Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OS-TEN'SI-BLY, adv.

In appearance; in a manner that is declared or pretended. An embargo and non-intercourse which totally defeat the interests they are ostensibly destined to promote. Walsh.

OS-TEN'SIVE, a. [Fr. from L. ostendo.]

Showing; exhibiting. Ostensive demonstration, is one which plainly and directly demonstrates the truth of a proposition. Cyc.

OS'TENT, n. [L. ostentum, from ostendo.]

1. Appearance; air; manner; mien. [Little used.] Shak.
2. Show; manifestation; token. [Little used.] Shak.
3. A prodigy; a portent; any thing ominous. [Little used.] Chapman. Dryden.

OS'TENT-ATE, v.t. [L. ostento.]

To make an ambitious display of; to show or exhibit boastingly. [Not used.] Taylor.

OS-TENT-A'TION, n. [L. ostentatio.]

1. Outward show or appearance. Shak.
2. Ambitions display; vain show; display of any thing dictated by vanity, or intended to invite praise or flattery. Ostentation of endowments is made by boasting or self-commendation. Ostentation often appears in works of art and sometimes in acts of charity. He knew that good and bountiful minds are sometimes inclined to ostentation. Atterbury. The painter is to make no ostentation of the means by which he strikes the imagination. Reynolds.
3. A show or spectacle. [Not used.] Shak.

OS-TENT-A'TIOUS, a.

1. Making a display from vanity; boastful; fond of presenting one's endowments or works to others in an advantageous light. Your modesty is so far from being ostentatious of the good you do. Dryden.
2. Showy; gaudy; intended for vain display; as, ostentatious ornaments.

OS-TENT-A'TIOUS-LY, adv.

With vain display; boastfully.

OS-TENT-A'TIOUS-NESS, n.

Vain display; boastfulness; vanity.

OS'TENT-A-TOR, n. [L.]

One who makes a vain show; a boaster. [Little used.] Sherwood.

OS-TENT'OUS, a.

Fond of making a show. [Little used.] Feltham.

OS'TE-O-COL, or OS-TE-O-COL'LA, n. [Gr. οστεον, a bone, and κολλα, glue.]

A carbonate of lime, a fossil formed by incrustation on the stem of a plant. It is found in long thick, and irregular cylindric pieces, generally hollow, sometimes filled with calcarious earth, and in size, from that of a crow's quill to that of a man's arm. It is always found in the sand. Nicholson. Encyc. Cleaveland. This word takes its name from an opinion that it has the quality of uniting fractured bones.

OS'TE-O-COPE, n. [Gr. οστεον, a bone, and κοπος, labor, uneasiness.]

Pain in the bones; a violent fixed pain in any part of a bone. Quincy. Coxe.

OS-TE-OL'O-GER, or OS-TE-OL'O-GIST, n. [See Osteology.]

One who describes the bones of animals. Smith.

OS-TE-O-LOG'IC, or OS-TE-O-LOG'IC-AL, a.

Pertaining to a description of the bones.

OS-TE-O-LOG'IC-AL-LY, adv.

According to osteology. Lawrence, Lect.

OS-TE-OL'O-GY, n. [Gr. οστεον, a bone, and λογος, discourse.]

1. A description of the bones; that part of anatomy which treats of the bones. Encyc.
2. The system of animal bones.

OS-THEX'Y, n. [Gr.]

The ossificathon of soft parts of the body.

OS'TI-A-RY, n. [L. ostium, mouth.]

The mouth or opening by which a river discharges its waters into the sea, or into a lake. Brown.

OST'LER, n. [See HOSTLER.]

OST'LER-Y, n. [See HOSTELRY.]

OST'MEN, n. [plur.]

East men; Danish settlers in Ireland, so called. Lyttleton.

OS'TRA-CISM, n. [Gr. οστρακισμος, from οστρακον, a shell, or potter's ware.]

1. In Grecian antiquity, banishment by the people of Athens, of a person whose merit and influence gave umbrage to them. It takes this name from the shell on which the name or the note of acquittal or condemnation was written. It is however most probable that this shell was a piece of baked earth, rendered by the Latins testa. Encyc.
2. Banishment; expulsion; separation. Sentenced to a perpetual ostracism from the esteem and confidence, and honors and emoluments of his country. Federalist, Hamilton.

OS'TRA-CITE, n. [Gr. οστρακιτης, from οστρακον, a shell.]

An oyster-shell in its fossil state, or a stone formed in the shell, the latter being dissolved. This stone is found in many parts of England, and has been in repute for its efficacy in cases of the gravel. Encyc.

OS'TRA-CIZE, v.t. [See Ostracism.]

To banish by the popular voice, particularly a person eminent for public services, but who has lost his popularity. Marvel.

OS'TRA-CIZ-ED, pp.

Banished by the popular voice.