AU'BURN, adjective Brown; of a dark color.

His auburn locks on either shoulder flowed.

AUC'TION, noun [Latin auctio, a public sale; Eng. to hawk. See Hawk.]

1. A public sale of property to the highest bidder, and regularly, by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue. contracts for services, sometimes, are sold to the lowest bidder. By the Romans, this species of sale was made by a crier, sub hasta, under a spear stuck in the earth.

2. The thing sold at auction

AUC'TIONARY, adjective Belonging to an auction or public sale.

AUCTIONEE'R, noun [Latin auctionarius.]

The person who sells at auction; a person licensed by government to dispose of goods or lands by public sale to the highest bidder.

AUCTIONEE'R, verb transitive To sell at auction.

AUCUPA'TION, noun [Latin aucupatio, from aucupor, of avis and capio.] The act or practice of taking birds; fowling; bird-catching. [Little used.]

AUDA'CIOUS, adjective [Latin audax; audeo, to dare. The sense is, advancing forward.]

1. Very bold or daring; impudent; conteming the restraints of law, religion or decorum; used for bold in wickedness; applied to persons; as an audacious wretch.

2. Committed with, or proceeding from, daring effrontery, or contempt of law; as an audacious crime.

3. Bold; spirited.

AUDA'CIOUSLY, adverb In an impudent manner; with excess of boldness.

AUDA'CIOUSNESS, noun The quality of being audacious; impudence; audacity.

AUDAC'ITY, noun

1. Boldness, sometimes in a good sense; daring spirit, resolution or confidence.

2. Audaciousness; impudence; in a bad sense; implying a contempt of law or moral restraint.

AUD'EANISM, noun Anthropomorphism; or the doctrine of Audeus, who maintained that God has a human shape, from Genesis 1:26.

AUD'IBLE, adjective [Latin audibilis, from audio, to hear. This word is evidently connected with the name of the ear; Gr.]

That may be heard; perceivable by the ear; loud enough to be heard; as an audible voice or whisper.

AUD'IBLENESS, noun The quality of being audible.

AUD'IBLY, adverb In an audible manner; in a manner so as to be heard.

AUD'IENCE, noun

1. The act of hearing, or attending to sounds.

His bold discourse had audience

2. Admittance to a hearing; public reception to an interview; a ceremony observed in courts, or by official characters, when ambassadors or applicants to men in office are permitted to appear and state their business in person.

3. An auditory; an assembly of hearers.

4. In the Spanish dominions, a court; as the audience of Seville, which is a court of oyer and terminer; and the audience pretorial, in the Indies, which is a high court of judicature. The word in Spain also signifies certain law-officers, appointed to institute a judicial inquiry.

5. In England, a court held by the arch-bishop of Canterbury, on the subject of consecrations, elections, institutions, marriages, etc.

AUD'IENT, noun A hearer. [Not in use.]

AUD'IT, noun [Latin audit he hears.]

1. An examination of an account or of accounts, with a hearing of the parties concerned, by proper officers, or persons appointed for that purpose, who compare the charges with the vouchers, examine witnesses, and state the balance.

2. The result of such an examination, or account as adjusted by auditors; a final account.

AUD'IT, verb transitive To examine and adjust an account or accounts, by proper officers, or by persons legally authorized for the purpose; as, to audit the accounts of a treasurer, or of parties who have a suit depending in court.

AUD'ITIVE, adjective Having the power of hearing.

AUD'ITOR, [Latin]

1. A hearer; one who attends to hear a discourse.

2. A person appointed and authorized to examine an account or accounts, compare the charges with the vouchers, examine the parties and witnesses, allow or reject charges, and state the balance. It is usual with courts to refer accounts, on which an action is brought, to auditors for adjustment, and their report, if received, is the basis of the judgment.

In England, there are officers who are auditors of courts; as the auditors of the Exchequer, of the receipts, etc.

AUD'ITORSHIP, noun The office of auditor.

AUD'ITORY, adjective That has the power of hearing; pertaining to the sense or organs of hearing; as, the auditory nerve.

AUD'ITORY, noun [Latin auditorium.]

1. An audience; an assembly of hearers, as in a church or lecture room.

2. A place or apartment where discourses are delivered. In ancient churches, the nave, where the hearers stood to be instructed.

3. A bench on which a judge sits to hear causes.

AUD'ITRESS, noun A female hearer.

AUF, noun A fool; a simpleton. [See Oaf.]

AUGE'AN, adjective The augean stable, in Grecian mythology, is represented as belonging to Augeas or Augias, one of the Argonauts, and afterwards king of Elis. This prince kept a great number of oxen, in a stable which was never cleansed, until Hercules undertook the task; a task which it seemed impracticable to execute. Hence the augean stable came to represent what is deemed impracticable, or a place which has not, for a long time been cleansed.

AUG'ER, noun

An instrument for boring large holes, chiefly used by carpenters, joiners, cabinet makers, wheelwrights and shipwrights. It consists of an iron blade, ending in a steel bit, with a handle placed at right angles with the blade. Augers, made with a straight channel or groove, in some places, are called pod-augers; the modern augers, with spiral channels, are called screw-augers.

AUGHT, noun aut.[Latin qui, quae, quod, quid, what, to be the same word varied in orthography. This word should not be written ought.]

1. Any thing, indefinitely.

But go, my son, and see if aught be wanting.

2. Any part, the smallest; a jot or tittle.

There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken. Joshua 21:1.

AU'GITE, noun [Gr. brightness.]

A mineral called by Hauy, pyroxene; often found in distinct crystals. Its secondary forms are all six or eight-sided prisms. Sometimes it appears in hemitrope crystals. It has a foliated structure, and is harder than hornblend. The varieties are common augite sahlite, fassaite, and cocolite. The omphacite of Werner appears also to be a variety; and the common augite found near the lake Baikal, has been called Baikalite.

Werner divides augite into four sub-species; granular, foliated, conchoidal, and common; and there is a variety called slaggy augite

AUGIT'IC, adjective Pertaining to augite; resembling augite, or partaking of its nature and characters.

AUGMENT', verb transitive [Latin augmento, augmentum, from augeo, auxi, to increase; Gr. It seems to be the Eng. to wax, or to eke.]

1. To increase; to enlarge in size or extent; to swell; to make bigger; as, to augment an army, by reinforcement; rain augments a stream.

2. To increase or swell the degree, amount or magnitude; as, impatience augments an evil.

AUGMENT', verb intransitive To increase; to grow larger; as, a stream augments by rain.

AUG'MENT, noun

1. Increase; enlargement by addition; state of increase.

2. In philology, a syllable prefixed to a word; or an increase of the quantity of the initial vowel.

AUGMENT'ABLE, adjective That may be increased; capable of augmentation.

AUGMENTA'TION, noun

1. The act of increasing, or making larger, by addition, expansion, or dilatation.

2. The state of being increased or enlarged.

3. The thing added by which a thing is enlarged.

4. In music, a doubling the value of the notes of the subject of a fugue or canon.

Augmentation Court, in England, a court erected by 27 Hen. VIII., to augment the revenues of the crown, by the suppression of monasteries. It was long ago dissolved.

In heraldry, augmentation consists in additional charges to a coat-armor, often as marks of honor, borne on the escutcheon or a canton.

AUGMENT'ATIVE, adjective Having the quality or power of augmenting.

AUGMENT'ER, noun He that augments.

AUGMENT'ING, participle present tense Increasing; enlarging.

AU'GUR, noun [Latin augur The first syllable is from avis, a fowl; but the meaning and origin of the last syllable are not obvious.]

1. Among the Romans, an officer whose duty was to foretell future events by the singing, chattering, flight and feeding of birds. There was a college or community of augers, originally three in number, and afterwards nine, four patricians, and five plebeians. They bore a staff or wand, and were held in great respect.

2. One who pretends to foretell future events by omens.

We all know that augur cannot look at augur without laughing.

AU'GUR, verb intransitive To guess; to conjecture by signs or omens; to prognosticate.

AU'GUR, verb transitive To predict or foretell; as, to augur ill success.

AU'GURAL, adjective [Latin auguralis.] Pertaining to an augur, or to prediction by the appearance of birds. The Romans had their augural staff and augural books.

AU'GURATE, verb intransitive To judge by augury; to predict. [Little used.]

AUGURA'TION, noun The practice of augury, or the foretelling of events by the chattering and flight of birds. It may be used for prediction by other signs and omens.

AU'GURED, participle passive Conjectured by omens; prognosticated.

AU'GURER, noun An augur. [Not legitimate.]

AUGU'RIAL, adjective Relating to augurs.

AU'GURIZE, verb transitive To augur. [Not in use.]

AU'GUROUS, adjective Predicting; foretelling; foreboding.

AU'GURY, noun [Latin augurium.]

1. The art or practice of foretelling events by the flight or chattering of birds.

2. An omen; prediction; prognostication.

AUGUST', adjective [Latin augustus. The first syllable of this word is probably from the root of augeo, or of awe.]

Grand; magnificent; majestic; impressing awe; inspiring reverence.

The Trojan chief appeared, august in visage.

It is related that this epithet was first conferred by the Roman senate upon Octavius, after confirming him in the sovereign power.

AU'GUST, noun The eighth month of the year, containing thirty-one days. The old Roman name was Sextilis, the sixth month from March, the month in which the primitive Romans, as well as Jews, began the year. The name was changed to august in honor of the Emperor Octavius Augustus, on account of his victories, and his entering on his first consulate in that month.

AUGUST'AN, adjective

1. Pertaining to Augustus; as the augustan age.

2. The augustan confession, drawn up at Augusta or Augsburg, by Luther and Melancthon, in 1530, contains the principles of the protestants, and their reasons for separating from the Romish church.

AUGUSTIN'IANS, noun Those divines, who from St. Augustin, maintain that grace is effectual from its nature, absolutely and morally, not relatively and gradually.

AUGUST'INS,

AUGUSTIN'IANS, noun An order of monks, so called from St. Augustin. They originally were hermits, and called Austin friars. They were congregated into one body by Pope Alexander IV., under Lanfranc, in 1256. They clothe in black, and make one of the four orders of mendicants.

AUGUST'NESS, noun Dignity of mien; grandeur; magnificence.

AUK, noun [contracted from Alca.] The alca, a genus of aquatic fowls, of the order of ansers, including the northern penguin or great auk the little auk or black and white diver, the puffin, etc.

AULA'RIAN, noun [Latin aula, a hall.] At oxford, the member of a hall, distinguished from a collegian.

AULET'IC, adjective [Gr. from a pipe.]

Pertaining to pipes or to a pipe. [Little used.]

AU'LIC, adjective [Latin audicus, from aula, a hall, court or palace; Gr.]

Pertaining to a royal court. The epithet is probably confined to the German Empire, where it is used to designate certain courts or officers composing the courts. The aulic council is composed of a president, who is a catholic, a vice-chancellor and eighteen counsellors, nine of whom are protestants, and nine catholics. They always follow the Emperor's court, and decide without an appeal. This council ceases at the death of the Emperor.

The aulic in some European universities, is an act of a young divine, on being admitted a doctor of divinity. It begins by a harangue of the chancellor addressed to the young doctor, after which he receives the cap and presides at the aulic or disputation.

AUM, noun

A Dutch liquid measure, containing eight steckans or twenty verges or verteels, equal to the English tierce, the sixth of a French tun, and the seventh of an English tun, or thirty-six gallons.

AUMA'IL, verb transitive To figure or variegate. [Not used.]

AUMBRY. [See Ambry.]

AUME, noun A dutch measure for Rhenish wine, containing 40 gallons.

AUNE, noun [A contraction of aulne, ulna.]

A French cloth measure, but of different lengths in different parts of the country. At Rouen, it is an Eng. ell; at Calais, 1.52; at Lyons, 1.061; at Paris, 0.95.

'AUNT, noun [Latin amita, contracted.]

The sister of one's father or mother, correlative to nephew or niece.

AU'RA, noun [Latin from Heb. a stream; Gr. See Air.]

Literally, a breeze, or gentle current of air, but used by English writers for a stream of fine particles flowing from a body, as effluvia, aroma, or odor; an exhalation.

AU'RATE, noun [Supposed to be from aurum, gold.]

A sort of pear.

AU'RATE, noun [Latin aurum, gold; Heb. light fire, and to shine, from its color.]

A combination of the oxyd of gold with a base; as aurate of potash.

AU'RATED, adjective Resembling gold.

AURE'LIA, noun [from aurum, or aur, gold, from its color. See Chrysalis.]

In natural history, the nymph or chrysalis of an insect; or the form of an animal, like a worm or maggot, covered with a hardish pellicle, and in a state of seeming insensibility. From this state, it changes to a moth, butterfly or other winged insect.

AURE'LIAN, adjective Like or pertaining to the aurelia.

AU'RIC, adjective [from aurum, gold.] Pertaining to gold. The auric acid is a saturated combination of gold and oxygen.

AU'RICLE, noun [Latin auricula, dim. from auris, the ear.]

1. The external ear, or that part which is prominent from the heat.

2. The auricles of the heart are two muscular bags, situated at the base, serving as diverticula for the blood, during the diastole. They resemble the auricle of the ear, and cover the ventricles of the heart, like caps. Their systole of the heart, and vice versa. They receive the blood from the veins, and communicate it to the ventricles.

AURIC'ULA, noun That species of primrose, called, from the shape of its leaves, bear's ear.

AURIC'ULAR, adjective [from Latin auricula, the ear.]

1. Pertaining to the ear; within the sense of hearing; told in the ear; as auricular confession.

2. Recognized by the ear; known by the sense of hearing; as auricular evidence.

3. Traditional; known by report; as auricular traditions.

AURIC'ULARLY, adverb In a secret manner; by way of whisper, or voice addressed to the ear.

AURIC'ULATE, adjective Shaped like the ear.

AURIC'ULATED, adjective Having large or elongated ears; as the auriculated vulture.

AURIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin aurifer, from aurum, gold, and fero, to produce.]

That yields or produces gold; as auriferous sands or streams.

AURI'GA, noun [Latin of aurea, orea, a head-stall, a bridle, and rego, to govern or manage.]

Literally, the director of a car, or wagon.

1. In astronomy, the wagoner, a constellation in the northern hemisphere, consisting of 23 stars, according to Tycho; 40, according to Hevelius; and 68, in the British catalogue.

2. The fourth lobe of the liver; also a bandage for the sides.

AURIGA'TION, noun [Latin auriga.] The act or practice of driving horses harnessed to carriages.

AURIPIGMENTUM. [See Orpiment.]

AU'RISCALP, noun [Latin auris, ear, and scalpo, to scrape.]

An instrument to clean the ears; used also in operations of surgery on the ear.

AU'RIST, noun [Latin auris, ear.] One skilled in disorders of the ear, or who professes to cure them.

AU'ROCHS, noun A species of ox, whose bones are found in gravel and alluvial soil.

AURO'RA, noun [Latin aurora; Heb. light and to raise.]

1. The rising light of the morning; the dawn of day, or morning twilight.

2. The goddess of the morning, or twilight deified by fancy. The poets represented her as rising out of the ocean, in a chariot, with rosy fingers dropping gentle dew.

3. A species of crowfoot.

Aurora Borealis, or lumen boreale; northern twilight. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending towards the zenith from a dusky line a few degrees above the horizon. sometimes it assumes a wavy appearance, as in America, in March 1782, when it overspread the whole hemisphere. Sometimes it appears in detached places; at other times, it almost covers the hemisphere. As the streams of light have a tremulous motion, they are called, in the Shetland isles, merry dancers. They assume all shapes, and a variety of colors, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood color; and in the northern latitudes, serve to illuminate the earth and cheer the gloom of long winter nights. This light is sometimes near the earth. It is said to have been seen between the spectator and a distant mountain.

AURO'RAL, adjective Belonging to the aurora, or to the northern lights; resembling the twilight.

AUSCULTA'TION, noun [Latin from antiq. ause, Gr. the ear, and cultus, from colo, to use or exercise.]

1. The act of listening, or hearkening to.

2. In medicine, a method of distinguishing diseases, particularly in the thorax, by observing the sounds in the part, generally by means of a tube applied to the surface.

AU'SPICATE, verb transitive [Latin asupicor.]

1. To give a favorable turn to; a sense taken from the Roman practice of taking the auspicium, or inspection of birds, before they undertook any important business.

2. To foreshow.

3. To begin.

AU'SPICE, AU'SPICES, noun [Latin auspicium, of avis, a bird, and specio, to inspect.]

AU'SPICE, AU'SPICES, noun [Latin auspicium, of avis, a bird, and specio, to inspect.]

1. The omens of an undertaking, drawn from birds; the same as augury, which see.

2. Protection; favor shown; patronage; influence. In this sense the word is generally plural auspices

AUSPI'CIOUS, adjective [See auspice.]

1. Having omens of success, or favorable appearances; as an auspicious beginning.

2. Prosperous; fortunate; applied to persons; as auspicious chief.

3. Favorable; kind; propitious; applied to persons or things; as an auspicious mistress.

AUSPI'CIOUSLY, adverb With favorable omens; happily; prosperously; favorably; propitiously.

AUSPI'CIOUSNESS, noun A state of fair promise; prosperity.

AUS'TER, noun [Latin] The south wind.

AUSTE'RE, adjective [Latin Austerus.

1. Severe; harsh; rigid; stern; applied to persons; as an austere master; an austere look.

2. Sour; harsh; rough to the taste; applied to things; as austere fruit, or wine.

AUSTE'RELY, adverb Severely; rigidly; harshly.

AUSTE'RENESS, noun

1. Severity in manners; harshness; austerity.

2. Roughness in taste.

AUSTER'ITY, noun [Latin austeritas.] Severity of manners or life; rigor; strictness; harsh discipline. It is particularly applied to the mortifications of a monastic life, which are called austerities.

AUS'TRAL, adjective [Latin australis, from auster, the south wind, or south.]

Southern; lying or being in the south; as austral land; austral signs.

AUSTRALA'SIA, noun [austral and Asia.] A name given to the countries situated to the south of Asia; comprehending New Holland, New Guinea, New Zealand, etc.

AUS'TRIAN, adjective [from Austria. This word is formed with the Latin termination, ia, country.]

Pertaining to Austria, a circle or district of Germany, and an empire, lying on the Danube north of the gulf of Venice.

AUS'TRIAN, noun A native of Austria.

AUS'TRINE, adjective [Latin austrinus, from auster, south.]

South; southerly; southern.

AUS'TROMANCY, noun [from auster, the south wind, and Gr. divination.]

Soothsaying, or prediction of future events, from observations of the winds.

Auterfoits, a word composed of the French autre, another, and foits, fois, time, introduced into law language, under the Norman princes of England. It signifies, at another time, formerly; as auterfoits acquit, auterfoits attaint, auterfoits convict, formerly acquitted, attainted or convicted, which being specially pleaded, is a bar to a second prosecution for the same offense.

AUTHEN'TIC,

AUTHEN'TICAL, adjective [Low Latin authenticus, from the Gr. from an author or maker; one who does any thing by his own right; also one who kills himself. The first syllable is from Gr. which is probably from the root of author, auctor; and the sense of self-murderer seems to indicate that the other constituent of the word is from Gr. to kill, but the primary sense of which is, to strike, to drive or thrust with the hand, etc. In the word before us, the sense is to throw, or to set; hence authentic is set, fixed, made or made certain by the author, by one's own self.]

1. Having a genuine original or authority, in opposition to that which is false, fictitious, or counterfeit; being what it purports to be; genuine; true; applied to things; as an authentic paper or register.

2. Of approved authority; as an authentic writer.

AUTHEN'TICAL, a. [Low L. authenticus, from the Gr. from an author or maker; one who does any thing by his own right; also one who kills himself. The first syllable is from Gr. which is probably from the root of author, auctor; and the sense of self-murderer seems to indicate that the other constituent of the word is from Gr. to kill, but the primary sense of which is, to strike, to drive or thrust with the hand, &c. In the word before us, the sense is to throw, or to set; hence authentic is set, fixed, made or made certain by the author, by one's own self.]

AUTHEN'TICALLY, adverb In an authentic manner; with the requisite or genuine authority.

AUTHEN'TICALNESS, noun The quality of being authentic; genuineness; the quality of being of good authority; authenticity.

[The latter word is generally used.]

AUTHEN'TICATE, verb transitive To render authentic; to give authority to, by the proof, attestation, or formalities, required by law, or sufficient to entitle to credit.

The king serves only as a notary to authenticate the choice of judges.

AUTHEN'TICATED, participle passive Rendered authentic; having received the forms which prove genuineness.

AUTHEN'TICATING, participle present tense Giving authority by the necessary signature, seal, attestation or other forms.

AUTHENTICA'TION, noun The act of authenticating; the giving of authority by the necessary formalities.

AUTHENTIC'ITY, noun Genuineness; the quality of being of genuine original; as the authenticity of the scriptures.

AUTHEN'TICNESS, noun Authenticity. [Rarely used.]

AU'THOR, noun [Latin auctor. The Latin word is from the root of augeo, to increase, or cause to enlarge. The primary sense is one who brings or causes to come forth.]

1. One who produces, creates, or brings into being; as, God is the author of the Universe.

2. The beginner, former, or first mover of any thing; hence, the efficient cause of a thing. It is appropriately applied to one who composes or writes a book, or original work, and in a more general sense, to one whose occupation is to compose and write books; opposed to compiler or translator.

AU'THOR, verb transitive To occasion; to effect. [Not used.]

AU'THORESS, noun A female author.

AUTHOR'ITATIVE, adjective

1. Having due authority.

2. Having an air of authority; positive; peremptory.

AUTHOR'ITATIVELY, adverb In an authoritative manner; with a show of authority; with due authority.

AUTHOR'ITATIVENESS, noun The quality of being authoritative; an acting by authority; authoritative appearance.

AUTHOR'ITY, noun [Latin auctoritas.]

1. Legal power, or a right to command or to act; as the authority of a prince over subjects, and of parents over children. Power; rule; sway.

2. The power derived from opinion, respect or esteem; influence of character or office; credit; as the authority of age or example, which is submitted to or respected, in some measure, as a law, or rule of action. That which is claimed in justification or support of opinions and measures.

3. Testimony; witness; or the person who testifies; as, the Gospels or the evangelists are our authorities for the miracles of Christ.

4. Weight of testimony; credibility; as a historian of no authority

5. Weight of character; respectability; dignity; as a magistrate of great authority in the city.

6. Warrant; order; permission.

By what authority dost thou these things. Matthew 21:23. Acts 9:14.

7. Precedents, decisions of a court, official declarations, respectable opinions and says, also the books that contain them, are call authorities, as they influence the opinions of others; and in law, the decisions of supreme courts have a binding force upon inferior courts, and are called authorities.

8. Government; the persons or the body exercising power or command; as the local authorities of the states.

In Connecticut, the justices of the peace are denominated the civil authority

AUTHORIZA'TION, noun The act of giving authority, or legal power; establishment by authority.

AU'THORIZE, verb transitive

1. To give authority, warrant or legal power to; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle the boundary of the state.

2. To make legal; as, to authorize a marriage.

3. To establish by authority, as by usage, or public opinion; as an authorized idiom of language.

4. To give authority, credit or reputation to; as to authorize a report, or opinion.

5. To justify; to support as right. Suppress desires which reason does not authorize

AU'THORIZED, participle passive Warranted by right; supported by authority; derived from legal or proper authority; having power or authority.

AU'THORIZING, participle present tense Giving authority to, or legal power, credit, or permission.

AU'THORSHIP, noun [author and ship.] The quality or state of being an author.

AUTOBIOG'RAPHY, noun [Gr. biography.]

Biography or memoirs of one's life written by himself.

AUTOCHTHON, noun [Gr.] One who rises or grows out of the earth.

AUTOC'RASY, noun [Gr. self, and power, or to govern, to take or hold.]

Independent power; supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority or right of governing, in a single person.

AU'TOCRAT,

AU'TOCRATER,

AUTOCRAT'IC,

AUTOCRAT'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to autocracy; absolute; holding independent and unlimited powers of government.

AU'TOCRATER,

AUTOCRAT'IC,

AUTOCRAT'ICAL, a. Pertaining to autocracy; absolute; holding independent and unlimited powers of government.

AU'TOCRATOR, noun

1. An absolute prince or sovereign; a ruler or monarch who holds and exercises the powers of government by inherent right, not subject to restriction; a title assumed by the Emperors of Russia.

2. This title was sometimes conferred by the Athenians on their ambassadors and generals, when invested with unlimited powers.

AU'TOCRATRIX, noun A female sovereign, who is independent and absolute; a title given to the Empresses of Russia.

1. In the Romish church, a solemn day held by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of the innocent accused.

2. A sentence given by the Inquisition, and road to a criminal, or heretic, on the scaffold, just before he is executed.

3. The session of the court of inquisition.

AU'TOGRAPH,

AUTOGRAPH'IC,

AUTOGRAPH'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to an autograph or one's own hand writing.

AUTOGRAPH'IC,

AUTOGRAPH'ICAL, a. Pertaining to an autograph, or one's own hand writing.

AUTOG'RAPHY, noun [Gr. self, and writing.]

A person's own hand writing; an original manuscript.

AUTOM'ALITE, noun A mineral called by Hauy, spinelle zincifere. it is classed with the spinel ruby. it occurs imbedded in talcky slate; the color, a dark green. It is crystallized in regular octahedrons, or in tetrahedrons with truncated angles. It is harder than quartz, but not so hard as spinel. It is sometimes called gahnite, from Gahn, its discoverer.

AU'TOMATH, noun [Gr. to learn.] One who is self taught.

AUTOMAT'IC,

AUTOMAT'ICAL, adjective

1. Belonging to an automation; having the power of moving itself; mechanical.

2. Not voluntary; not depending on the will. Dr. Hartley has demonstrated that all our motions are originally automatic and generally produced by the action of tangible things on the muscular fiber.

AUTOMAT'ICAL, a.

AUTOM'ATION, noun [Gr. self. The Greek plural, automata, is sometimes used; but the regular English plural, automatons, is preferable.]

A self-moving machine, or one which moves by invisible springs.

AUTOM'ATOUS, adjective Having in itself the power of motion.

AUTON'OMOUS, adjective [Infra.] Independent in government; having the right of self government.

AUTON'OMY, noun [Gr. self, and law, rule.]

This word is rarely used. It signifies the power or right of self government, whether in a city which elects its own magistrates and makes its own laws, or in an individual who lives according to his own will.

AU'TOPSY, noun [Gr. self, and sight.]

Personal observation; ocular view.

AUTOP'TICAL, adjective Seen with one's own eyes.

AUTOP'TICALLY, adverb By means of ocular view, or one's own observation.

[Autopsy and its derivatives are rarely used.]

AU'TUMN, noun au'tum. [Latin autumnus, 'Etymon multum torquetur.']

The third season of the year, or the season between summer and winter. Astronomically, it begins at the equinox, when the sun enters libra, and ends at the winter solstice; but in popular language autumn comprises September, October and November.

The golden pomp of autumn

AUTUM'NAL, adjective Belonging to autumn; produced or gathered in autumn; as autumnal fruits.

AUTUM'NAL, noun A plant that flowers in Autumn. The autumnals form the third division of plants in Du Pas' arrangement.

AUXE'SIS, noun [Gr. increase.]

In rhetoric, a figure by which any thing is magnified too much; an increasing, or exornation, when, for amplification, a more grave and magnificent word is put for the proper word.

AUXIL'IAR,

AUXIL'IARIES, noun plural Foreign troops in the service of nations at war.

AUXIL'IARY, noun

1. A helper; an assistant; a confederate in some action, enterprise or undertaking.

2. In grammar, a verb which helps to form the modes and tenses of other verbs; as, have, be, may, can, do, must, shall and will, in English.

AUXIL'IARIES, n. plu. Foreign troops in the service of nations at war.

AUXIL'IARY, adjective [Latin auxiliaris, from auxilium, aid, uuxilior, to aid.]

Helping; aiding; assisting; subsidiary; conferring aid or support by joint exertion, influence or use; as auxiliary troops.