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Showing 1-20 of 2532 results in 2532 entries
1. abaser, n. View full entry 1587
...A person who, or thing which, abases....
2. abbreviate, n. View full entry 1531
...Chiefly Sc. A condensed account of something; an abridgement; a summary; an abstract. Now Sc. Law: a brief notice registering a decree of adjudication (adjudication3a)...
3. abbreviator, n. View full entry 1529
...A person who shortens or abridges something, esp. a text; a summarizer; a compiler. Also: a person given to the use of abbreviations....
4. † aboutspeech, n. View full entry a1522
...A roundabout phrase, a circumlocution....
5. abracadabra, n. and int. View full entry 1565
...An instance or utterance of the magical word ‘abracadabra’, supposed to act as a charm against illness, evil, etc., or (in later use esp.) to assist in the performance of magic; a...
6. abridger, n. View full entry 1555
...A person who makes an abridgement; a summarizer, a compiler. Also: a person who or thing which curtails or reduces something....
7. abrupt, adj. and n. View full entry 1565
...Broken off, truncated, cut short; terminating in a break. Obs....
8. abruptness, n. View full entry 1585
...Disjointedness, esp. of literary style; lack of fluency; (more generally) the presence of breaks or discontinuities; unevenness, ruggedness, roughness. Cf. abrupt2. Obs....
9. abstractor, n. View full entry 1584
...A person who makes an abstract of a text or document. Cf. abstracter...
10. abstruse, adj. View full entry ?1549
...Difficult to understand; obscure, recondite....
11. absurd, adj. and n. View full entry 1531
...Of a thing: against or without reason or propriety; incongruous, unreasonable, illogical....
12. abusive, adj. View full entry 1538
...Wrongly used, misapplied; improper; perverse; erroneous. Also in Rhetoric: catachrestic....
13. acatalectic, adj. and n. View full entry 1589
...Not catalectic; not short of a syllable in the last foot; complete in its syllables....
14. accismus, n. View full entry 1565
...The pretended refusal of something one keenly desires. Also: an instance of this....
15. acclamation, n. View full entry 1541
...An act of acclaiming; an exclamation or other expression of sentiment addressed to someone in a loud voice....
16. accolade, n. View full entry 1591
...The salutation marking the bestowal of knighthood, applied by a stroke on the shoulders with the flat of a sword (now the usual form) and in earlier use also simply by an...
17. acroama, n. View full entry 1579
...Originally Ancient Greek Philos. Oral teaching heard only by initiated disciples; esoteric doctrines....
18. acrostic, adj.1 and n. View full entry 1585
...Of the nature of, consisting of, or in the form of an acrostic (in senses B. 1aB. 1b)....
19. acting, n. View full entry 1590
...The performance of a play, scene, or similar dramatic piece; the art or occupation of performing parts in plays, films, etc. In extended use: the action of feigning a particular emotion, feeling,...
20. acting, adj. View full entry 1595
...That acts, that performs a function; active....