ASSECTA'TION. n. s. [assectatio, Lat.] Attendance, or waiting upon. Dict. ASSECUTION. n. s. [from assequor, assecutum, to obtain.] Acquirement; the act of obtaining. By the canon law, a person, after he has been in full possession of a second benefice, cannot return again to his first; because it is immediately vad by his assecution of a second. Ayliffe. ASSEMBLAGE, n. s [assemblage, Fr.] 1. A collection; a number of individuals brought together. It differs from assembly, by being applied only, or chiefly, to things; assembly being used only, or generally, of persons. All that we amass together in our thoughts is positive, and the assemblage of a great number of positive ideas of space or duration. 2. The state of being asse:nbled. Locke O Hartford, fitted or to shine in courts With unaffected grace, or walk the plains With innocence and meditation join'd In soft assemblage, listen to my song! Thomson. To ASSEMBLE. v. a. [assembler, Fr.] To bring together into one place. It is used both of persons and things. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gaIsaiah. ther together the dispersed of Judah. He wonders for what end you have assembled Such troops of citizens to come to him. Shaksp. To ASSEMBLE. v. n. To meet together. These men assembled, and found Daniel pray ing. ASSEMBLY. n. s. [assemblée, Fr.] A company met together. They had heard, by fame, Of this so noble and so fair assembly, Daniel. Shakspeare. ASSE'NT. n. s. [assensus, Lat.] Without the king's assent or knowledge, You wrought to be alegate. Shaksp. Henry VIII. Faith is the assent to any proposition, not thus made out by the deduction of reason, but Locke. upon the credit of the proposer. "All the arguments on both sides must be laid in balance, and, upon the whole, the underLocke. standing determine its assent. 2. Consent; agreement. To urge any thing upon the church, requiring thereunto that religious assent of christian belief, wherewith the words of the holy prophets are received, and not to shew it in scripture; this did the Fathers evermore think unlawful, impious, and execrable. Hooker The evidence of God's own testimony, added And the Jews also assented, saying, that these If any affirm the earth doth move, and will not believe with us it standeth still, because he hath probable reasons for it, and I no infallible sense or reason against it, I will not quarrel with his assertion. Brown's Vulgar Errours. ASSERTIVE. adj. [from assert.] Positive; dogmatical; peremptory. He was not so fond of the principles he undertook to illustrate, as to boast their certainty; proposing them not in a confident and assertive form, but as probabilities and hypotheses. Glanville. ASSEʼRTOR. n. s. [from assert.] Maintainer; vindicator; supporter: affirmer. Among th' assertors of free reason's claim, Our nation's not the least in worth or fame. Dryd Faithful assertor of thy country's cause, Britain with tears shall bathe thy glorious wound. Prior. It is an usual piece of art to undermine the authority of fundamental truths, by pretending to shew how weak the proofs are, which their assertors employ in defence of them. Atterbury. To ASSERVE. v. a. [asservio, Lat.] To serve, help, or second. Dict. To ASSE'SS. v. a. [from assestare, Ital. to make an equilibrium, or balance.] To charge with any certain sum. Before the receipt of them in this office, they were assessed by the athidavit from the time of the inquisition found. Bacon. ASSE'SSION. n. s. [assessio, Lat.] A sitting down by one, to give assistance or advice. Dict. ASSESSMENT. n. s. [from assess.] What greater immunity and happiness can there be to a people, than to be liable to no laws, but what they make themselves? To be subject to no contribution, assessment, or any pecuniary levy whatsoever, but what they vote, and voHowel. luntarily yield unto themselves? ASSESSOR. n. s. [assessor, Lat.] 1. The person that sits by another: generally used of those who assist the judge. Minos, the strict inquisitor, appears; And lives and crimes, with his assessors, hears: Round in his urn the blended balls he rowls, Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls. Dryden. 2. He that sits by another, a: next in dignity. To his Son, Th' assessor of his throne, he thus began. Milt. Twice stronger than his sire, who sat above, Assessor to the throne of thund'ring Jove. Dryd. 3. He that lays taxes: derived from assess, A'SSETS... without the singular. [assez, Fr.] Goods sufficient to discharge that burden, which is cast upon the executor or heir, in satisfying the testator's or an cestor's debts or legacies. Whoever pleads assets, sayeth nothing; but that the person, against whom he pleads, hath enough come to his hands, to discharge what is in demand, Cowell. To ASSE VER. Iv. a. [assevero, Lat.] TO ASSE'VERATE. To affirm with great solemnity, as upon oath, ASSEVERA'TION. n. s. [from asseverate.] Solemn affirmation, as upon oath. That which you are persuaded of, ye have it no otherwise than by your own only probable collection; and therefore such bold asseverations, as in him were admirable, should, in your mouths, but argue rashness. Hooker. Another abuse of the tongue I might add; vehement asseverations upon slight and trivial occasions. Ray on the Creation. The repetition gives a greater emphasis to the words, and agrees better with the vehemence of the speaker in making his asseveration. Broome. A'SSHEAD. n. s. [from ass and head.] One slow of apprehension; a blockhead. Will you help an ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave, a thin-faced knave, a guli? Shaks. ASSIDUITY.n.s. [assiduité, Fr. assiduitas, Lat. Diligence; closeness of applica tion. I have, with much pains and assiduity, qualified myself for a nomenclator. Addison. Can he, who has undertaken this, want conviction of the necessity of his utmost vigour and assiduity to acquit himself of it? Rogers. two generals, both of them rather courtiers assured to the state, than martial men. Bacon. Both joining, As join'd in injuries, one enmity 2. To fix with regard to quantity or value, There is no such intrinsick, natural, settled va lue in any thing, as to make any assigned quantity of it constantly worth any assigned quantity of another. Locke. 3. [In law.] In general, to appoint a deputy, or make over a right to another; in particular, to appoint or set forth, as to assign error, is to shew in what part of the process error is committed; to assign false judgment, is to declare how and where the judgment is unjust; to assign the cessor, is to shew how the plaintiff had cessed, or given over; to assign waste, is to shew wherein espe cially the waste is committed. Cowell. ASSIGNABLE, adj. [from assign.] That may be marked out, or fixed. Aristotle held that it streamed by connatural result and emanation from God; so that there was no instant assignable of God's eternal existence, in which the world did not also co-exist. South. We observe the address and assiduity they ASSIGNAʼTION.n.s.[assignation, French.] will use to corrupt us. Rogers. 1. An appointment to meet used generally of love appointments. ASSIDUOUS. adj. [assiduus, Constant in application. And if by pray'r Latin.] Incessant I could hope to change the will Government of the Tongue. In summer, you see the hen giving herself greater freedoms, and quitting her care for above two hours together; but in winter, when the rigour of the season would chill the principles of life, and destroy the young one, she grows more assiduous in her attendance, and stays away but half the time. Addison. Prior. Each still renews her little labour, Nor justies her assiduous neighbour. ASSIDUOUSLY. adv. [from assiduous.] Diligently; continually. The trade that obliges artificers to be assidu ously conversant with their materials, is that of glass-men. Boyle. The habitable earth may have been perpetually the drier, seeing it is assiduously drained and exhausted by the seas. Bentley. To ASSIEGE. v. a. [assieger, Fr.] To besiege. Obsolete. On th' other side th' assicged castles ward Their stedfast arms did mightily maintain. Spen. ASSILʼNTO.n. s.[ InSpanish, a contractor bargain.] A contract or convention between the king of Spain and other powers, for furnishing the Spanish dominions in America with negro slaves. Dict. To ASSIGN. v. a. [assigner, Fr. assigno, Lat.] 1. To mark out; to appoint. He assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. 2 Sam. The two armies were assigned to the leading of The lovers expected the return of this stated hour with as much impatience as if it had been a real assignation. Spectator. Swift. Or when a whore in her vocation Keeps punctual to an assignation. 2. A making over a thing to another. ASSIGNEE. n. s. [assigné, Fr.] He that is appointed or deputed by another to do any act, or perform any business, or enjoy any commodity. And an assignee may be either in deed or in law: assignée in deed, is he that is appointed by a person; assignee in law, is he whom the law maketh so, without any appointment of the person. Cowell. ASSIGNER. n. s. [from assign.] He that appoints. The gospel is at once the assigner of our tasks, and the magazine of our strength. Decay of Piety. ASSIGNMENT. n. s. [from assign.] Appropriation of one thing to another thing or person. The only thing which maketh any place publick, is the publick assignment thereof unto such duties. Hooker. This institution, which assigns it to a person, whom we have no rule to know, is just as good as an assignment to nobody at all, Locke. ASSIMILABLE. adj. [rom assimilate.] That may be converted to the same nature with something else. The spirits of many will find but naked habi tations; meeting no assimilables wherein to react their natures. Brown's Vulgar Erreurs. To ASSIMILATE. v. n. [assimilo, Lat.] To perform the act of converting food to nourishment. Birds assimilate less, and excern more, than beasts; for their excrements are ever liquid, and their flesh generally more dry. Bacon. Birds be commonly better meat than beasts, because their flesh doth assimilate more finely, and secerneth more subtely. Bacon's Nat. Hist. To ASSIMILATE. V. a. 1. To bring to a likeness, or resemblance. A ferine and necessitous kind of life would easily assimilate at least the next generation to barbarism and ferineness. Hale. They are not over-patient of mixture; but such whom they cannot assimilate, soon find it their interest to remove. Swift. 2. To turn to its own nature by digestion. Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, And corporeal to incorporeal turn. Milton. Hence also animals and vegetables may assi milate their nourishment; moist nourishment easily changing its texture, till it becomes like the dense earth. Newton, ASSIMILATENESS. n. s. [from assimilate.] Likeness. ASSIMILA'TION. n. s. [from assimilate.] 1. The act of converting any thing to the nature-or substance of another. Dict. It furthers the very act of assimilation of nourishment, by some outward emollients that make the parts more apt to assimilate. Bac. Nat. Hist. 2. The state of being assimilated, or becoming like something else. Some young towardly noblemen or gentlemen were usually sent as assistants or attendants, according to the quality of the persons. Bacon. 2. Sometimes it is perhaps only a softer word for an attendant. The pale assistants on each other star'd, With gaping mouths for issuing words prepar'd. Dryden. ASSI'ZE. n. s. [assise, a sitting, Fr.] 1. An assembly of knights and other substantial men, with the bailiff or justice, in a certain place, and at a certain time. 2. A jury. 3. An ordinance or statute. 4. The court, place, or time, where and when the writs and processes of assize are taken. Corell. The law was never executed by any justices of assize, but the people left to their own laws. Davies on Ireland. 5. At each assize and term we try The judging God shall close the book of fate, For those who wake, and those who sleep. Dryd. 6. Assize of bread, ale, &c. Measure of price or rate. Thus it is said, when wheat is of such a price, the bread shall be of such assize. 7. Measure; for which we now use size. Spenser. To ASSIZE. v. a. [from the noun.] To fix the rate of any thing by an assize or A nourishment in a large acceptation, but not in propriety, conserving the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation. Brown's Vulgar Errours. It is as well the instinct as duty of our nature, to aspire to an assimilation with God; even the most laudable and generous ambition. writ. Decay of Piety. To ASSIMULATE. v. a. [assimulo, Lat.] Dict. To feign; to counterfeit. ASSIMULATION. n. s. [assimulatio, Lat.] A dissembling; a counterfeiting. Dict. To ASSIST. v. a. [assister, Fr. assisto, Lat.] To help. Receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and assist her in whatsoever business she hath need. Romans. It is necessary and assisting to all our other intellectual faculties. Locke. Acquaintance with method will assist one in ranging human aífairs. Watts' Logick. She no sooner yielded to adultery, but she agreed to assist in the murder of her husband.. Broome on the Odyssey. ASSISTANCE. n. s. [assistance, French.] Help; furtherance. The council of Trent commends recourse, not only to the prayers of the saints, but to their aid and assistance: What deth this aid and assistance signify? Stilling feet. You have abundant assistances for this knowledge, in excellent books. Wake's Prep.for Death. Let us entreat this necessary assistance, that by his grace he would lead us. Rogers. ASSISTANT. adj. [from assist.] Helping; lending aid. Some perchance did adhere to the duke, and ASSISTANT. n. s. [from assist.] AssI'ZER or ASSI'SER.n.s. [from assize.] An officer that has the care and over- 1. To unite with another as a confederate. Shakspeare. 3. another. Friends should associatefriends in grief and woe. 4. To unite; to join. Some oleaginous particles unperceivedly associated themselves to it. Boyle. 5. It has generally the particle with; as, he associated with his master's enemies. To Asso/CIATE. v. n. To unite himself; to join himself. Asso'CIATE. adj. [from the verb.] Confederate; joined in interest or purpose. While I descend through darkness To my associate powers, them to acquaint With these successes. Milton. Asso'CIATE. n. s. [from the verb.} They persuade the king, now in old age, to make Plangus his associate in government with him. Sidney 2. A confederate, in a good or neutral sense; an accomplice in ill. Their defender, and his associates, have sithence proposed to the world a form such as themselves like. Hooker. 3. A companion: implying some kind of equality. He was accompanied with a noble gentleman, no unsuitable associate. Wotton. Sole Eve, associate sole, to me, beyond The church being a society, hath the self-same original grounds, which other politick societies have; the natural inclination which all men have unto sociable life, and consent to some certain bond of association; which bond is the law that appointeth what kind of order they should be associated in. Hooker. 2. Confederacy; union for particular purposes, good or ill. This could not be done but with mighty opposition; against which to strengthen themselves, they secretly entered into a league of association. Hooker. 3. Partnership. Self-denial is a kind of holy association with God; and, by making you his partner, interests you in all his happiness. Boyle. Connection. Association of ideas is of great importance, and may be of excellent use. Watts. 3. Apposition; union of matter. The changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the various separations, and new associations and motions, of these permanent particles. Neruton. ASSONANCE. n. s. [assonance, Fr.] Reference of one sound to another resembling it; resemblance of sound. Dict. ASSONANT. adj. [assonant, Fr.] Sounding in a manner resembling another sound. Dict. To Asso'RT. v. a. [assortir, Fr.] Torange ASSORTMENT. n. s. [from assort.] To Asso'r. v. a. [from sot;_assoter, Fr.] Uneath is to assure, uneath to weene That monstrous errour which doth some assot. Spenser. To ASSUA'GE. v. a. [The derivation of this word is uncertain: Minshe deduces it from adsuadere, assuaviare ; Junius, from rhær, sweet; from whence Skinner imagines arbæran might have been formed.] 1. To mitigate; to soften; to allay. Refreshing winds the summer's heats assuage, And kindly warmth, disarms the winter's rage." Addison. 2. To appease; to pacify. Yet is his hate, his gancour, ne'er the less, Since nought assuageth malice when 't is told. Fairfax. This was necessary for the securing the people from their fears, capable of being assuaged by no other means. Shall I, t'assuage Their brutal rage, The regal stem destroy. Clarendon. Dryden's Albion. 3. To ease; as, the medicine assuages pain. To ASSUA'GE. v. n. To abate. God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. Genesis. ASSUA'GEMENT. n. s. [from assuage.] Mitigation; abatement of evil. Tell me, when shall these weary woes have end, If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, This valiant lord Must not so state his palm, nobly acquir'd; Right and left, as parts inservient unto the motive faculty, are differenced by degrees from use and assuefaction, or according whereto the one grows stronger. Brown's Vulgar Erreurs. ASSUE'TUDE. n. s. [assuetudo, Lat.] Accustomance; custom; habit. We see that assuetude of things hurtful, doth make them lose the force to hurt. Bacon. To ASSUME v.a. (assumo, Lat.] 1. To take. This when the various god had urg'd in vain, He strait assum'd his native form again. 2. To take upon one's self. With ravish'd ears And seems to shake the spheres. Pope. Dryden. 3. To arrogate; to claim or seize unjusly. 4. To suppose something granted without proof. In every hypothesis, something is allowed to be assumed. Boyle. 5. To apply to one's own use; to appropriate. His majesty might well assume the complaint and expression of king David. Clarendon, To ASSU'MF. v. n. To be arrogant; to claim more than is due. AssU'MER. n. s. [from assume.] An arrogant man; a man who claims more than his due, Can any man be wise in any course, in which he is not safe too? But can these high assumers, and pretenders toreason, prove themselves so? South. ASSUMING. participial adj. [from assume.] Arrogant; haughty. His haughty looks, and his assuming air, swers. ASSU’MPSIT. n.s. [assumo, Lat.] A voluntary promise made by word, whereby a man taketh upon him to perform or pay any thing to another: it contains any verbal promise made upon consideration. Corvell. ASSUMPTION. n. s. [assumptio, Lat.] 1. The act of taking any thing to one's self. The personal descent of God himself, and his assumption of our flesh to his divinity, more familiarly to insinuate his pleasure to us, was an enforcement beyond all methods of wisdom. Hammond's Fundamentals. 2. The supposition, or act of supposing, of any thing without further proof. These by way of assumption, under the two general propositions, are intrinsically and natu Norris. rally good or bad. 3. The thing supposed; a postulate. Hold, says the Stoick, your assumption's wrong: I grant, true freedom you have well defin'd. Dryden. For the assumption, that Christ did such miraculous and supernatural works to confirm what he said, we need only repeat the message sent by him to John the Baptist. South. 4. The taking up any person into heaven, which is supposed by the Romish church of the blessed Virgin. Upon the feast of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the pope and cardinals keep the vespers. Stilling fleet. Adam, after a certain period of years, would have been rewarded with an assumption to eternal felicity, ASSUMPTIVE. adj. [assumptivus, Lat.] That is assumed. ASSURANCE. n. s. [assurance, Fr.] 1. Certain expectation. Wake. Though hope be indeed, a lower and lesser thing than assurance, yet, as to all the purposes of a pious life, it may prove more useful. South. What encouragement can be given to goodness, beyond the hopes of heaven, and the assurance of an endless felicity? Tillotson. 2. Secure confidence; trust. What man is he that boasts of fleshly might, And vain assurance of mortality, Which all so soon as it doth come to fight Against spiritual foes, yields by and by. Fairy Q. 3. Freedom from doubt; certain knowledge. Proof from the authority of man's judgment, is not able to work that assurance, which doth grow by a stronger proof. Hooker. "T is far off, And rather like a dream, than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Shakspeare. The obedient, and the man of practice, shall outgrow all their doubts and ignorances, till persuasion pass into knowledge, and knowledge advance into assurance. South. Hath he found, in an evil course, that comfortable assurance of God's favour, and good hopes of his future condition, which a religious life would have given him? Tillotson. 4. Firmness; undoubting steadiness. Men whose consideration will relieve our modesty, and give us courage and assurance in the duties of our profession. Rogers. 5. Confidence; want of modesty; exemption from awe or fear. My behaviour, ill governed, gave you the first comfort; my affection, ill hid, hath given you this last assurance. Sidney. 6. Freedom from vitious shame. Conversation, when they come into the world, will add to their knowledge and assurance. Locke. 7. Ground of confidence; security; sufficient reason for trust or belief. 8. 9. The nature of desire itself is no easier to receive belief, than it is hard to ground belief; for as desire is glad to embrace the first shew of comfort, so is desire desirous of perfect assurance. Sidney. As the conquest was but slight and superficial, so the pope's donation to the Irish submissions were but weak and fickle assurances. Davies. None of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.- I must confess your offer is the best: An assurance being passed through for a competent fine, hath come back again by reason of some oversight. Spirit; intrepidity. Bacon. They, like resolute men, stood in the face of the breach with more assurance than the wall itself. Knolles With all th' assurance innocence can bring,' Fearless without, because secure within; Arm'd with my courage, unconcern'd I see This pomp, a shame to you, a pride to me. Dryd. Sanguineness; readiness to hope. This is not the grace of hope, but a good natural assurance or confidence, which Aristotle observes young men to be full of, and old men not so inclined to. Hammond. 10. Testimony of credit. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, And from some knowledge and assurance of you, Offer this office. Shakspeare's King Lear. We have as great assurance that there is a God, as we could expect to have, supposing that he Tillotson. were. f1. Conviction. Such an assurance of things as will make men careful to avoid a lesser danger, ought to awaken men to avoid a greater. Tillotson. 12. [In theology.] Security with respect to a future state; certainty of acceptance with God. 13. The same with insurance. To ASSURE. v. a. [assurer, Fr. from assecurare, low Latin.] 1. To give confidence by a firm promise. So when he had assured them with many words that he would restore them without hurt, according to the agreement, they let him go for the saving of their brethren. 2 Maccabees. 2. To secure to another; to make firm. So irresistible an authority cannot be reflected on, without the most awful reverence, even by those whose piety assures its favour to them. Rogers. 3. To make confident; to exempt from doubt or fear; to confer security. And hereby we know, that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 1 John. I revive At this last sight; assur'd that man shall live With all the creatures, and their seed preserve. Milton. |