Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  We take up corn for them, that we may eat and live. Neh.

  When Winter shuts the seas, she to the merchant goes,

  Rich crystals of the rock she takes up there,

  Huge agat vases, and old china ware. Dryden’s Juvenal.

  I have anticipated already, and taken up from Boccace before I come to him. Dryden’s Fables.

  Men, for want of due payment, are forced to take up the necessaries of life at almost double value. Swift.

  96. To be ready for; to engage with.

  His divisions

  Are, one power against the French,

  And one against Glendower; perforce, a third

  Must take up us. Shakesp. Henry IV.

  97. To Take up. To apply to the use of.

  We took up arms not to revenge ourselves,

  But free the commonwealth. Addison.

  98. To Take up. To begin.

  They shall take up a lamentation for me. Ezek. xxv. 17.

  Princes friendship, which they take up upon the accounts of judgment and merit, they most times lay down out of humour. South’s Serm.

  99. To Take up. To fasten with a ligature passed under.

  A large vessel opened by incision must be taken up before you proceed. Sharp.

  100. To Take up. To engross; to engage.

  Take my esteem,

  If from my heart you ask, or hope for more,

  I grieve the place is taken up before. Dryden.

  I intended to have left the stage, to which my genius never much inclined me, for a work which would have taken up my life in the performance. Dryden’s Juvenal.

  Over-much anxiety in worldly things takes up the mind, hardly admitting so much as a thought of heaven. Duppa.

  To understand fully his particular calling in the commonwealth, and religion, which is his calling, as he is a man, takes up his whole time. Locke.

  Every one knows that mines alone furnish these: but withal, countries stored with mines are poor; the digging and refining of these metals taking up the labour, and wasting the number of the people. Locke.

  We were so confident of success, that most of my fellow-soldiers were taken up with the same imaginations. Addison.

  The following letter is from an artist, now taken up with this invention. Addison.

  There is so much time taken up in the ceremony, that before they enter on their subject the dialogue is half ended. Addison on ancient Medals.

  The affairs of religion and war took up Constantine so much, that he had not time to think of trade. Arbuthnot.

  When the compass of twelve books is taken up in these, the reader will wonder by what methods our author could prevent being tedious. Pope’s Essay on Homer.

  101. To Take up. To have final recourse to.

  Arnobius asserts, that men of the finest parts and learning, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, despising the sentiments they had been once fond of, took up their rest in the Christian religion. Addison on the Christian Religion.

  102. To Take up. To seize; to catch; to arrest.

  Though the sheriff have this authority to take up all such stragglers, and imprison them; yet shall he not work that terror in their hearts that a marshal will, whom they know to have power of life and death. Spenser.

  I was taken up for laying them down. Shakespeare.

  You have taken up,

  Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

  The subjects of his substitute, and here upswarm’d them. Shakespeare.

  103. To Take up. To admit.

  The ancients took up experiments upon credit, and did build great matters upon them. Bacon’s Nat. Hist.

  104. To Take up. To answer by reproving; to reprimand.

  One of his relations took him up roundly, for stooping so much below the dignity of his profession. L’Estrange.

  105. To Take up. To begin where the former left off.

  The plot is purely fiction; for I take it up where the history has laid it down. Dryden’s Don Sebastian.

  Soon as the evening shades prevail,

  The moon takes up the wond’rous tale,

  And nightly to the list’ning earth

  Repeats the story of her birth. Addison’s Spect.

  106. To Take up. To lift.

  Take up these cloaths here quickly:

  Where’s the cowlstaff? Shakespeare.

  The least things are taken up by the thumb and forefinger; when we would take up a greater quantity, we would use the thumb and all the fingers. Ray.

  Milo took up a calf daily on his shoulders, and at last arrived at firmness to bear the bull. Watts.

  107. To Take up. To occupy.

  The people by such thick throngs swarmed to the place, that the chambers which opened towards the scaffold were taken up. Hayward.

  All vicious enormous practices are regularly consequent, where the other hath taken up the lodging. Hammond.

  Committees, for the convenience of the common-council who took up the Guild-hall, sat in Grocer’s-hall. Clarendon.

  When my concernment takes up no more room than myself, then so long as I know where to breathe, I know also where to be happy. South’s Sermons.

  These things being compared, notwithstanding the room that mountains take up on the dry land, there would be at least eight oceans required. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth.

  When these waters were annihilated, so much other matter must be created to take up their places. Burnet.

  Princes were so taken up with wars, that few could write or read besides those of the long robes. Temple.

  The buildings about took up the whole space. Arbuthnot.

  108. To Take up. To accommodate; to adjust.

  I have his horse to take up the quarrel. Shakespeare.

  The greatest empires have had their rise from the pretence of taking up quarrels, or keeping the peace. L’Estrange.

  109. To Take up. To comprise.

  I prefer in our countryman the noble poem of Palemon and Arcite, which is perhaps not much inferior to the Ilias, only it takes up seven years. Dryden’s Fables.

  110. To Take up. To adopt; to assume.

  God’s decrees of salvation and damnation have been taken up by some of the Romish and Reformed churches, affixing them to mens particular entities, absolutely considered. Hamm.

  The command in war is given to the strongest, or to the bravest; and in peace taken up and exercised by the boldest. Temple.

  Assurance is properly that confidence which a man takes up of the pardon of his sins, upon such grounds as the scripture lays down. South’s Sermons.

  The French and we still change, but here’s the curse,

  They change for better, and we change for worse.

  They take up our old trade of conquering,

  And we are taking their’s to dance and sing. Dryden.

  He that will observe the conclusions men take up, must be satisfied they are not all rational. Locke.

  Celibacy, in the church of Rome, was commonly forced, and taken up, under a bold vow. Atterbury.

  Lewis Baboon had taken up the trade of clothier, without serving his time. Arbuthnot’s Hist. of John Bull.

  Every man takes up those interests in which his humour engages him. Pope.

  If those proceedings were observed, morality and religion would soon become fashionable court virtues, and be taken up as the only methods to get or keep employments. Swfit.

  111. To Take up. To collect; to exact a tax.

  This great bassa was born in a poor country village, and in his childhood taken from his Cristian parents, by such as take up the tribute children. Knolles’s Hist. of the Turks.

  112. To Take upon. To appropriate to; to assume; to admit to be imputed to.

  If I had no more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, he had been hang’d for’t. Shakespeare.

  He took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. Heb. ii. 16.

  For confederates, I will not take upon me the knowledge how the princ
es of Europe, at this day, stand affected towards Spain. Bacon’s War with Spain.

  Would I could your suff’rings bear;

  Or once again could some new way invent,

  To take upon myself your punishment. Dryden.

  She loves me, ev’n to suffer for my sake;

  And on herself would my refusal take. Dryden.

  113. To Take upon. To assume; to claim authority.

  These dangerous, unsafe lunes i’ th’ king! beshrew them,

  He must be told on’t, and he shall; the office

  Becomes a woman best: I’ll take’t upon me. Shakespeare.

  Look that you take upon you as you should. Shakespeare.

  This every translator taketh upon himself to do. Felton.

  Tángent n.s. [tangent, Fr. tangens, Lat.]

  Tangent, in trigonometry, is a right line perpendicularly raised on the extremity of a radius, and which touches a circle so as not to cut it; but yet intersects another line without the circle called a secant that is drawn from the centre, and which cuts the arc to which it is a tangent. Trevoux.

  Nothing in this hypothesis can retain the planets in their orbs, but they would immediately desert them and the neighbourhood of the sun, and vanish away in tangents to their several circles into the mundane space. Bentley’s Serm.

  Tántalism. n.s. [from tantalize.] A punishment like that of Tantalus.

  A lively representation of a person lying under the torments of such a tantalism, or platonick hell. Addison’s Spectat.

  To Tántalize. v.a. [from Tantalus, whose punishment was to starve among fruits and water which he could not touch.] To torment by the shew of pleasures which cannot be reached.

  Thy vain desires, at strife

  Within themselves, have tantaliz’d thy life. Dryden.

  The maid once sped was not suffered to tantalize the male part of the commonwealth. Addison.

  Tántivy. adv. [from the note of a hunting horn, so expressed in articulate sounds; from tantâ vi, says Skinner.] To ride tantivy is to ride with great speed. Tántling. n.s. [from Tantalus.] One seized with hopes of pleasure unattainable.

  Hard life,

  To be still hot Summer’s tantlings, and

  The shrinking slaves of Winter. Shakespeare.

  Tar. n.s. [tare, Saxon; tarre, Dutch; tiere, Danish.] Liquid pitch; the turpentine of the pine or fir drained out by fire.

  Then, foaming tar, their bridles they would champ,

  And trampling the fine element would fiercely ramp. Spens.

  A man will not lose a hog for a halfpennyworth of tar. Camden’s Remains.

  Some stir the melted tar. Thomson’s Summer.

  Tar. n.s. [from tar used in ships.] A sailor; a seaman in contempt.

  In senates bold, and fierce in war,

  A land commander, and a tar. Swift’s Miscel.

  To Tar. v.a. [from the noun.]

  1. To smear over with tar.

  2. To teaze; to provoke. [ταράττω.]

  There has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them on to controversy. Shakesp.

  Two curs shall tame each other; pride alone

  Must tar the mastiffs on, as ‘twere the bone. Shakespeare.

  Tarántula. n.s. [Italian; tarentule, French.] An insect whose bite is only cured by musick.

  This word, lover, did no less pierce poor Pyrocles than the right tune of musick toucheth him that is sick of the tarantula. Sidney.

  He that uses the word tarantula, without having any idea of what it stands for, means nothing at all by it. Locke.

  U

  Has two powers, expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed.

  U, the vowel, has two sounds; one clear, expressed at other times by eu, as obtuse; the other close, and approaching to the Italian u, or English oo, as obtund.

  V, the consonant, has a sound nearly approaching to those of b and f. With b it is by the Spaniards and Gascons always confounded, and in the Runick alphabet is expressed by the same character with f, distinguished only by a diacritical point. Its sound in English is uniform. It is never mute.

  Úmber. n.s.

  1. Umber is a sad colour; which grind with gum-water, and lighten it with a little ceruse, and a shive of saffron. Peacham.

  I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire,

  And with a kind of umber smirch my face. Shakespeare.

  Umbre is very sensible and earthy; there is nothing but pure black which can dispute with it. Dryden.

  The umbres, ochres, and minerals found in the fissures, are much finer than those found in the strata. Woodward.

  2. A fish. [thymallus, Lat.]

  The umber and grayling differ as the herring and pilcher do: but though they may do so in other nations, those in England differ nothing but in their names. Walt. Angler.

  Umbo. n.s. [Latin.] The point, or prominent part of a buckler.

  Thy words together ty’d in small hanks,

  Close as the Macedonian phalanx;

  Or like the umbo of the Romans,

  Which fiercest foes could break by no means. Swift.

  Un. A Saxon privative or negative particle answering to in of the Latins, and α of the Greeks, on, Dutch. It is placed almost at will before adjectives and adverbs. All the instances of this kind of composition cannot therefore be inserted; but I have collected a number sufficient, perhaps more than sufficient, to explain it. Unbenígn. adj. Malignant; malevolent.

  To th’ other five

  Their planetary motions, and aspects,

  In sextile, square and trine, and opposite,

  Of noxious efficacy; and when to join

  In synod unbenign. Milton’s Par. Lost, b. x. l. 661.

  Unbént. adj.

  1. Not strained by the string.

  Apollo heard, and conqu’ring his disdain,

  Unbent his bow, and Greece inspir’d again. Dryden.

  2. Having the bow unstrung.

  Why hast thou gone so far,

  To be unbent when thou hast ta’en thy stand,

  Th’ elected deer before thee? Shakesp. Cymbeline.

  3. Not crushed; not subdued.

  But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes,

  The more thy fortune frowns, the more oppose. Dryden.

  4. Relaxed; not intent.

  Be not always on affairs intent,

  But let thy thoughts be easy and unbent:

  When our mind’s eyes are disengag’d and free,

  They clearer, farther, and distinctly see. Denham.

  Unbeseéming. adj. Unbecoming.

  No emotion of passion transported me by the indignity of his carriage, to do or say any thing unbeseeming myself. K. Charles.

  Far be the spirit of the chace from them;

  Uncomely courage, unbeseeming skill. Thomson.

  Unbesóught. adj. Not intreated.

  Lest heat should injure us, his timely care

  Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands

  Cloath’d us unworthy; pitying while he judg’d. Milton.

  Unbestówed. adj. Not given; not disposed of.

  He had now but one son and one daughter unbestowed. Bacon.

  Unbestówed. adj. Not given; not disposed of.

  He had now but one son and one daughter unbestowed. Bacon.

  Sources: Bacon, Francis (289)

  Unbetráyed. adj. Not betrayed.

  Many being privy to the fact,

  How hard is it to keep it unbetray’d? Daniel’s Civil War.

  Unbewáiled. adj. Not lamented.

  Let determin’d things to destiny

  Hold unbewail’d their way. Shakesp. Ant. and Cleopatra.

  To Unbúckle. v.a. To loose from buckles.

  We have been down together in my sleep,

  Unbuckling helms; fisting each other’s
throat,

  And wak’d half dead with nothing. Shakesp. Coriolanus.

  He that unbuckles this, till we do please

  To doff’t for our purpose, shall hear a storm. Shakesp.

  His starry helm unbuckled, shew’d him prime

  In manhood, where youth ended. Milton’s Par. Lost.

  All unbuckling the rich mail they wore,

  Laid their bright arms along the sable shore. Pope.

  To Unbuild. v.a. To raze; to destroy.

  This is the way to kindle, not to quench;

  T’ unbuild the city, and to lay all flat. Shakespeare.

  What will they then but unbuild

  His living temples, built by faith to stand;

  Their own faith, not another’s? Milton’s Par. Lost.

  To Unpredíct. v.a. To retract prediction.

  Means I must use, thou say’st prediction else

  Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne. Milton.

  Unpreférred. adj. Not advanced.

  To make a scholar, keep him under, while he is young, or unpreferred. Collier on Pride.

  Unprégnant. adj. Not prolifick.

  This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,

  And dull to all proceedings. Shakespeare.

  Unprejúdicate. adj. Not prepossessed by any settled notions.

  A pure mind in a chaste body, is the mother of wisdom, sincere principles, and unprejudiciate understanding. Taylor.

  Unquíck. adj. Motionless.

  His senses droop, his steady eyes unquick;

  And much he ails, and yet he is not sick. Daniel’s Civ. War.

  Unquíckened. adj. Not animated; not ripened to vitality.

  Every fœtus bears a secret hoard,

  With sleeping, unexpanded issue stor’d;

  Which num’rous, but unquicken’d progeny,

  Clasp’d, and enwrapp’d, within each other lie. Blackmore.

  Unrepíning. adj. Not peevishly complaining.

  Barefoot as she trod the flinty pavement,

  Her footsteps all along were mark’d with blood;

  Yet silent on she pass’d, and unrepining. Rowe.

  V

  Has two powers, expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed.