Complete Works of Samuel Johnson, page 388
Abílity. n.s. [Habileté, Fr.]
1. The power to do any thing, whether depending upon skill, or riches, or strength, or any other quality.
Of singing thou hast got the reputation,
Good Thyrsis, mine I yield to thy ability;
My heart doth seek another estimation. Sidney, b. i.
If aught in my ability may serve
To heighten what thou suffer’st, and appease
Thy mind with what amends is in my pow’r. Milton’s Sampson Agonistes, l. 744.
They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work. Ezra ii. 69.
If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. 1. Pet. iv. 11.
2. Capacity.
Children in whom there was no blemish, but well-favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace. Dan. i. 4.
3. When it has the plural number, abilities, it frequently signifies the faculties or powers of the mind, and sometimes the force of understanding given by nature, as distinguished from acquired qualifications.
Wherever we find our abilities too weak for the performance, he assures us of the assistance of his holy spirit. Rogers’s Sermons.
Whether it may be thought necessary, that in certain tracts of country, like what we call parishes, there should be one man, at least, of abilities to read and write? Swift’s Arguments against abolishing Christianity.
Abintéstate. adv. [of ab, from, and intestatus, Lat.] A term of law, implying him that inherits from a man, who, though he had the power to make a will, yet did not make it. Ábject. adj. [abjectus, Lat. thrown away as of no value.]
1. Mean, or worthless, spoken of persons.
That rebellion
Came like itself in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth goaded with rage,
And countenanc’d by boys and beggary. Shakesp. Hen. IV
Honeset men, who tell their sovereigns what they expect from them, and what obedience they shall be always ready to pay them, are not upon an equal foot with such base and abject flatterers; and are therefore always in danger of being the last in the royal favour. Addison’s Whig Examiner.
2. Contemptible, or of no value; used of things.
I was at first, as other beasts that graze
The troden herb, of abject thoughts and low. Milt. Paradise Lost, b. ix. l. 571.
3. Without hope or regard; used of condition.
The rarer thy example stands,
By how much from the top of wond’rous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall’n. Milton’s Samson Agonistes.
We see man and woman in the highest innocence and perfection, and in the most abject state of guilt and infirmity. Addison. Spectator, № 273.
4. Destitute, mean and despicable; used of actions.
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg’d thro’ sacred lust of praise? Pope’s Essay on Criticism
The rapine is so abject and profane,
They not from trifles, nor from gods refrain. Dryden’s Juvenal, Sat. 8.
Ábject. n.s. A man without hope; a man whose miseries are irretrievable.
But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not. Psalm xxxv. 15.
To Abjéct. v.a. [abjicio, Lat.] To throw away. A word rarely used. Abjéctedness. n.s. [from abject.] The state of an abject.
He would love at no less rate than death; and, from the supereminent height of glory, stooped and abased himself to the sufferance of the extremest of indignities, and sunk himself to the bottom of abjectedness, to exalt our condition to the contrary extreme. Boyle’s Works.
Abjéction. n.s. [from abject.] Meanness of mind; want of spirit; servility; baseness.
That this should be termed baseness, abjection of mind, or servility, is it credible? Hooker, b. v. § 47.
Now the just medium of this case lies betwixt the pride and the abjection, the two extremes. L’Estrange.
Ábjectly. adv. [from abject.] In an abject manner, meanly, basely, servilely, contemptibly. Ábjectness. n.s. [from abject.] The same with abjection; servility, meanness.
Servility and abjectness of humour is implicitely involved in the charge of lying; the condescending to that, being a mark of a disingenuous spirit. Government of the Tongue, § 8.
By humility I mean not the abjectness of a base mind: but a prudent care not to over-value ourselves upon any account. Grew’s Cosmologia Sacra, b. ii. c. 7.
To Ábjugate. v.a. [abjugo, Lat.] To unyoke, to uncouple. Dict. Abjurátion. n.s. [from abjure.] The act of abjuring. The oath taken for that end.
Until Henry VIII. his time, if a man, having committed felony, could go into a church or church-yard, before he was apprehended, he might not be taken from thence to the usual trial of law, but confessing his fault to the justices, or to the coroner, gave his oath to forsake the realm for ever, which was called abjuration.
There are some abjurations still in force among us here in England; as, by the statute of the 25th of king Charles II. all persons that are admitted into any office, civil or military, must take the test; which is an abjuration of some doctrines of the church of Rome.
There is likewise another oath of abjuration, which laymen and clergymen are both obliged to take; and that is, to abjure the Pretender. Ayliffe’s Parergon Juris Canonici.
To Abjúre. v.a. [abjuro, Lat.]
1. To cast off upon oath, to swear not to do something.
Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of man. Shakesp. Midsum. Night’s Dream.
No man, therefore, that hath not abjured his reason, and sworn allegiance to a preconceived fantastical hypothesis, can undertake the defence of such a supposition. Hale’s Origin of Mankind.
2. To retract, or recant, or abnegate; a position upon oath.
To Abláctate. v.a. [ablacto, Lat.] To wean from the breast. Ablactátion. n.s. One of the methods of grafting; and, according to the signification of the word, as it were a weaning of a cyon by degrees from its mother stock, not cutting it off wholly from the stock, till it is firmly united to that on which it is grafted. Ablaqueátion. [ablaqueatio, Lat.] The act or practice of opening the ground about the roots of trees, to let the air and water operate upon them.
Trench the ground, and make it ready for the spring: Prepare also soil, and use it where you have occasion: Dig borders. Uncover as yet roots of trees, where ablaqueation is requisite. Evelyn’s Kalendar.
The tenure in chief ought to be kept alive and nourished; the which, as it is the very root that doth maintain this silver stem, that by many rich and fruitful branches spreadeth itself into the chancery, exchequer, and court of wards: so if it be suffered to starve, by want of ablaqueation, and other good husbandry, not only this yearly fruit will much decrease from time to time, but also the whole body and boughs of that precious tree itself, will fall into danger of decay and dying. Bacon’s Office of Alienations.
Ablátion. n.s. [ablatio, Lat.] The act of taking away. Áblative. n.a. [ablativus, Lat.]
1. That which takes away.
2. The sixth case of the Latin nouns; the case which, among other significations, includes the person from whom something is taken away. A term of grammar.
B
The second letter of the English alphabet, is pronounced as in most other European languages, by pressing the whole length of the lips together, and forcing them open with a strong breath. It has a near affinity with the other labial letters, and is confounded by the Germans with P, and by the Gascons with V; from which an epigrammatist remarks, that bibere and vivere are in Gascony the same. The Spaniards, in most words, use B or V indifferently. Baa. n.s. [See the verb.] The cry of a sheep. To Baa. v.n. [balo, Lat.] To cry like a sheep.
Or like a lamb, whose dam away is fet,
He treble baas for help, but none can get. Sidney.
Bábble. n.s. [babil, Fr.] Idle talk; senseless prattle.
This babble shall not henceforth trouble me;
Here is a coil with protestation! Shakesp. Two G. of Verona.
Come, no more,
This is mere moral babble. Milton.
With volleys of eternal babble,
And clamour more unanswerable. Hudibras.
The babble, impertinence, and folly, I have taken notice of in disputes. Glanville’s Scepsis Scientifica.
To Bábble. v.n. [babbeln, Germ. babiller, Fr.]
1. To prattle like a child; to prate imperfectly.
My babbling praises I repeat no more,
But hear, rejoice, stand silent, and adore. Prior.
2. To talk idly, or irrationally.
John had conned over a catalogue of hard words; these he used to babble indifferently in all companies. Arbuthn. J. Bull.
Let the silent sanctuary show,
What from the babbling schools we may not know. Prior.
3. To talk thoughtlessly; to tell secrets.
There is more danger in a reserved and silent friend, than in a noisy babbling enemy. L’Estrange.
4. To talk much.
The babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the well tun’d horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once. Shakesp. Tit. Andr.
And had I pow’r to give that knowledge birth,
In all the speeches of the babbling earth. Prior.
The babbling echo had descry’d his face;
She, who in others words her silence breaks. Addison’s Ovid.
Bábblement. n.s. [from babble.] Senseless prate.
Deluded all this while with ragged notions and babblements, while they expected worthy and delightful knowledge. Milton.
Bábbler. n.s. [from babble.]
1. An idle talker; an irrational prattler.
We hold our time too precious to be spent
With such a babbler. Shakesp. King John.
Great babblers, or talkers, are not fit for trust. L’Estrange.
The apostle of my text had no sooner proposed it to the greater masters at Athens, but he himself was ridiculed as a babbler. Rogers.
2. A teller of secrets.
Utterers of secrets he from thence debarr’d;
Babblers of folly, and blazers of crime. Fairy Queen, b. ii.
Babe. n. s. [baban, Welch; babbaerd, Dutch.] An infant; a child of either sex.
Those that do teach your babes,
Do it with gentle means, and easy tasks;
He might have chid me so: for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding. Shakesp. Othello.
Nor shall Sebastian’s formidable name
Be longer us’d, to lull the crying babe. Dryden’s Don Seb,
The babe had all that infant care beguiles,
And early knew his mother in her smiles. Dryden.
Bábery. n. s. [from babe.] Finery to please a babe or child.
So have I seen trim books in velvet dight,
With golden leaves and painted babery
Of seely boys, please unacquainted sight. Sidney.
Bábish. adj. [from babe.] Childish.
If he be bashful, and will soon blush, they call him a babish and ill brought up thing. Ascham’s Schoolmaster.
Babóon. n.s. [babouin, Fr. It is supposed by Skinner to be the augmentation of babe, and to import a great babe.] A monkey of the largest kind.
You had looked through the grate like a geminy of baboons. Shakesp. Merry Wives of Windsor.
He cast every human feature out of his countenance, and
became a baboon. Addison. Spect. № 174.
Báby. n.s. [See Babe.]
1. A child; an infant.
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum. Shakesp. Measure for Measure.
The child must have sugar plumbs, rather than make the poor baby cry. Locke.
He must marry, and propagate: the father cannot stay for the portion, nor the mother for babies to play with. Locke.
2. A small image in imitation of a child, which girls play with.
The archduke saw that Perkin would prove a runnagate; and that it was the part of children to fall out about babies. Bacon’s Henry VII.
Since no image can represent the great Creator, never think to honour him by your foolish puppets, and babies of dirt and clay. Stillingfleet’s Def. of Disc. on Rom. Idolatry.
Báccated. adj. [baccatus, Lat.] Beset with pearls; having many berries. Dict.
Bacchanálian. n.s. [from bacchanalia, Lat.] A riotous person; a drunkard. Bácchanals. n.s. [bacchanalia, Lat.] The drunken feasts and revels of Bacchus, the god of wine.
Ha, my brave emperor, shall we dance now the Egyptian bacchanals, and celebrate our drink? Shakesp. Ant. and Cleop.
What wild fury was there in the heathen bacchanals, which we have not seen equalled. Decay of Piety.
Both extremes were banished from their walls,
Carthusian fasts, and fulsome bacchanals. Pope.
Bácchus Bole. n.s. A flower not tall, but very full and broad-leaved; of a sad light purple, and a proper white; having the three outmost leaves edged with a crimson colour, bluish bottom, and dark purple. Mortimer.
Baccíferous. adj. [from bacca, a berry, and fero, to bear, Lat.] Berry-bearing.
Bacciferous trees are of four kinds.
1. Such as bear a caliculate or naked berry; the flower and calix both falling off together, and leaving the berry bare; as the sassafras trees.
2. Such as have a naked monospermous fruit, that is, containing in it only one seed; as the arbutes.
3. Such as have but polyspermous fruit, that is, containing two or more kernels or seeds within it; as the jasminum, ligustrum.
4. Such as have their fruit composed of many acini, or round soft balls set close together like a bunch of grapes; as the uva marina. Ray.
Báchelor. n.s. [This is a word of very uncertain etymology, it not being well known what was its original sense. Junius derives it from βάκηλος, foolish; Menage, from bas chevalier, a knight of the lowest rank; Spelman, from baculus, a staff; Cujas, from buccella, an allowance of provision. The most probable derivation seems to be from bacca laurus, the berry of a laurel or bay; bachelors being young, are of good hopes, like laurels in the berry. In Latin, baccalaureus.]
1. A man unmarried.
Such separation
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid. Shakesp. Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The haunting of those dissolute places, or resort to courtesans, are no more punished in married men than in bachelors. Bacon’s New Atlantis.
A true painter naturally delights in the liberty which belongs to the bachelor’s estate. Dryden’s Dufresnoy.
Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore,
Full well they merit all they feel, and more. Pope.
2. A man who takes his first degrees at the university in any profession.
Being a boy, new bachelor of arts, I chanced to speak against the pope. Ascham’s Schoolmaster.
I appear before your honour, in behalf of Martinus Scriblerus, bachelor of physick. Arbuthn. and Pope’s Mart. Scriblerus.
3. A knight of the lowest order. This is a sense no little used.
Báchelors Button. [See Campion, of which it is a species.]
All the sorts of this plant are hardy; they grow above two foot, and produce their flower in June and July. Millar.
Báchelorship. n.s. [from bachelor.] The condition of a bachelor.
Her mother, living yet, can testify,
She was the first fruit of my bachelorship. Shakesp. Hen. VI.
Back. n.s. [bac, bæc, Sax. bach, Germ.]
1. The hinder part of the body, from the neck to the thighs.
As the voice goeth round, as well towards the back as towards the front of him that speaketh, so likewise doth the echo: for you have many back echoes to the place where you stand. Bacon’s Nat. Hist. № 247.
Part following enter, part remain without,
With envy hear their fellow’s conqu’ring shout;
And mount on others backs in hope to share. Dryden.
2. The outer part of the hand when it is shut; opposed to the palm.
Methought love pitying me, when he saw this,
Gave me your hands, the backs and palms to kiss. Donne.
3. The outward part of the body; that which requires cloaths; opposed to the belly.
Those who, by their ancestors, have been set free from a constant drudgery to their backs and their bellies, should bestow some time on their heads. Locke.
4. The rear; opposed to the van.
He might conclude, that Walter would be upon the king’s back, as his majesty was upon his. Clarendon, b. viii.
5. The place behind.
Antheus, Sergestus grave, Cleanthus strong,
And at their backs a mighty Trojan throng. Dryden.
6. The part of any thing out of sight.
Trees set upon the backs of chimneys do ripen fruit sooner. Bacon’s Nat. Hist. № 856.
7. The thick part of any tool, opposed to the edge; as the back of a knife or sword; whence backsword, or sword with a back; as,
Bull dreaded not old Lewis either at backsword, single faulchion, or cudgel-play. Arbuthnot’s History of J. Bull.
8. To turn the back on one, is to forsake him, or neglect him.
At the hour of death, all the friendships of the world shall bid him adieu, and the whole creation turn its back upon him. South.
9. To turn the back, is to go away; to be not within the reach of taking cognizance.
His back was no sooner turned, but they returned to their former rebellion. Sir J. Davies on Ireland.
To Back. v.a. [from the noun back.]
1. To mount on the back of a horse.
That roan shall be my throne.
Well I will back him strait. O Esperance!
Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. Shak. Henry IV.
2. To break a horse; to train him to bear upon his back.
Direct us how to back the winged horse;
Favour his flight, and moderate his course. Roscommon.
