Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  A is sometimes a noun; as, a great A, a little a.

  A is placed before a participle, or participial noun; and is considered by Wallis as a contraction of at, when it is put before a word denoting some action not yet finished; as, I am a walking. It also seems to be anciently contracted from at, when placed before local surnames; as, Thomas a Becket. In other cases, it seems to signify to, like the French à.

  A hunting Chloë went. Prior.

  They go a begging to a bankrupt’s door. Dryd.

  May pure contents for ever pitch their tents

  Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains,

  And peace still slumber by these purling fountains!

  Which we may every year

  Find when we come a fishing here. Wotton.

  Now the men fell a rubbing of armour, which a great while had lain oiled; the magazines of munition are viewed; the officers of remains called to account. Wotton.

  Another falls a ringing a Pescennius Niger, and judiciously distinguishes the sound of it to be modern. Addison on medals.

  A has a peculiar signification, denoting the proportion of one thing to another. Thus we say, The landlord hath a hundred a year; The ship’s crew gained a thousand pounds a man.

  The river Inn, that had been hitherto shut up among mountains, passes generally through a wide open country, during all its course through Bavaria; which is a voyage of two days, after the rate of twenty leagues a day. Addison on Italy.

  A is used in burlesque poetry, to lengthen out a syllable, without adding to the sense.

  For cloves and nutmegs to the line-a,

  And even for oranges to China. Dryden.

  A is sometimes, in familiar writings, put by a barbarous corruption for he.

  A, in composition, seems to have sometimes the power of the French a in these phrases, a droit, a gauche, &c. and sometimes to be contracted from at; as, aside, aslope, afoot, asleep, athirst, aware.

  If this, which he avouches, does appear,

  There is no flying hence, nor tarrying here.

  I gin to be a weary of the fun;

  And with the state of the world were now undone. Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

  And now a breeze from shore began to blow,

  The sailors ship their oars, and cease to row;

  Then hoist their yards a-trip, and all their fails

  Let fall, to court the wind, and catch the gales. Dryden’s Ceyx and Alcyone.

  A is sometimes redundant; as, arise, arouse, awake; the same with rise, rouse, wake.

  A, B, C.

  1. Is taken for the alphabet; as, he has not learned his a, b, c.

  2. Sometimes for the little book by which the elements of reading are taught.

  A. Bp. for Archbishop; which see. AB, at the beginning of the names of places, generally shews that they have some relation to an abbey. Abácke. adv. obsolete. Backwards.

  But when they came where thou thy skill didst show,

  They drew abacke, as half with shame confound,

  Shepherds to see them in their art outgo. Spens. Past.

  Abáctor. n.s. [Lat. abactor, a driver away.] Those who drive away or steal cattle in herds, or great numbers at once, in distinction from those that steal only a sheep or two. Blount. Ábacus. n.s. [Lat. abacus.]

  1. A counting-table, anciently used in calculations.

  2. In architecture, it is the uppermost member of a column, which serves as a sort of crowning both to the capital and column. Dict.

  Abáft. adv. [of abaftan, Sax. Behind.] From the fore-part of the ship, towards the stern. Dict.

  Abaísance. n.s. [from the French abaiser, to depress, to bring down.] An act of reverence, a bow. Obeysance is considered by Skinner as a corruption of abaisance, but is now universally used. To Abálienate. v.a. [from abalieno, Lat.] To make that another’s which was our own before. Calv. Lex. Jur. A term of the civil law, not much used in common speech. Abalienátion n.s. [Lat. abalienatio.] A giving up one’s right to another person; or a making over an estate, goods, or chattels by sale, or due course of law. Dict.

  To Abánd v.a. [A word contracted from abandon, but not now in use. See ABANDON.] To forsake.

  Those foreigners which came from far

  Grew great, and got large portions of land,

  That in the realm, ere long, they stronger are

  Than they which fought at first their helping hand,

  And Vortiger enforced the kingdom to aband. Spenser’s Fairy Queen, b. ii. cant. 10.

  To Abándon. v.a. [Fr. abandonner. Derived, according to Menage, from the Italian abandonare, which signifies to forsake his colours; bandum [vexillum] deserere. Pasquier thinks it a coalition of a ban donner, to give up to a proscription; in which sense we, at this day, mention the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dialect, signifies a curse; and to abandon, if considered as compounded between French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris devovere.]

  1. To give up, resign, or quit; often followed by the particle to.

  The passive gods behold the Greeks defile

  Their temples, and abandon to the spoil

  Their own abodes; we, feeble few, conspire

  To save a sinking town, involv’d in fire. Dryd. Aeneid.

  2. To desert.

  The princes using the passions of fearing evil, and desiring to escape, only to serve the rule of virtue, not to abandon one’s self, leapt to a rib of the ship. Sidney, b. ii

  Then being alone,

  Left and abandon’d of his velvet friends,

  ’Tis right, quoth he; thus misery doth part

  The flux of company. Shakesp. As you like it.

  What fate a wretched fugitive attends,

  Scorn’d by my foes, abandon’d by my friends. Dryd. Aen. 2.

  3. To forsake, generally with a tendency to an ill sense.

  When he in presence came, to Guyon first

  He boldly spake; Sir knight, if knight thou be,

  Abandon this forestalled place at erst,

  For fear of further harm, I counsel thee. Spenser’s Fairy Queen, b. ii. cant. 4. stanz. 39.

  But to the parting goddess thus she pray’d;

  Propitious still be present to my aid,

  Nor quite abandon your once favour’d maid. Dryd. Fab.

  To Abandon Over. v.a. [a form of writing not usual, perhaps not exact.] To give up to, to resign.

  Look on me as a man abandon’d o’er

  To an eternal lethargy of love;

  To pull, and pinch, and wound me, cannot cure,

  And but disturb the quiet of my death. Dryd. Sp. Friar.

  Abandoned. particip. adj.

  1. Given up.

  If she be so abandon’d to her sorrow,

  As it is spoke, she never will admit me. Shakesp. Twelfth Night.

  Who is he so abandoned to sottish credulity, as to think, upon that principle, that a clod of earth in a sack, may ever, by eternal shaking, receive the fabric of man’s body? Bentley’s Sermons.

  Must he, whose altars on the Phrygian shore,

  With frequent rites, and pure, avow’d thy pow’r,

  Be doom’d the worst of human ills to prove,

  Unbless’d, abandon’d to the wrath of Jove? Pope’s Odyssey, b. i. l. 80.

  2. Forsaken, deserted.

  3. Corrupted in the highest degree. In this sense, it is a contraction of a longer form, abanidoned [given up] to wickedness.

  Abándoning. [A verbal noun from abandon.] Desertion, forsaking.

  He hoped his past meritorious actions might outweigh his present, abandoning the thought of future action. Clarend. b. viii.

  Abándonment. n.s. [abandonnement, Fr.]

  1. The act of abandoning.

  2. The state of being abandoned. Dict.

  Abannítion. n.s. [Lat. abannitio.] A banishment for one or two years, among the ancients, for manslaughter. Dict.

  Ábarcy. n.s. Insatiableness. Dict.

  To Abáre. v.a. [abarian, Sax.] To make
bare, uncover, or disclose. Dict. Abarticulátion. n.s. [from ab, from, and articulus, a joint, Lat.] A good and apt construction of the bones, by which they move strongly and easily; or that species of articulation that has manifest motion. Dict.

  To Abáse v.a. [Fr. abaisser, from the Lat. basis, or bassus, a barbarous word, signifying low, base.] To cast down, to depress, to bring low, almost always in a figurative and personal sense.

  Happy shepherd, with thanks to the gods, still think to be thankful, that to thy advancement their wisdoms have thee abased. Sidney, b. i.

  With unresisted might the monarch reigns;

  He levels mountains, and he raises plains;

  And, not regarding diff’rence of degree,

  Abas’d your daughter, and exalted me. Dryd. Fables.

  Behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Job, xl. 11.

  If the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken much by too strict an hand over them; they lose all their vigour and industry, and are in a worse state than the former. Locke on Education, § 46.

  Abásed. adj. [with heralds] is a term used of the wings of eagles, when the top looks downwards towards the point of the shield; or when the wings are shut; the natural way of bearing them being spread with the top pointing to the chief of the angle. Bailey. Chambers.

  Abásement. n.s. The state of being brought low; the act of bringing low; depression.

  There is an abasement because of glory; and there is that lifteth up his head from a low estate. Ecclesiasticus, XX. 11.

  To Abásh. v.a. [See BASHFUL.] To put into confusion; to make ashamed. It generally implies a sudden impression of shame.

  They heard, and were abash’d, and up they sprung

  Upon the wing. Milton’s Paradise Lost, b. i. l. 331.

  This heard, th’ imperious queen sat mute with fear;

  Nor further durst incense the gloomy thunderer.

  Silence was in the court at this rebuke:

  Nor could the gods, abash’d, sustain their sovereign’s look. Dryden’s Fables.

  The passive admits the particle at, sometimes of, before the causal noun.

  In no wise speak against the truth, but be abashed of the error of thy ignorance. Ecclesiasticus, iv. 25.

  I said unto her, from whence is this kid? Is it not stolen? Render it to the owners, for it is not lawful to eat any thing that is stolen. But she replied upon me, it was given for a gift, more than the wages: however, I did not believe her, but bad her render it to the owners: and I was abashed at her. Tob. ii. 13, 14.

  The little Cupids hov’ring round,

  (As pictures prove) with garlands crown’d,

  Abash’d at what they saw and heard,

  Flew off, nor ever more appear’d. Swift’s Miscellanies.

  To Abate. [in common law]

  It is in law used both actively and neuterly; as, to abate a castle, to beat it down. To abate a writ, is, by some exception, to defeat or overthrow it. A stranger abateth, that is, entereth upon a house or land void by the death of him that last possessed it, before the heir take his possession, and so keepeth him out. Wherefore, as he that putteth out him in possession, is said to disseise: so he that steppeth in between the former possessor and his heir, is said to abate. In the neuter signification thus; The writ of the demandment shall abate, that is, shall be disabled, frustrated, or overthrown. The appeal abateth by covin, that is, that the accusation is defeated by deceit. Cowel.

  To Abate. [in horsemanship.] A horse is said to abate or take down his curvets; when working upon curvets, he puts his two hind-legs to the ground both at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times. Dict. To Abáte. v.a. [from the French abbatre, to beat down.]

  1. To lessen, to diminish.

  Who can tell whether the divine wisdom, to abate the glory of those kings, did not reserve this work to be done by a queen, that it might appear to be his own immediate work? Sir John Davies on Ireland.

  If you did know to whom I gave the ring,

  And how unwillingly I left the ring,

  You would abate the strength of your displeasure. Shakesp. Merchant of Venice.

  Here we see the hopes of great benefit and light from expositors and commentators are in a great part abated; and those who have most need of your help, can receive but little from them, and can have very little assurance of reaching the Apostle’s sense, by what they find in them. Locke’s Essay on St. Paul’s Epistles.

  2. To deject, or depress the mind.

  This iron world (the same he weeping says)

  Brings down the stoutest hearts to lowest state:

  For misery doth bravest minds abate. Spens. Hubberd’s Tale.

  —— —— Have they power still

  To banish your defenders, till at length

  Your ignorance deliver you,

  As most abated captives to some nation

  That won you without blows? Shakesp. Coriolanus.

  Time that changes all, yet changes us in vain,

  The body, not the mind; nor can controul

  Th’ immortal vigour, or abate the soul. Dryden’s Aeneid.

  3. In commerce, to let down the price in selling, sometimes to beat down the price in buying.

  To Abate. v.n. To grow less; as, his passion abates; the storm abates. It is used sometimes with the particle of before the thing lessened.

  Our physicians have observed, that, in process of time, some diseases have abated of their virulence, and have, in a manner, worn out their malignity, so as to be no longer mortal. Dryden’s Hind and Panth.

  Abátement. n.s. [abatement, Fr.]

  1. The act of abating or lessening.

  The law of works then, in short, is that law, which requires perfect obedience, without remission or abatement; so that, by that law, a man cannot be just, or justified, without an exact performance of every tittle. Locke.

  2. The state of being abated.

  Coffee has, in common with all nuts, an oil strongly combined and entangled with earthly particles. The most noxious part of oil exhales in roasting to the abatement of near one quarter of its weight. Arbuthnot on aliments.

  3. The sum or quantity taken away by the act of abating.

  Xenophon tells us, that the city contained about ten thousand houses, and allowing one man to every house, who could have any share in the government (the rest, consisting of women, children and servants) and making other obvious abatements, these tyrants, if they had been careful to adhere together, might have been a majority even of the people collective. Swift on the contests in Athens and Rome.

  4. The cause of abating; extenuation.

  As our advantages towards practicing and promoting piety and virtue were greater than those of other men; so will our excuse be less, if we neglect to make use of them. We cannot plead in abatement of our guilt, that we were ignorant of our duty, under the prepossession of ill habits, and the biass of a wrong education. Atterbury’s Sermons.

  Abatement, [with heralds] is an accidental mark, which being added to a coat of arms, the dignity of it is abased, by reason of some stain or dishonourable quality of the bearer. Dict.

  Abatement, in law.

  The act of the abator; as, the abatement of the heir into the land before he hath agreed with the lord. The affection or passion of the thing abated; as, abatement of the writ. Cowel.

  Abáter. n.s.The agent or cause by which an abatement is procured.

  Abaters of acrimony or sharpness: expressed oils of ripe vegetables, and all preparations of such; as of almonds, pistachoes, and other nuts. Arbuthnot on diet.

  Abátor. n.s. [a law-term.] One who intrudes into houses or land, that is void by the death of the former possessour, as yet not entered upon or taken up by his heir. Dict.

  Ábatude. n.s. [old records.] Any thing diminished. Bailey.

  Ábature. n.s. [a hunting term.] Those sprigs of grass which are thrown down by a stag in his passing by. Dict.

  Abb. n.s. The yar
n on a weaver’s warp; a term among clothiers. Chambers. Abba. n.s. [Heb. אב] A Syriac word, which signifies father. Ábbacy n.s. [Lat. abbatia.] The rights or privileges of an abbot. See ABBEY.

  According to Felinus, an abbacy is the dignity itself, since an abbot is a term or word of dignity, and not of office; and, therefore, even a secular person, who has the care of souls, is sometimes, in the canon law, also stiled an abbot. Ayliffe’s Parergon Juris Canonici.

  Ábbess. n.s. [Lat. abbatissa, from whence the Saxon abudisse, then probably abbatess, and by contraction abbesse in Fr. and abbess, Eng.] The superiour or governess of a nunnery or monastery of women.

  They fled

  Into this abbey, whither we pursued them;

  And here the abbess shuts the gate on us,

  And will not suffer us to fetch him out. Shakesp. Comedy of Errours.

  I have a sister, abbess in Terceras,

  Who lost her lover on her bridal-day. Dryd. D. Sebast.

  Constantia’s heart was so elevated with the discourse of Father Francis, that the very next day she entered upon her vow. As soon as the solemnities of her reception were over, we retired, as it is usual, with the abbess into her own apartment. Addison. Spect. № 164.

  Ábbey, or Abby. n.s. [Lat. abbatia; from whence probably first Abbacy; which see.] A monastery of religious persons, whether men or women; distinguished from religious houses of other denominations by larger privileges. See ABBOT.

  With easy roads he came to Leicester;

  Lodg’d in the abbey, where the reverend abbot,

  With all his convent, honourably receiv’d him. Shakesp. Henry VIII.

  Ábbey-Lubber, n.s. [See LUBBER.] A slothful loiterer in a religious house, under pretence of retirement and austerity.

  This is no Father Dominic, no huge overgrown abbey-lubber; this is but a diminutive sucking friar. Dryd. Sp. Fr.

  Ábbot. n.s. [in the lower Latin abbas, from אב father, which sense was implied; so that the abbots were called patres, and abesses matres monasterii. Thus Fortunatus to the abbot Paternus: Nominis officium jure, Paterne, geris.] The chief of a convent, or fellowship of canons. Of these, some in England were mitred, some not: those that were mitred, were exempted from the jurisdiction of the diocesan, having in themselves episcopal authority within their precincts, and being also lords of parliament. The other sort were subject to the diocesan in all spiritual government. Cowel. See ABBEY.