Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OC-CULT'NESS, n.

The state of being concealed from view; secretness.

OC'CU-PAN-CY, n. [L. occupo, to take or seize; ob and capio, to seize.]

1. The act of taking possession.
2. In law, the taking possession of a thing not belonging to any person. The person who first takes possession of land is said to have or hold it by right of occupancy. Occupancy gave the original right to the property in the substance of the earth itself. Blackstone.

OC'CU-PANT, n.

1. He that occupies or takes possession; he that has possession.
2. In law, one that first takes possession of that which ha no legal owner. The right of property, either in wild beasts and fowls, or in land belonging to no person, vests in the first occupant. The property in these cases follow the possession.

OC'CU-PATE, v.t. [L. occupo.]

' To hold; to possess; to take up. [Not used.] Bacon.

OC-CU-PA'TION, n. [L. occupatio.]

1. The act of taking possession. Bacon.
2. Possession; a holding or keeping; tenure; use; lands in the occupation of AB.
3. That which engages the time and attention; employment; business. He devotes to study all the time that his other occupations will permit.
4. The principal business of one's life; vocation; calling trade; the business which a man follows to procure a living or obtain wealth. Agriculture, manufactures and commerce furnish the most general occupations of life. Painting, statuary, music, are agreeable occupations. Men not engaged in some useful occupation commonly fall into vicious courses.

OC'CU-PI-ED, pp.

Possessed; used; employed.

OC'CU-PI-ER, n.

1. One that occupies or takes possession. Ralegh.
2. One who holds possession.
3. One who follows an employment. Ezek. xxvii.

OC'CU-PY, v.i.

To follow business; to negotiate. Occupy till I come. Luke xix.

OC'CU-PY, v.t. [L. occupo; ob and capio, to seize or take.]

1. To take possession. The person who first occupies land which has no owner, has the right of property.
2. To keep in possession; to possess; to hold or keep for use. The tenant occupies a farm under a lease of twenty-one years. A lodger occupies an apartment; a man occupies the chair in which he sits.
3. To take up; to possess; to cover or fill. The camp occupies five acres of ground. Air may be so rarefied as to occupy a vast space. The writing occupies a sheet of paper, or it occupies five lines only.
4. To employ; to use. The archbishop may have occasion to occupy more chaplains than six. Eng. Statute.
5. To employ; to busy one's self. Every man should be occupied, or should employ himself, in some useful labor., All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. Ezek. xxxvii.
6. To follow, as business. All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. Ezek. xxvii.
7. To use; to expend. All the gold that was occupied for the work. Exod. xxxviii. [Not now in use.]

OCCU-PY-ING, ppr.

Taking or keeping possession; employing.

OC-CUR', v. [L. occurro; ob and curro, to run.]

1. Primarily, to meet; to strike against; to clash; and so used by Bentley, but this application is obsolete.
2. To meet or come to the mind; to be presented to the mind, imagination or the memory. We say, no better plan occurs to me or to my mind; it does not occur to my recollection; the thought did not occur to me. There doth not occur to me any use of this experiment for profit. Bacon.
3. To appear; to meet the eye; to be found here and there. This word occurs in twenty places in the Scriptures; the other word does not occur in a single place; it does not occur in the sense suggested.
4. To oppose; to obviate. [Not used.] Bentley.

OC-CUR'REN-CE, n. [Fr.]

1. Literally, a coming or happening; hence any incident or accidental event; that which happens without being designed or expected; any single event. We speak of an unusual occurrence, or of the ordinary occurrences of life.
2. Occasional presentation. Voyages detain the mind by the perpetual occurrence and expectation of something new. Watts.

OC-CUR'RENT, n.

Incident; any thing that happens. [Obs.] Bacon.

OC-CUR'SION, n. [L. occursio, from occurro, to meet]

A meeting of bodies; A clash.

O-CEAN, a. o'shun.

Pertaining to the main or great sea; as, the ocean wave; ocean stream. Milton.

O-CEAN, n. o'shun. [L. oceanus; Gr. {foreign}; Fr. ocean; Ir. ocein, aigein; W. eigiawn, eig or eigion. In Welsh, the word is rendered a great source, the middle, the abyss or great deep, and is allied in orthography to eigian, force. or forcing out, a producing; eigiaw, to bring forth, from aig, what brings forth, the femaile, the womb, the sea, a shoal of fishes, a flock, or herd. Bochart cites many authorities to prove that the ancients understood ancients understood the ocean to encompass the earth, and he supposes it to be derived from the Heb. Ch. and Syr. {foreign} hog, to encompass, whence a circle. This is probably an error. The word seems to have for its origin greatness or extent.]

1. The vast body of water which covers more than three fifths of the surface of the globe, called also the sea, or great sea. It is customary to speak of the ocean as if divided into three parts, the Atlantic ocean, the Pacific ocean, and the Indian ocean; but the ocean is one mass or body, partially separated by the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa on one side, and by America on the other.
2. An immense expanse; as, the boundless ocean of eternity; oceans of duration and space. Locke.

O'CELLA-TED, a. [L. occelatus, from ocellus; a little eye.]

1. Resembling an eye. Derham.
2. Formed with the figures of little eyes.

O'CELOT, n.

The French popular name of a digitigrade carnivorous mammal, of the cat kind. It is the felis Pardelis of {foreign}, and it inhabits Mexico. It is likewise the; French popular name of several other nearly allied species of Felis.

O'CHER, n. [Fr. ocre; L. ochra , Gr. {foreign}, from {foreign}, pale.]

A variety of clay deeply colored by the sesquoxyd of iron. Its most common colors are red, yellow and brown. It is used as a pigment.

O'CHER-OUS, a.

1. Consisting of ocher; as, ocherous matter.
2. Resembling ocher; as, an ocherous color.

OCH'I-MY, n. [corrupted from alchimy.]

A mixed base metal. Johnson. Todd.

OCH-LOC'RA-CY, n. [Gr. {foreign}, the people or a multitude, and {foreign}, to govern.]

A form of government in which the multitude or common people rule. Encyc. Jones.

O'CHREY, a.

Partaking of ocher. [Not used.] Woodward.

OCH'ROITS, n.

Cerite.

O'CRA, n.

A viscous vegetable substance in the West Indies, used in soups, &c. Encyc. It is obtained by boiling the green pods of the Hibiscus esculentus. Also, the name of the plant itself.