharpness or bitterness.

AC-RI-MONI-OUS-NESS, n.

The state or quality of being acrimonious.

AC'RI-MO-NY, n. [L. acrimonia, from acer, sharp. The latter part of the word seems to denote likeness, state, condition, like head, hood, in knighthood; in which case it may be from the same root as maneo, Gr. {foreign}.]

1. Sharpness; a quality of bodies, which corrodes, dissolves, or destroys others, as, the acrimony of the humors. Bacon.
2. Figuratively, sharpness or severity of temper; bitterness of expression proceeding from anger, ill-nature, or petulance. South.

AC'RI-SY, n. [Gr. {foreign} and {foreign}, judgment.]

A state or condition of which no right judgment can be formed; that of which no choice is made; matter in dispute; injudiciousness. [Little used.] Bailey.

A-CRI'TA, n. plu. [Gr. {foreign}, indiscernible.]

1. A name given to certain species of marine animals or infusories. Kirby.
2. In medicine, defect of crisis or of a separation and expulsion of morbific matter in the human body.

AC'RI-TUDE, n. [See Acrid.]

An acrid quality; bitterness to the taste; biting heat.

A-CRO-A-MAT'IC, a. [Gr. {foreign}, from {foreign}, to hear.]

Abstruse; pertaining to deep learning; an epithet applied to the secret doctrines of Aristotle. Enfield.

A-CRO-AT'IC, a. [Gr. {foreign}.]

Abstruse; pertaining to deep learning; and opposed to exoteric. Aristotle's lectures were of two kinds, acroatic, acroamatic, or esoteric, which were delivered to a class of select disciples, who had been previously instructed in the elements of learning; and exoteric, which were delivered in public. The former respected being, God, and nature; the principal subjects of the latter were logic, rhetoric, and policy. The abstruse lectures were called acroatics. Enfield.

A-CRO-CE-RAU'NI-AN, a. [Gr. {foreign}, a summit, and {foreign}, thunder.]

An epithet applied to certain mountains, between Epirus and Illyricum, in the 41st degree of latitude. They project into the Adriatic, and are so termed from being often struck with lightning. Encyc.

A-CRO-LITH, n. [Gr. {foreign}, and {foreign}.]

In architecture and sculpture, a statue whose extremities were of stone. Elmes.

A-CRO'MI-ON, n. [Gr. {foreign}, highest, and {foreign}, shoulder.]

In anatomy, that part of the spine of the scapula, which receives the extreme part of the clavicle. Quincy.

A-CRON'IC, or A-CRON'IC-AL, a. [Gr. {foreign}, extreme, and {foreign}, night.]

In astronomy, a term applied to the rising of a star at sun-set, or its setting at sun-rise. This rising or setting is called aeronical. The word is opposed to cosmical. Bailey. Encyc. Johnson.

A-CRON'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In an acronical manner; at the rising or setting of the sun.

AC-RO-PO'DI-UM, n. [Gr. {foreign} and {foreign}]

In zoology, the upper surface of the whole foot. Brands.

A-CROP'O-LIS, n. [Gr. {foreign}, and {foreign}.]

A citadel; the citadel in Athens.

AC'RO-SPIRE, n. [Gr. {foreign}, highest, and {foreign}, a spire, or spiral line.]

A shoot, or sprout of a seed; the plume, or plumule, so called from its spiral form. Mortimer.

AC'RO-SPIR-ED, a.

Having a sprout, or having sprouted at both ends. Mortimer.

A-CROSS', prep. [akraus'; a and cross. See Cross.]

1. From side to side, opposed to along, which is in the direction of the length; athwart; quite over; as, a bridge is laid across a river.
2. Intersecting; passing over at any angle; as a line passing across another.

A-CROS'TIC, a.

That relates to, or contains an acrostic.

A-CROS'TIC, n. [Gr. {foreign}, extremity or beginning, and {foreign}, order or verse.]

A composition in verse, in which the first letters of the lines, taken in order, form the name of a person, kingdom, city, &c., which is the subject of the composition, or some title or motto.

A-CROS'TIC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of an acrostic.