The flames were blown aside, yet shone they bright,

Fanit'd by the wind, and gave a ruffled light.

Dryden. 1. To another part; out of the true di

rection.

He had no brother; which though it be a com

the subjects eyes a little aside.

3. From the company; as, to speak aside. He took him aside from the multitude. Mark. A'SINARY. adj. [asinarius, Lat.] Belonging to an ass. Dict. A'SININE., adj. [from asinus, Lat.] Belonging to an ass.

You shall have more ado to drive our dullest youth, our stocks and stubs, from such nurture, than we have now to hale our choicest and hopefullest wits to that asinine feast of sow-thistles and brambles:

Milton.

3. To question.

O inhabitant of Afcer, stand by the way and espy, ask him that flieth, and her that escapeth, and say, what is done? Jeremiah. 4. To inquire: with after before the thing. He said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. Genests. 5. To require, as physically necessary.

As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail; so to take it in and contract it, is no less praise when the argument doth ask it. Ben Jonson.

A lump of ore in the bottom of a mine will be stirred by two men's strength; which if you bring it to the top of the earth, will ask six men to stir it. Bacon.

The administration passes into different hands at the end of two months, which contributes to dispatch: but any exigence of state asks a much longer time to conduct any design to its maturity. Addison.

To Ask. v. n. 1. To petition; to beg: with for before the thing.

My son, hast thou sinned? do so no more, but ask pardon for thy former sins. Ecclus. If he ask for bread, will he give him a stone? Matt.

2. To inquire; to make inquiry: with for or of before the thing.

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah. For ask now of the days that are past, which

Zelmane, keeping a countenance askance, as she understood him not, told him, it became her evil. Sidney.

His wannish eyes upon them bent askance,
And when he saw their labours well succeed,
He wept for rage, and threaten'd dire mischance.
Fairfax.
Some say, he bid his angels turn askance`
The poles of earth, twice ten degrees, and more,
From the sun's axle, they with labour push'd
Milton.
Oblique the centrick globe.

ASKA UNT.adv. Obliquely; on one side.
At this Achilles roll'd his furious eyes,
Fix'd on the king askaunt; and thus replies,
O, impudent.
Dryden.

Since the space, that lies on either side
The solar orb, is without limits wide,
Grant that the sun had happen'd to prefer
A seat askaunt, but one diameter:
Lost to the light by that unhappy place,
This globe had lain a frozen loansome mass.
Blackmore.
A'SKER. n. s. [from ask.]
1. Petitioner.

A'S KER. n.s. A water newt. ASKEW. adv. [from a skew.] Aside; with contempt,

For when ye mildly look with lovely hue, Then is my soul with life and love inspir'd: But when ye lowre, or look on me askew, Then do I die.

Then take it, sir, as it was writ, Nor look askezu at what it saith; There's no petition in it.

Spenser.

Prier.

To ASLA'KE. v. a. [from a and slake, or slack.] To remit; to mitigate; to slacken. Obsolete.

But this continual, cruel, civil war No skill can stint, nor reason can aslake. Spenser. Whilst seeking to aslake thy raging fire, Thou in me kindlest much more great desire.

Spenser. ASLA'NT. adv. [from a and slant.] Obliquely; on one side; not perpendicu larly.

There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shews his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Shakspeare's Hamlet. He fell; the shaft' Drove thro' his neck aslant; he spurns the ground,

And the soul issues through the weazon's wound. Dryden

ASLEEP. adv. [from a and sleep.] 1. Sleeping; at rest.

How many thousands of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee! Shakspeare.

The diligence of trade, and noiseful gain, And luxury more late asleep were laid: All was the night's, and, in her silent reign, No sound the rest of nature did invade. Dryden.

There is no difference between a personasleep, and in an apoplexy, but that the one can be awaked, and the other cannot. Arbuthnot. 2. To sleep.

If a man watch too long, it is odds but he will fall asleep. Bacon's Essays. Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lull'd asleep. Milton. ASLO'PE. adv. [from a and slope.] With declivity; obliquely; not perpendicularly.

Set them not upright, but aslope, a reasonable depth under the ground. Bacon.

The curse aslope Glanc'd on the ground; with labour I must earn My bread: what harm? Idleness had been worse: My labour will sustain me. Milton.

Hudibras.

The knight did stoop, And sate on further side aslope. ASO MATOUS. adj. [from a, priv. and cpa, a body.] Incorporeal, or without a body.

2.

3.

They are, in my judgment, the image or picture of a great ruin, and have the true aspect of a world lying in its rubbish. Burnet.

Countenance; look.

Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,

Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops. Shakspeare's Richard 11.

I am fearful wherefore frowns he thus? 'Tis his aspect of terrour. All's not well. Shak. Yet had his aspect nothing of severe, But such a face as promis'd him sincere. Dryden. Then shall thy Craggs (and let me call him mine)

Pope.

On the cast ore another Pollio shine;
With aspect open shall erect his head.
Glance; view; act of beholding.
Fairer than fairest, in his faining eye,
Whose sole aspect he counts felicity. Spenser.
When an envious or an amorous aspect doth
infect the spirits of another, there is joined both
affection and imagination,

Bacon.

4. Direction toward any point; view; position.

The setting sun

Slowly descended; and with right aspect Against the eastern gate of Paradise Levell'd his ev❜ning rays.

Paradise Lost.

I have built a strong wall, faced to the south aspect with brick.

Swift.

without a possibility of applying any remedy. It is said to be very small, and peculiar to Egypt and Lybia. Those that are bitten by it, die within three hours; and the manner of their dying being by sleep, without any pain, Cleopatra chose it. Calmet.

High-minded Cleopatra, that with stroke
Of asp's sting herself did kill. Fairy Queen.
Scorpion, and asp, and amphisbæna dire,
And dipsas.

ASP. n. s. A tree. See ASPEN.
ASPA'LATHUS. n. s. [Latin.]

Milton.

1. A plant called the rose of Jerusalem, or our lady's rose.

2. The wood of a prickly tree, heavy, oleaginous, somewhat sharp and bitter to the taste. Aspalathus affords an oil of admirable scent, reputed one of the bestperfumes.

Chambers. I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspa lathus, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh. Ecclus. ASPARAGUS. n. s. [Lat.] A plant. It has a rosaceous flower of six leaves, placed orbicularly, out of whose centre rises the pointal, which turns to a soft globular berry, full of hard seeds. Miller.

Asparagus affects the urine with a fetid smell, especially if cut when they are white; and there. fore have been suspected by some physicians, as not friendly to the kidneys; when they are oldes, and begin to ramify, they lose this quality; but then they are not so agreeable. Arbuthnot. A'SPECT. n. s. [aspectus, Lat. It appears anciently to have been pronounced with the accent on the last syllable, which is now placed on the first.]

1. Look; air; appearance.

I have presented the tongue under a double aspect, such as may justify the definition, that it is the best and worst part.

Government of the Tongue.

6.

else; relation.

The light got from the opposite arguings of men of parts, shewing the different sides of things, and their various aspects and probabilities, would be quite lost, if every one were obliged to say Locke. after the speaker.

Disposition of a planet to other planets.

There some ill planet reigns,

I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favourable. Shakspeare
Not unlike that which astrologers call a con-
junction of planets, of no very benign aspect the
one to the other.
Wotton,

To the blank moon
Her office they precrib'd: to th' other five
Their planetary motions, and aspects,
In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite.

Paradise Lost:

Why does not every single star shed a separate influence, and have aspects with other stars of their own constellation? Bentley's Sermons. To ASPECT. v a. [aspicio, Lat] To behold. Not used.

Happy in their mistake, those people whom The northern pole aspects; whom fear of death (The greatest of all human fears) ne'er moves. Temple. ASPECTABLE. adj. [aspectabilis, Lat.] Visible; being the object of sight.

He was the sole cause of this aspectable and Raleigh. perceivable universal.

To this use of informing us what is in this aspectable world, we shall find the eye well fitted. Ray on the Creation. ASPECTION. n. s. [from aspect.] Benolding; view.

A Moorish queen, upon aspection of the picture of Andromeda, conceived and brought forth a fair one. Brown. A'SPEN, or ASP. n. s. [espe, Dutch; asp, Dan. epre, trembling, Sax. Somner.] See POPLAR, of which it is a species. The leaves of this tree always tremble, The aspen or asp tree hath leaves much the same with the poplar, only much smaller, and not so white. Mortimer,

Dict.

Those corpuscles of colour, insinuating themselves into all the pores of the body to be dyed, may asperate its superficies, according to the bigness and textures of the corpuscles. Boyle. ASPERATION. n. s. [from asperate.] A making rough. ASPERIFO'LIOUS. adj. [from asper, rough, and folium, a leaf, Lát.] One of the divisions of plants, so called from the Toughness of their leaves. ASPERITY. n. s. [asperitas, Lat.] 1. Unevenness; roughness of surface.

Sometimes the pores and asperities of dry bodies are so incommensurate to the particles of the liquor, that they glide over the surface. Boyle. 2. Roughness of sound; harshness of pronunciation.

3. Roughness or ruggedness of temper; moroseness; sourness; crabbedness. The charity of the one, like kindly exhalations, will descend in showers of blessings; but the rigour and asperity of the other, in a severe doom upon ourselves. Government of the Tongue. Avoid all unseemliness and asperity of carriage; do nothing that may argue a peevish or froward, spirit. Rogers. ASPERNA'TION. n. s. [aspernatio, Lat.] Neglect; disregard. A'SPEROUS. adj. [asper, Lat.] Rough;

Dict.

Black and white are the most asperous and unequal of colours; so like, that it is hard to distinguish them: black is the most rough. Boyle. To ASPE'RSE. v. a. [aspergo, Lat.] To bespatter with censure or calumny.

In the business of Ireland, besides the opportunity to asperse the king, they were safe enough.

Clarendon,

Curb that impetuous tongue, nor rashly vain, And singly mad,asperse the sov'reign reign. Pope. Unjustly poets we asperse,

Truth shines the brighter clad in verse. Swift. ASPERSION. n. s. [aspersio, Lat.] 1. A sprinkling.

If thou dost break her virgin knot, before All sanctimonious ceremonies, No sweet aspersions shall the heav'ns let fall, To make this contract grow.

Shakspeare.

It exhibits a mixture of new conceits and old, whereas the instauration gives the new unmixed, otherwise than with some little aspersion of the old, for taste's sake. Bacon.

2. Calumny; censure.

The same aspersions of the king, and the same grounds of a rebellion.

Dryden.

ASPHALTICK. adj. [from asphaltos.] Gummy; bituminous.

And with asphaltick slime, broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of hell, the gather'd beach They fasten'd. Milton. ASPHALTOS. n. s. [dopartòs, bitumen.] A solid, brittle, black, bituminous, inflammable substance, resembling pitch, and chiefly found swimming on the surface of the Lacus Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, where anciently stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is cast up in the nature of liquid pitch, from the bottom of this sea; and being thrown upon the water, swims like other fat bodies, and condenses gradually.

ASPHALTUM. n. s. [Lat.] A bitumi nous stone found near ancient Babylon, and lately in the province of Neufchâtel; which, mixed with other matters, makes an excellent cement, incor ruptible by air, and impenetrable by water; supposed to be the mortar so much celebrated among the ancients, with which the walls of Babylon were laid. Chambers.

A'SPHODEL. n. s. [lilio-asphodelus, Lat.] Day-lily. Asphodels were by the an cients planted near burying-places, in order to supply the manes of the dead with nourishment.

Pope.

By those happy souls who dwell In yellow meads of asphodel. A'sPICK. n. s. [See ASP.] The name of a

a. [aspiro, Lat.] To pronounce with aspiration, or full breath; as we aspirate borse, house, and bog.

To ASPIRATE. v. n. [aspiro, Lat.] To be pronounced with full breath.

Where a vowel ends a word, the next begins either with a consonant, or what is its equiva lent; for our and h ́aspirate. ASPIRATE. adj. [aspiratus, Lat.] Pro

nounced with full breath.

Dryden.

For their being pervious, you may call them, if you please, perspirate; but yet they are not aspirate, i. e. with such an aspiration as b. Holder. ASPIRATION. n. s. [aspiratio, Lat.] 1. A breathing after; an ardent wish: used generally of a wish for spiritual blessings.

A soul inspired with the warmest aspirations after celestial beatitude, keeps its powers atten tive. Watts.

2. The act of aspiring, or desiring something high and great.

'Tis he; I ken the manner of his gait; He rises on his toe; that spirit of his

In aspiration lifts him from the earth. Shakspeare 3. The pronunciation of a vowel with full breath.

Il is only a guttural aspiration, i. e. a more forcible impulse of the breath from the lungs.

To ASPIRE. v. n. [aspiro, Lat.]

Holder.

1. To desire with eagerness; to pant after something higher : sometimes with the particle to.

Most excellent lady, no expectation in others, nor hope in himself, could aspire to a higher mark, than to be thought worthy to be praised by you. Sidney. His father's grave counsellors, by whose means he had aspired to the kingdom, he cruelly tortured. Knolles. Hence springs that universal strong desire, Which all men have of immortality:

Not some few spirits unto this thought aspire,

But all men's minds in this united be. Davies. Horace did ne'er aspire to epic bays: Nor lofty Maro stoop to lyrick lays. Roscommon. Till then a helpless, hopeless, homely swain; I sought not freedom, nor aspir'd to gain. Dryd. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel. 2. Sometimes with after.

Pope.

Those are raised above sense, and aspire after immortality, who believe the perpetual duration of their souls. Tillotson,

There is none of us but who would be thought, throughout the whole course of his life, to aspire after immortality. Atterbury.

3. To rise; to tower.

There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes and our ruin, More pangs and fears than war or women have. Shakspeare.

My own breath still foment the fire, Which flames as high as fancy can aspire. Waller. ASPIRER. n. s. [from aspire.] One that ambitiously strives to be greater than he is.

A single guide may direct the way better than five hundred, who have contrary views, or look asquint, or shut their eyes. Ass. n. s. [asinus, Lat.]

Swift.

1. An animal of burden, remarkable for sluggishness, patience, hardiness, coarseness of food, and long life.

You have among you many a purchas'd slaye, Which, like your asses, and your dogs and mules, You use in abject and in slavish part, Because you bought them.

Shakspeare. 2. A stupid, heavy, dull fellow; a dolt. 1 do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. Shakspeare. That such a crafty mother Should yield the world this ass!-a woman

that

Bears all down with her brain; and yet her son Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart, And leave eighteen. Shakspeare.

To ASSAIL. v. a. [assailler, Fr.]

1. To attack in a hostile manner; to assault; to fall upon; to invade.

So when he saw his flatt'ring arts to fail, With greedy force he 'gan the fort t'assail. Fairy Queen. 2. To attack with argument, censure, or motives applied to the passions.

My gracious lord, here in the parliament Let us assail the family of York. Shakspeare. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes. Shak. How have I fear'd your fate!" but fear'd it

most,

When love assail'd you on the Lybian coast. Dryden. All books he reads, and all he reads assails, From Dryden's Fables down to D-y's Tales. Pope.

In vain Thalestris with reproach assails; For who can move when fair Belinda fails? Pope. ASSA'ILABLE. adj. [from assail.] That may be attacked.

Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

-But in them nature's copy 's not eternal-There's comfort yet, they are assailable. Shak. ASSA'ILANT.n.s. [assaillant, Fr.] He that attacks; in opposition to defendant. The same was so well encountered by the defendants, that the obstinacy of the assailant did but increase the loss. Hayward,

I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face, The like do you; so shall we pass along, And never stir assailants. Shakspeare. ASSAILANT. adj. Attacking; invading. And as ev'ning dragon came, Assailant on the perched roosts Of tame villatick fowl,

Milton.

ASSA'ILER. n. s. [from assail.] One who attacks another.

Palladius heated, so pursued our assailers, that one of them slew him. Sidney. ASSAPA'NICK. n. s. A little animal of Virginia, which is said to fly by stretching out its shoulders and its skin, and is called in English the flying squirrel.

Trevoux, ASSA'RT. v. a. [essart, from essarter, Fr. to clear away wood in a forest.] An offence committed in the forest, by plucking up those woods by the roots, that are thickets or coverts of the forest, and by making them as plain as arable land. Corvell To ASSA'RT. v. a. [essarter, Fr.] To com mit an assart. See ASSART. ASSA'SSIN. AssA'SSINATE.

n, s. [assassin, Fr. a word brought origi. nally from Asia, where, about the time of the holy war, there was a set of men called assassins, as is supposed for Arsacida, who killed any man, without regard to danger, at the command of their chief.] A murderer; one that kills by treachery, or sudden violence.

In the very moment as the knight withdrew from the duke, this assassinate gave him, with a back blow, a deep wound into his left side.

Wotton.

more on the guilt of the suffering person, than of the assassin. Addison. Orestes brandish'd the revenging sword, Slew the dire pair, and gave to fun❜ral flame The vile assassin, and adult'rous dame. Pope. Useful, we grant, it serves what life requires, But, dreadful too, the dark assassin hires. Pape. ASSASSINATE. n. s. [from assassin.] The crime of an assassin; murder.

Were not all assassinates and popular insurrections wrongfully chastised, if the meanness of the offenders indemnified them from punishment? Pope. To ASSASSINATE. v. a. [from assassin.] 1. To murder by violence.

Help, neighbours, my house is broken open by force, and I am ravished, and like to be assassinated. Dryden.

· What could provoke thy madness To assassinate so great, so brave a man? Philips. 2. To waylay; to take by treachery. This meaning is perhaps peculiar to Milton. Such usage as your honourable lords Afford me, assassinated and betray'd, Who durst not, with your whole united pow'rs, In fight withstand one single and unarm’d. Milt. ASSASSINATION. n.s.fromassassinate.] The act of assassinating; murder by violence.

sassination.

It were done quickly, if th' assassination Could trammel up the consequence. Shakspeare. The duke finish'd his course by a wicked asClarendon, ASSASSINATOR. n. s. [from assassinate.] Murderer; mankiller; the person that kills another by violence. ASSA'TION. n. s. [assatus, roasted, Lat.] Roasting.

The egg expiring less in the elixation or boiling; whereas, in the assation or roasting, it will sometimes abate a drachm. Βιοτυπ. ASSAULT. n. s. [assault, French.]

. Attack; hostile onset: opposed to defence.

Her spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection. Shakspeare.

Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults Baffing, like thy hoar cliffs the loud sea wave. Thomson.

2. Storm: opposed to sap or siege.

Jason took at least a thousand men, and suddenly made an assault upon the city. 2 Mace. After some days siege, he resolved to try the fortune of an assault: he succeeded therein so far, that he had taken the principal tower and fort. Bacon.

3. Hostile violence.

Themselves at discord fell, And cruel combat join'd in middle space, With horrible assault and fury fell. Fairy Queen. Invasion; hostility; attack.

After some unhappy assaults upon the prerogative by the parliament, which produced its dissolution, there followed a composure. Clarend. Theories, built upon narrow foundations, are very hard to be supported against the assaults of opposition. Locke.

5. In law. A violent kind of injury offered to a man's person. It may be committed by offering of a blow, or by a fearful speech. Corwell.

6. It has upon before the thing assaulted. To ASSAULT. v. a. . [from the noun.] To attack; to invade; to fall upon with violence.

Before the gates the cries of babes new-born, Whom fate had from their tender mothers torn, Assault his ears. Dryden,

New cursed steel, and more accursed gold, Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold:

And double death did wretched man invade, By steel assaulted, and by gold betray'd. Dryd. ASSAULTER. n. s. [from assault.] One who violently assaults another.

Neither liking their eloquence, nor fearing their might, we esteemed few swords, in a just defence, able to resist many unjust assaulters. Sidney. ASSAY. n. s. [essaye, Fr. from which the ancient writers borrowed assay, according to the sound, and the latter essay, according to the writing; but the senses now differing, they may be considered as two words.]

1. Examination; trial.

This cannot be

By no assay of reason. "I is a pageant,
To keep us in false gaze.

Shakspeare, 2. In law. The exunination of measures and weights used by the clerk of the market. Cowell. The first entrance upon any thing; a taste for trial.

3.

Spenser

Gray and Bryan obtained leave of the general a little to assay them; and so with some horsemen charged them home. Hayward.

What unweighed behaviour hath this drunkard picked out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me? Shakspeare.

2. To apply to, as the touchstone in assaying metals.

Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd. Milt. 3 To try; to endeavour.

David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go, for he had not proved it. 1 Sam. AssA'YER. n.5. [from assay.] An officer of the mint, for the due trial of silver, appointed between the master of the mint, and the merchants that bring silver thither for exchange. Corvell. The smelters come up to the assayers within one in twenty. Woodward on Fessil: