Emily Dickinson Lexicon — O-PIN'ION-A-TIVE

Opium is the inspissated juice of the Papaver somniferum, or somniferous poppy, with which the fields in Asia Minor are sown, as ours are with wheat and rye. It flows from incisions made in the heads of the plant, and the best flows from the first incision. It is imported into Europe and America from the Levant and the East Indies. It is brought in cakes or masses weighing from eight ounces to a pound. It is heavy, of a dense texture, of a brownish yellow color, not perfectly dry, but easily receiving an impression from the finger; it has a faint smell, and its taste is bitter and acrid. Opium is of great use as a medicine. Hill. Encyc.

O'PLE-TREE, n. [L. opulus.]

The wych-hazle. [Obs.] Ainsworth.

O-PO-BAL'SAM, n. [L. Gr. οπος, juice, and L. balsamum.]

The balm or balsam of Gilead. It has a yellowish or greenish yellow color, a warm bitterish aromatic taste, and an acidulous fragrant smell. It is held in esteem as a medicine and as an odoriferous unguent and cosmetic. The shrub or tree producing this balsam is Balsamodendron Gileadense, which grows spontaneously in Arabia Felix. Encyc.

O-PO-DEL'DOC, n.

The name of a plaster, said to have been invented by Mindererus; but in modern usage,
A saponaceous camphorated liniment: a solution of soap in ardent spirits, with the addition of camphor and essential oils. Nicholson.

O-PO'PA-NAX, a. [L.; Gr. οπος, juice, and παναξ, a plant.]

An inspissated juice of a tolerably firm texture, brought in loose granules or drops, sometimes in larger masses. This substance on the outside is of a brownish red color, with specks of white, and within of a dusky yellow or whitish color. It has a strong smell and an acrid taste. It is obtained from the root of an umbelliferous plant, the Opopanax Chironium, and is brought from Turkey and the East Indies. Encyc. Parr.

O-POS'SUM, n. [This name is pronounced possum, which perhaps may be its true orthography.]

The popular name of several species of Didelphis, a genus of marsupiate carnivorous mammals. One species only of seventeen inhabits the United States, and this is one of the six species whose females have an abdominal pouch, in which they protect and carry their young. The Didelphis Virginiana has a prehensile tail by which it easily suspends itself.

OP'PI-DAN, a.

Pertaining to a town. [Not used.] Howell.

OP'PI-DAN, n. [L. oppidanus, from oppidum, a city or town.]

An inhabitant of a town. [Not used.] Wood.
An appellation given to the students of Eton school in England. Mason.

OP-PIG'NER-ATE, v.t. [L. oppignero; ob and pignero, to pledge, from pignus, pledge.]

To pledge; to pawn. [Not in use.] Bacon.

OP'PI-LATE, v.t. [L. oppilo; ob and pilo, to drive.]

To crowd together; to fill with obstructions.

OP'PI-LA-TED, pp.

Crowded together.

OP'PI-LA-TING, ppr.

Filling with obstructions.

OP-PI-LA'TION, n.

The act of filling or crowding together; a stopping by redundant matter; obstructions, particularly in the lower intestines. Encyc. Harvey.

OP'PI-LA-TIVE, a. [Fr. oppilatif.]

Obstructive. Sherwood.

OP-PLE'TED, a. [L. oppletus.]

Filled; crowded. [Not in use.]

OP-PONE, v.t. [L. oppono; ob and pono, to put.]

To oppose. [Not used.] B. Johnson.

OP-PO'NEN-CY, n. [See Opponent.]

The opening of an academical disputation; the proposition of objections to a tenet; an exercise for a degree. [I believe not used in America.] Todd.

OP-PO'NENT, a. [L. opponens, oppono; ob and pono, to set, put or lay, that is, to thrust against; Heb. Syr. Ch. and Ar. בנה, to build, that is, to set, to found, L. fundo.]

That opposes; opposite; adverse. Prior.

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