Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ON-LY, adv.

1. Singly; merely; barely; in one manner or for one purpose alone. I propose my thoughts only as conjecture. – Burnet. And to be loved himself, needs only to be known. – Dryden.
2. This and no other wise. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. – Gen. vi.
3. Singly; without more; as, only begotten.

ON'O-MAN-CY, n. [Gr. ονομα, name, and μαντεια, divination.]

Divination by the letters of a name. Destinies were superstitiously, by onomancy, deciphered out of names. – Camden.

ON-O-MAN'TIC, a. [or ON-O-MAN'TIC-AL.]

Predicting by names, or the letters composing names. – Camden.

ON-O-MAS'TIC, n. [Gr. ονομα.]

A dictionary; a common-place book.

ON-O-MA-TECH'NY, n. [Gr. ονομα and τεχνη.]

Prognostication by the letters of a name.

ON-O-MA-TOL'O-GIST, n.

One versed in the history of names. Coleman.

ON-O-MA-TOL'O-GY, n. [Gr. ονοματα and λογος.]

A discourse or treatise on names, or the history of the names of persons.

ON-OM'A-TOPE, n. [or ON-OM'A-TO-PY; Gr. ονοματοποιια; ονομα, name, and ποιεω, to make.]

1. In grammar and rhetoric, a figure in which words are formed to resemble the sound made by the thing signified; as, to buzz, as bees; to crackle, as burning thorns or brush. – Encyc.
2. A word whose sound corresponds to the sound of the thing signified.

O-NOM-A-TO-PO-ET'IC, a.

Formed to resemble the sound of the thing signified. – Robinson.

ON'SET, n. [on and set.]

1. A rushing or setting upon; a violent attack; assault; a storming; appropriately, the assault of an army or body of troops upon an enemy or a fort. The shout / Of battle now began and rushing sound / Of onset. – Milton.
2. An attack of any kind; as, the impetuous onset of grief. – Philips.

ON'SET, v.t.

To assault; to begin. [Not used.] – Carew.

ON-SET'TING, n.

A rushing or assaulting.

ON-SLAUGHT, n. [on'slaut; Sax. onslægan, to strike, to dash against.]

Attack; onset; aggression; assault. – Hudibras.

ON'STEAD, n.

A single farm-house. – Grose.

ON-TO-LOG'IC, a. [or ON-TO-LOG'IC-AL; see Ontology.]

Pertaining to the science of being in general and its affections.

ON-TO-LOG'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of ontology.

ON-TOL'O-GIST, n.

One who treats of or considers the nature and qualities of being in general.

ON-TOL'O-GY, n. [Gr. οντα, from ειμι, and λογος, discourse.]

That part of the science of metaphysics which investigates and explains the nature and essence of all beings, their qualities and attributes. – Encyc.

ONUS-PROBANDI, n. [Onus probandi; L.]

The burden of proof.

ON'WARD, a.

1. Advanced or advancing; as, an onward course.
2. Increased; improved. Sidney.
3. Conducting; leading forward to perfection. Home.

ON'WARD, adv. [Sax. ondward, andweard; on and weard, L. versus.]

1. Toward the point before or in front; forward; progressively; in advance; as, to move onward. Not one looks backward, onward still he goes. Pope.
2. In a state of advanced progression.
3. A little further or forward.

ON'Y-CHA, n. [from Gr. ονυξ.]

Supposed to be the odoriferous shell of the onyx-fish, or the onyx. Exod. xxx.

ON'Y-CHITE, n.

A kind of marble.

O-NY-CHOM'AN-CY, n.

Divination by the nails.

O'NYX, n. [Gr. ονυξ, a nail, L. onyx.]

A semi-pellucid gem with variously colored zones or veins, a variety of chalcedony. Encyc. Nicholson.