Has in English a long sound; as, drone, groan, stone, alone, cloke, broke, coal, droll; or short, got, knot, shot, prong, long. It is usually denoted long by a servile a subjoined; as moan, or by e at the end of the syllable; as, bone: when these vowels are not appended, it is generally short, except before ll; as, droll, scroll, and even then sometimes short; as, loll.
1. O is used as an interjection of wishing or exclamation.
O that we, who have resisted all the designs of his love, would now try to defeat that of his anger! DECAY OF PIETY.
O! were he present, that his eyes and hands
Might see, and urge, the death which he commands. DRYDEN.
2. O is used with no great elegance by Shakespeare for a circle or oval.
Can this cockpit hold
The vasty field of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O, the very casks
That did affright the air at Agincourt? SHAKESPEARE.
OAF. n.s. [This word is variously written; auff, ofe, and oph; it seems a corruption of ouph, a demon or fairy, in German alf, from which elf: and means properly the same with change-ling; a foolish child left by malevolent ouphs or fairies, in the place of one more witty, which they steal away.]
1. A changeling; a foolish child left by the fairies.
These, when a child haps to be got,
Which after proves an idiot,
When folk perceives it thriveth not,
The fault therein to smother:
Some silly doating brainless calf,
That understands things by the half,
Says that the fairy left this oaf,
And took away the other. DRAYTON’S NYMPHID.
2. A dolt; a blockhead; an idiot.
OATH. n.s. [aith, Gothick; ad?, Saxon. The distance between the noun oath, and the verb swear, is very observable, as it may shew that our oldest dialect is formed from different languages.] An affirmation, negation, or promise, corroborated by the attestation of the Divine Being.
Read over Julia’s heart, thy first best love,
For whose dear sake thou then did’st rend thy faith
Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury to love me. SHAKESPEARE.
He that strikes the first stroke, I’ll run him up to the hilts as I am a soldier.
—— An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. SHAKESPEARE.
We have consultations, which inventions shall be published, which not: and take an oath of secrecy for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep secret. BACON.
Those called to any office of trust, are bound by an oath to the faithful discharge of it: but an oath is an appeal to God, and therefore can have no influence, except upon those who believe that he is. SWIFT.
OATS. n.s. [aten, Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.
It is of the grass leaved tribe; the flowers have no petals, and are disposed in a loose panicle: the grain is eatable. The meal makes tolerable good bread. Miller.
The oats have eaten the horses. SHAKESPEARE.
It is bare mechanism, no otherwise produced than the turning of a wild oatbeard, by the insinuation of the particles of moisture. LOCKE.
For your lean cattle, fodder them with barley straw first, and the oat straw last. MORTIMER’S HUSBANDRY.
His horse’s allowance of oats and beans, was greater than the journey required. SWIFT.
OBERRA’TION. n.s. [from oberro, Latin.] The act of wandering about.
OBLI’GEE. n.s. [from oblige.] The person bound by a legal or written contract.
OBLI’GER. n.s. He who binds by contract.
OBMUTE’SCENCE. n.s. [from obmutesco, Latin.] Loss of speech.
A vehement fear often produceth obmutescence. BROWN.
OBNO’XIOUS. n.s. [obnoxius, Latin.]
1. Subject.
I propound a character of justice in a middle form, between the speculative discourses of philosophers, and the writings of lawyers, which are tied and obnoxious to their particular laws. BACON’S HOLY WAR.
2. Liable to punishment.
All are obnoxious, and this faulty land,
Like fainting Hester, does before you stand,
Watching your sceptre. WALLER.
We know ourselves obnoxious to God’s severe justice, and that he is a God of mercy and hateth sin; and therefore that we might not have the least suspicion of his unwillingness to forgive, he hath sent his only begotten son into the world, by his dismal sufferings and cursed death, to expiate our offences. CALAMY’S SERMONS.
Thy name, O Varus, if the kinder pow’rs
Preserve our plains, and shield the
Mantuan tow’rs,
Obnoxious by Cremona’s neighb’ring crime,
The wings of swans, and stronger pinion’d rhyme
Shall raise aloft. DRYDEN.
3.167 Liable; exposed.
Long hostility had made their friendship weak in itself, and more obnoxious to jealousies and distrusts. HAYWARD.
But what will not ambition and revenge
Descend to? who aspires, must down as low
As high he soar’d; obnoxious first or last,
To basest things. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST.
Beasts lie down,
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor. DRYDEN.
OBSE’SSION. n.s. [obsessio, Latin.]
1. The act of besieging.
2. The first attack of Satan, antecedent to possession.
OBSTETRICA’TION. n.s. [from obstetricor, Lat.] The office of a midwife.
OBSTIPA’TION. n.s. [from obstipo, Lat.] The act of stopping up any passage.
OBSTUPEFA’CTION. n.s. [obstupefacio, Latin.] The act of inducing stupidity, or interruption of the mental powers.
OBTENEBRA’TION. n.s. [ob and tenebræ, Latin.] Darkness; the state of being darkened; the act of darkening; cloudiness.
In every megrim or vertigo, there is an obtenebration joined with a semblance of turning round. BACON’S NATURAL HISTORY.
OBTURA’TION. n.s. [from obturatus, Lat.] The act of stopping up any thing with something smeared over it.
OBVE’NTION. n.s. [obvenio, Latin.] Something happening not constantly and regularly, but uncertainly; incidental advantage.
When the country grows more rich and better inhabited, the tythes and other obventions, will also be more augmented and better valued. SPENSER ON IRELAND.
OCCU’LT. adj. [occulte, Fr. occultus, Lat.] Secret; hidden; unknown; undiscoverable.
If his occult guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen. SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET.
An artist will play a lesson on an instrument without minding a stroke; and our tongues will run divisions in a tune not missing a note, even when our thoughts are totally engaged elsewhere: which effects are to be attributed to some secret act of the soul, which to us is utterly occult, and without the ken of our intellects. GLANVILLE’S SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, C. IV.
These instincts we call occult qualities; which is all one with saying that we do not understand how they work. L’ESTRANGE.
These are manifest qualities, and their causes only are occult. And the Aristotelians gave the name of occult qualities not to manifest qualities, but to such qualities only as they supposed to lie hid in bodies, and to be the unknown causes of manifest effects. NEWTON’S OPTICKS.
O’CULIST. n.s. [from oculus, Latin.] One who professes to cure distempers of the eyes.
If there be a speck in the eye, we take them off; but he were a strange oculist who would pull out the eye. BACON.
I am no oculist, and if I should go to help one eye and put out the other, we should have but an untoward business of it. L’ESTRANGE.
ODONTA’LGICK. adj. [’ίλνo and ’άλγoζ.] Pertaining to the tooth-ach.
O’DORATE. adj. [odoratus, Latin.] Scented; having a strong scent, whether fœtid or fragrant.
Smelling is with a communication of the breath, or vapour of the object odorate. BACON’S NATURAL HISTORY.
O’DOROUS. adj. [odorus, Lat.] Fragrant; perfumed; sweet of scent.
Such fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell,
But her sweet odour did them all excel. SPENSER.
Their private roofs on od’rous timber borne,
Such as might palaces for kings adorn. WALLER.
We smell, because parts of the odorous body touch the nerves of our nostrils. CHEYNE’S PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES.
OE. This combination of vowels does not properly belong to our language, nor is ever found but in words derived from the Greek, and not yet wholly conformed to our manner of writing: oe has in such words the sound of E.
OFF. adv. [af, Dutch.]
1. Of this adverb the chief use is to conjoin it with verbs: as, to come off; to fly off; to take off; which are found under the verbs.
2. It is generally opposed to on: as, to lay on; to take off. In this case it signifies, disunion; separation; breach of continuity.
Since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my cap than my heart, I will practice the insinuating nod, and be off to them most counterfitly. SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS.
Where are you, Sir John? come, off with your boots. SHAKESPEARE.
See
The lurking gold upon the fatal tree;
Then rend it off. DRYDEN, ÆNEID. VI.
A piece of silver coined for a shilling, that has half the silver clipped off, is no more a shilling than a piece of wood, which was once a sealed yard, is still a yard, when one half of it is broke off. LOCKE.
3. It signifies distance.
West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
In goodly form comes on the enemy. SHAKESPEARE.
About thirty paces off were placed harquebusiers. KNOLLES.
4. In painting or statuary it signifies projection or relief.
’Tis a good piece;
This comes off well and excellent. SHAKESPEARE.
5. It signifies evanescence; absence or departure.
Competitions intermit, and go off and on as it happens, upon this or that occasion. L’ESTRANGE.
6. It signifies any kind of disappointment; defeat; interruption; adverse division: as, the affair is off; the match is off.
7. In favour.168
The questions no way touch upon puritanism, either off or on. SANDERSON.
8. From; not toward.
Philoclea, whose delight of hearing and seeing was before a stay from interrupting her, gave herself to be seen unto her with such a lightening of beauty upon Zelmane, that neither she could look on, nor would look off. SIDNEY, B. II.
9. Off hand; not studied.
Several starts of fancy off hand look well enough. L’ESTRANGE.
OFFE’NDER. n.s. [from offend.]
1. A criminal; one who has committed a crime; a transgressor; a guilty person.
All that watch for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a word. BIBLE ISAIAH XXIX. 21.
So like a fly the poor offender dies;
But like the wasp, the rich escapes and flies. DENHAM.
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,
And love th’ offender, yet detest th’ offence? POPE.
The conscience of the offender shall be sharper than an avenger’s sword. CLARISSA.
2. One who has done an injury.
All vengeance comes too short,
Which can pursue th’ offender. SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR.
OFFE’NDRESS. n.s. [from offender.] A woman that offends.
Virginity murthers itself, and should be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. SHAKESPEARE’S ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
O’FFING. n.s. [from off.] The act of steering to a distance from the land.
To O’GLE. v.a. [oogh, an eye, Dutch.] To view with side glances, as in fondness; or with a design not to be heeded.
From their high scaffold with a trumpet cheek,
And ogling all their audience, then they speak. DRYDEN.
If the female tongue will be in motion, why should it not be set to go right? Could they talk of the different aspects and conjunctions of the planets, they need not be at the pains to comment upon oglings and clandestine marriages. ADDISON’S GUARDIAN, NO. 155.
Whom is he ogling yonder? himself in his looking-glass. MARTINUS SCRIBLERIUS.
O’GLIO. n.s. [from olla, Spanish.] A dish made by mingling different kinds of meat; a medley; a hotchpotch.
These general motives of the common good,
I will not so much as once offer up to your lordship, though they have still the upper end; yet, like great oglio’s, they rather make a shew than provoke appetite. SUCKLING.
Where is there such an oglio or medley of various opinions in the world again, as those men entertain in their service, without any scruple as to the diversity of their sects and opinions? KING CHARLES.
He that keeps an open house, should consider that there are oglio’s of guests, as well as of dishes, and that the liberty of a common table is as good as a tacit invitation to all sorts of intruders. L’ESTRANGE.
OH. interject. An exclamation denoting pain, sorrow, or surprise.
He,
Like a full acorn’d boar, a churning on,
Cry’d, oh! and mounted. SHAKESPEARE’S CYMBELINE.
Oh me! all the horse have got offer the river, what shall we do? WALTON’S ANGLER.
My eyes confess it,
My every action speaks my heart aloud;
But oh, the madness of my high attempt Speaks louder yet! DRYDEN’S SPANISH FRIAR.
OI’LMAN. n.s. [oil and man.] One who trades in oils and pickles.
OI’LSHOP. n.s. [oil and shop.] A shop where oils and pickles are sold.
O’LDEN. adj. [from old; perhaps the Saxon plural.] Ancient. This word is not now in use.
Blood hath been shed ere now, i’th’ olden time,
Ere human statute purg’d the gen’ral weal. SHAKESPEARE.
O’LIO. n.s. [olla, Span.] A mixture; a medly. See OGLIO.
Ben Johnson, in his Sejanus and Catiline, has given us this olio of a play, this unnatural mixture of comedy and tragedy. DRYDEN ON DRAMATIC POETRY.
I am in a very chaos to think I should so forget myself.
But I have such an olio of affairs, I know not what to do. CONGREVE’S WAY OF THE WORLD.
O’LITORY. n.s. [olitor, Latin.] Belonging to the kitchen garden.
Gather your olitory seeds. EVELYN’S KALENDAR.
O’MELET. n.s. [omelette, Fr.] A kind of pancake made with eggs.
OMNIFA’RIOUS. adj. [omnifariam, Lat.] Of all varieties or kinds.
These particles could never of themselves, by omnifarious kinds of motion, whether fortuitous or mechanical, have fallen into this visible system. BENTLEY’S SERMONS.
But if thou omnifarious drinks wou’dst brew;
Besides the orchard, ev’ry hedge and bush
Affords assistance. PHILIPS.
O’NSET. n.s. [on and set.]
1. Attack; storm; assault; first brunt.
As well the soldier dieth, which standeth still, as he that gives the bravest onset. SIDNEY, B. II.
All breathless, weary, faint,
Him spying, with fresh onset he assail’d,
And kindling new his courage, seeming queint,
Struck him so hugely, that through great constraint
He made him stoop. FAIRY QUEEN, B. II.
The shout
Of battle now began, and rushing sound
Of onset. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, B. VI.
Sometimes it gains a point; and presently it finds itself baffled and beaten off; yet still it renews the onset, attacks the difficulty afresh; plants this reasoning and that argument, like so many intellectual batteries, till at length it forces a way into the obstinate enclosed truth. SOUTH.
Without men and provisions it is impossible to secure conquests that are made in the first onsets of an invasion. ADDISON.
Observe
The first impetuous onsets of his grief;
Use every artifice to keep him stedfast. PHILIPS.
2. Something added by way of ornamental appendage. This sense, says Nicholson, is still retained in Northumberland, where onset means a tuft.
I will with deeds requite thy gentleness;
And for an onset, Titus, to advance
Thy name and honourable family,
Lavinia will I make my empress. SHAKESPEARE’S TITUS ANDRONICUS.
ONTO’LOGY. n.s. [’óτα and λóγoζ.] The science of the affections of being in general; metaphysicks.
The modes, accidents and relations that belong to various beings, are copiously treated of in metaphysicks, or more properly ontology. WATTS’S LOGICK.
OPENEY’ED. adj. [open and eye.] Vigilant; watchful.
While you here do snoring lie,
Openeyed conspiracy His time doth take. SHAKESPEARE’S TEMPEST.
OPERA’TOR. n.s. [operateur, Fr. from operate.] One that performs any act of the hand; one who produces any effect.
An imaginary operator opening the first with a great deal of nicety, upon a cursory view appeared like the head of another. ADDISON’S SPECTATOR, NO. 275.
To administer this dose, there cannot be fewer than fifty thousand operators, allowing one operator to every thirty. SWIFT.
O’PIATE. n.s. A medicine that causes sleep.
They chose atheism as an opiate, to still those frightning apprehensions of hell, by inducing a dulness and lethargy of mind, rather than to make use of that native and salutary medicine, a hearty repentance. BENTLEY’S SERMONS.
OPINA’TOR. n.s. [opinor, Lat.] One who holds an opinion.
Consider against what kind of opinators the reason above given is levelled. HALE’S ORIGIN OF MANKIND.
OPINIA’TRETY, OPINIATRY. n.s. [opiniatreté, French.] Obstinacy; inflexibility; determination of mind; stubbornness. This word, though it has been tried in different forms, is not yet received, nor is it wanted.
Lest popular opiniatry should arise, we will deliver the chief opinions. BROWN’S VULGAR ERROURS, B. VII.
The one sets the thoughts upon wit and false colours, and not upon truth; the other teaches fallacy, wrangling and opiniatry. LOCKE’S EDUCATION.
So much as we ourselves consider and comprehend of truth and reason, so much we possess of real and true knowledge. The floating of other men’s opinions in our brains, make us not one jot the more knowing, though they happen to be true: what in them was science, is in us but opiniatrety. LOCKE.
I can pass by opiniatry and the busy meddling of those who thrust themselves into every thing. WOODWARD’S LETTERS.
I was extremely concerned at his opiniatrety in leaving me; but he shall not get rid so. POPE.
OPI’NIONATIVE. adj. [from opinion.] Fond of preconceived notions; stubborn.
Striking at the root of pedantry and opinionative assurance, would be no hindrance to the world’s improvement. GLANVILLE.
One would rather chuse a reader without art, than one ill instructed with learning, but opinionative and without judgment. BURNET’S THEORY OF THE EARTH.
OPI’NIONIST. n.s. [opinioniste, Fr. from opinion.] One fond of his own notions.
Every conceited opinionist sets up an infallible chair in his own brain. GLANVILLE TO ALBIUS.
O’PTICK. adj. [’oπττϰή; optique, Fr.]
1. Visual; producing vision; subservient to vision.
May not the harmony and discord of colours arise from the proportions of the vibrations propagated through the fibres of the optic nerves into the brain, as the harmony and discord of sounds arise from the proportions of the vibrations of the air? NEWTON’S OPTICKS.
2. Relating to the science of vision.
Where our master handleth the contractions of pillars, we have an optic rule, that the higher they are the less should be always their diminution aloft, because the eye itself doth naturally contract all objects, according to the distance. WOTTON’S ARCHITECTURE.
O’PTICK. n.s. An instrument of sight; an organ of sight.
Can any thing escape the perspicacity of those eyes which were before light, and in whose opticks there is no opacity. BROWN.
Our corporeal eyes we find
Dazzle the opticks of our mind. DENHAM.
You may neglect, or quench, or hate the flame,
Whose smoke too long obscur’d your rising name,
And quickly cold indiff’rence will ensue,
When you love’s joys thro’ honour’s optick view. PRIOR.
Why has not man a microscopick eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.
Say what the use, were finer opticks giv’n,
T’inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav’n. POPE.
OPTI’MITY. n.s. [from optimus.] The state of being best.
O’RANGEWIFE. n.s. [orange and wife.] A woman who sells oranges.
You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orangewife and a fosset seller. SHAKESPEARE.
O’RATOUR. n.s. [orateur, Fr. orator, Lat.]
1. A publick speaker; a man of eloquence.
Poor queen and son! your labour is but lost;
For Warwick is a subtle orator. SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY VI.
As when of old some orator renown’d,
In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence
Flourish’d, since mute! to some great cause address’d,
Stood in himself collected; while each part,
Motion, each act, won audience. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST.
The constant design of both these orators in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point. SWIFT.
I have listened to an orator of this species, without being able to understand one single sentence. SWIFT.
Both orators so much renown’d,
In their own depths of eloquence were drown’d. DRYDEN.
2. A petitioner. This sense is used in addresses to chancery.
ORBITY. n.s. [orbus, Latin.] Loss, or want of parents or children.
O’RCHESTRE. n.s. [French. ’oϱήστϱα.] The place where the musicians are set at a publick show.
O’RDEAL. n.s. [ordal, Sax. ordalium, low Lat. ordalie, Fr.] A trial by fire or water, by which the person accused appealed to heaven, by walking blindfold over hot bars of iron; or being thrown, I suppose, into the water; whence the vulgar trial of witches.
Their ordeal laws they used in doubtful cases, when clear proofs wanted. HAKEWILL ON PROVIDENCE.
In the time of king John, the purgation per ignem et aquam, or the trial by ordeal continued; but it ended with this king. HALE.
O’RDINARY. n.s.
1. Established judge of ecclesiastical causes.
The evil will
Of all their parishioners they had constrain’d,
Who to the ordinary of them complain’d. HUBBERD.
If fault be in these things any where justly found, law hath refered the whole disposition and redress thereof to the ordinary of the place. HOOKER, B. V. S. 12.
2. Settled establishment.
Spain had no other wars save those which were grown into an ordinary; now they have coupled therewith the extraordinary of the Valtoline and Palatinate. BACON.
3. Actual and constant office.
Villiers had an intimation of the king’s pleasure to be his cup-bearer at large; and the summer following he was admitted in ordinary. WOTTON.
4. Regular price of a meal.
Our courteous Antony, Being barber’d ten times o’er, goes to the feast;
And for his ordinary pays his heart For what his eyes eat only. SHAKESPEARE’S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
5. A place of eating established at a certain price.
They reckon all their errors for accomplishments; and all the odd words they have picked up in a coffee-house, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of style. SWIFT.
ORGANIZA’TION. n.s. [from organize.] Construction in which the parts are so disposed as to be subservient to each other.
Every man’s senses differ as much from others in their figure, colour, site, and infinite other peculiarities in the organization, as any one man’s can from itself, through divers accidental variations. GLANVILLE’S SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, C. XXVI.
That being then one plant, which has such an organization of parts in one coherent body, partaking of one common life, it continues to be the same plant, though that life be communicated to new particles of matter, in a like continued organization. LOCKE.
ORGA’SM. n.s. [orgasme, Fr. ’óϱγασμoζ.] Sudden vehemence.
By means of the curious lodgment and inosculation of the auditory nerves, the orgasms of the spirits should be allayed, and perturbations of the mind quieted. DERHAM’S PHYSICO-THEOLOGY.
ORNI’SCOPIST. n.s. [’óνϱζ and ’έσϰoπα.] One who examines the flight of birds in order to foretel futurity.
ORNI’THOLOGY. n.s. [’óϱνζ and λoγoζ.] A discourse on birds.
O’RRERY. n.s. An instrument which by many complicated movements represents the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. It was first made by Mr. Rowley, a mathematician born at Litchfield, and so named from his patron the earl of Orrery: by one or other of this family almost every art has been encouraged or improved.
ORTS. n.s. seldom with a singular. [This word is derived by Skinner from ort, German, the fourth part of any thing; by Mr. Lye more reasonably from orda, Irish, a fragment. In Anglo Saxon, ord signifies the beginning; whence in some provinces odds and ends; for ords and ends signify remnants, scattered pieces, refuse; from ord thus used probably came ort.] Refuse; things left or thrown away.
He must be taught, and train’d, and bid go forth;
A barren-spirited fellow, one that feeds
On abject orts and imitations. SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CÆSAR.
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy reliques
Of her o’er eaten faith, are bound to
Diomede. SHAKESPEARE.
Much good do’t you then;
Brave plush and velvet men,
Can feed on orts and safe in your stage-cloths,
Dare quit, upon your oaths,
The stagers, and the stage-wrights too. BEN JONSON.
ORTHO’GRAPHY. n.s. [’óθoζ and γϱάφω orthographie, Fr.]
1. The part of grammar which teaches how words should be spelled.
This would render languages much more easy to be learned, as to reading and pronouncing, and especially as to the writing them, which now as they stand we find to be troublesome, and it is no small part of grammar which treats of orthography and right pronunciation. HOLDER.
2. The art or practice of spelling.
In London they clip their words after one manner about the court, another in the city, and a third in the suburbs; all which reduced to writing, would entirely confound orthography. SWIFT.
3. The elevation of a building delineated.
You have the orthography or upright of this ground-plat, and the explanation thereof with a scale of feet and inches. MOXON’S MECHANICAL EXERCISES.
O’RTOLAN. n.s. [French.] A small bird accounted very delicious.
Nor ortolans nor godwits. COWLEY.
OSCI’TANCY. n.s. [oscitantia, Lat.]
1. The act of yawning.
2. Unusual sleepiness; carelessness.
If persons of so circumspect a piety, have been thus overtaken, what security can there be for our wreckless oscitancy? GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.
It might proceed from the oscitancy of transcribers, who, to dispatch their work the sooner, used to write all numbers in cyphers. ADDISON’S SPECTATOR, NO. 470.
OTACOU’STICK. n.s. [ώτα and ’ϰoώω otacoustique, Fr.] An instrument to facilitate hearing.
In a hare, which is very quick of hearing, it is supplied with a bony tube; which, as a natural otacoustick, is so directed backward, as to receive the smallest and most distant sound that comes behind her. GREW’S COSMOLOGIA SACRA, B. I.
O’THERGATES. adv. [other and gate, for way.] In another manner.
If sir Toby had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did. SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT.
O’THERGUISE. adj. [other and guise. This is often mistaken, and sometimes written otherguess.] Of another kind.
O’THERWHERE. adv. [other and where.] In other places.
As Jews they had access to the temple and synagogues, but as Christians they were of necessity forced otherwhere to assemble themselves. HOOKER, B. V. S. 11.
His godlike acts, and his temptations fierce,
And former sufferings, otherwhere are found. MILTON.
O’THERWHILE. adv. [other and while.] At other times.
O’THERWISE. adv. [other and wise.] 1. In an indifferent manner.
They only plead, that whatsoever God revealeth, as necessary for all Christian men to do and believe, the same we ought to embrace, whether we have received it by writing or otherwise, which no man denieth. HOOKER, B. I.
The whole church hath not tied the parts unto one and the same thing, they being therein left each to their own choice, may either do as others do, or else otherwise, without any breach of duty at all. HOOKER, B. IV. S. 13.
In these good things, what all others should practise, we should scarce know to practise otherwise. SPRAT.
Thy father was a worthy prince,
And merited, alas! a better fate;
But heaven thought otherwise. ADDISON’S CATO.
2. By other causes.
Sir John Norris failed in the attempts of
Lisborn, and returned with the loss, by sickness and otherwise, of eight thousand men. RALEIGH.
3. In other respects.
It is said truly, that the best men otherwise, are not always the best in regard of society. HOOKER, B. I.
Men seldom consider God any otherwise than in relation to themselves, and therefore want some extraordinary benefits to excite their attention and engage their love. ROGER.
To O’VER-ACT. v.a. [over and act.] To act more than enough.
You over-act, when you should underdo:
A little call yourself again, and think. BEN JONSON.
Princes courts may over-act their reverence, and make themselves laughed at for their foolishness and extravagant relative worship. STILLINGFLEET.
Good men often blemish the reputation of their piety, by over-acting some things in religion; by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein religion is not concerned. TILLOTSON.
To O’VER-BALANCE. v.a. To weigh down; to preponderate.
Not doubting but by the weight of reason I should counterpoise the over-balancings of any factions. KING CHARLES.
The hundred thousand pounds per annum, wherein we over-balance them in trade, must be paid us in money. LOCKE.
When these important considerations are set before a rational being, acknowledging the truth of every article, should a bare single possibility be of weight enough to over-balance them. ROGERS, SERMON XII.
To O’VER-BUY. v.a. [over and buy.] To buy too dear.
He, when want requires, is only wise,
Who slights not foreign aids, nor over-buys;
But on our native strength, in time of need, relies. DRYDEN.
To O’VER-DRIVE. v.a. [over and drive.] To drive too hard, or beyond strength.
The flocks and herds with young, if men should over-drive one day, all will die. BIBLE GENESIS, XXXIII. 13.
To OVER-EMPTY. v.a. [over and empty.] To make too empty.
The women would be loth to come behind the fashion in new-fangledness of the manner, if not in costliness of the matter, which might over-empty their husbands purses. CAREW.
O’VER-FORWARDNESS. n.s. [over and forwardness.] Too great quickness; too great readiness.
By an over-forwardness in courts to give countenance to frivolous exceptions, though they make nothing to the true merit of the cause, it often happens that causes are not determined according to their merits. HALE.
O’VER-GREAT. adj. [over and great.] Too great.
Though putting the mind unprepared upon an unusual stress ought to be avoided; yet this must not run it, by an over-great shyness of difficulties, into a lazy sauntring about obvious things. LOCKE.
O’VER-HEAD. adv. [over and head.] Aloft; in the zenith; above; in the cieling.169
Over-head the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, B. I.
The four stars over-head, represent the four children. ADDISON.
To OVERLA’BOUR. v.a. [over and labour.] To take too much pains on any thing; to harrass with toil.
She without noise will over-see
His children and his family;
And order all things till he come,
Sweaty and over-labour’d home. DRYDEN.
OVERLA’SHINGLY. n.s. [over and lash.] With exaggeration. A mean word, now obsolete.
Although I be far from their opinion who write too overlashingly, that the Arabian tongue is in use in two third parts of the inhabited world, yet I find that it extendeth where the religion of Mahomet is professed. BREREWOOD.
OVERMU’CH. adj. [over and much.] Too much; more than enough.
It was the custom of those former ages, in their over-much gratitude, to advance the first authors of any useful discovery among the number of their gods. WILKINS.
An over-much use of salt, besides that it occasions thirst and over-much drinking, has other ill effects. LOCKE.
OVERMU’CH. adv. In too great a degree.
The fault which we find in them is, that they over-much abridge the church of her power in these things. Whereupon they re-charge us, as if in these things we gave the church a liberty which hath no limits or bounds. HOOKER.
Perhaps
I also erred, in over-much admiring
What seem’d in thee so perfect, that I thought
No evil durst attempt thee. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, B. IX.
Deject not then so over-much thyself,
Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides. MILTON.
OVERMU’CH. n.s. More than enough.
By attributing over-much to things
Less excellent, as thou thyself perceiv’st. MILTON.
With respect to the blessings the world enjoys, even good men may ascribe over-much to themselves. GREW.
OVERMU’CHNESS. n.s. [from over-much.] Exuberance; super-abundance.
There are words that do as much raise a stile, as others can depress it; superlation and over-muchness amplifies. It may be above faith, but not above a mean. BEN JONSON.
OVERNI’GHT. n.s. [over and night. This seems to be used by Shakespeare as a noun, but by Addison more properly, as I have before placed it, as a noun with a preposition.] Night before bed-time.
If I had given you this at over-night,
She might have been o’erta’en. SHAKESPEARE.
Will confesses, that for half his life his head ached every morning with reading men over-night. ADDISON.
To OVERNA’ME. v.a. [over and name.] To name in a series.
Over-name them; and as thou namest them I will describe them. SHAKESPEARE’S MERCHANT OF VENICE.
To OVERSE’E. v.a. [over and see.]
1. To superintend; to overlook.
He had charge my discipline to frame,
And tutors nouriture to oversee. FAIRY QUEEN.
She without noise will oversee
His children and his family. DRYDEN.
2. To overlook; to pass by unheeded; to omit.
I who resolve to oversee
No lucky opportunity,
Will go to council to advise
Which way t’ encounter, or surprise. HUDIBRAS, P. III.
OVERSE’EN. part. [from oversee.] Mistaken; deceived.
A common received error is never utterly overthrown, till such times as we go from signs unto causes, and shew some manifest root or fountain thereof common unto all, whereby it may clearly appear how it hath come to pass that so many have been overseen. HOOKER, B. I. S. 8.
They rather observed what he had done, and suffered for the king and for his country, without farther enquiring what he had omitted to do, or been overseen in doing. CLARENDON.
OVERSE’ER. n.s. [from oversee.]
1. One who overlooks; a superintendent.
There are in the world certain voluntary overseers of all books, whose censure, in this respect, would fall sharp on us. HOOKER, B. V. S. 31.
Jehiel and Azariah were overseers under
Cononiah. BIBLE 2 CHRONICLES, XXXI. 13.
To entertain a guest, with what a care
Wou’d he his houshold ornaments prepare;
Harrass his servants, and as o’erseer stand,
To keep them working with a threat’ning wand.
Clean all my plate, he cries. DRYDEN.
2. An officer who has the care of the parochial provision for the poor.
The church-wardens and overseers of the poor might find it possible to discharge their duties, whereas now in the greater out-parishes many of the poorer parishioners, through neglect, do perish for want of some heedful eye to overlook them. GRAUNT’S BILLS OF MORTALITY.
OVERSO’ON. adv. [over and soon.] Too soon.
The lad may prove well enough, if he over-soon think not too well of himself, and will bear away that he heareth of his elders. SIDNEY, B. II.
OVERTHWA’RT. adj. [over and thwart.]
1. Opposite; being over against.
We whisper, for fear our overthwart neighbours
Should hear us, and betray us to the government. DRYDEN.
2. Crossing any thing perpendicularly.
3. Perverse; adverse; contradictious.
Two or three acts disposed them to cross and oppose any proposition; and that overthwart humour was discovered to rule in the breasts of many. CLARENDON.
O’VERTURE. n.s. [ouverture, French.]
1. Opening; disclosure; discovery.
I wish
You had only in your silent judgment try’d it,
Without more overture. SHAKESPEARE’S WINTER’S TALE.
2. Proposal; something offered to consideration.
Mac Murugh moved Henry to invade Ireland, and made an overture unto him for obtaining of the sovereign lordship thereof. DAVIES ON IRELAND.
All these fair overtures, made by men well esteemed for honest dealing, could not take place. HAYWARD.
We with open breast
Stand ready to receive them, if they like
Our overture, and turn not back perverse. MILTON.
The earl of Pembroke, who abhorred the war, promoted all overtures towards accommodation with great importunity. CLARENDON.
If a convenient supply offers itself to be seised by force or gained by fraud, human nature persuades us to hearken to the inviting overture. ROGERS, SERMON 2.
Suppose five hundred men proposing, debating, and voting, according to their own little or much reason, abundance of indigested and abortive, many pernicious and foolish overtures would arise. SWIFT.
OVERYEA’RED. adj. [over and year.] Too old.
Among them dwelt
A maid, whose fruit was ripe, not overyeared. FAIRFAX.
OUGHT. verb imperfect. [This word the etymologists make the preterite of owe, but it has often a present signification.]
1. [Preterite of owe.] Owed; was bound to pay; have been indebted.
Apprehending the occasion, I will add a continuance to that happy motion, and besides give you some tribute of the love and duty I long have ought you. SPELMAN.
This blood which men by treason sought,
That followed, sir, which to myself I ought. DRYDEN.
2. To be obliged by duty.
Judges ought to remember, that their office is to interpret law, and not to make or give law. BACON.
Morals criticks ought to show. POPE.
She acts just as she ought,
But never, never reach’d one generous thought. POPE.
3. To be fit; to be necessary.
If grammar ought to be taught, it must be to one that can speak the language already. LOCKE.
OUT, in composition, generally signifies something beyond or more than another.
Out -fawn as much, and out -comply,
And seem as scrupulously just,
To bait the hooks for greater trust. HUDIBRAS, P. II. CANT. 3.
To OUTBA’LANCE. v.a. [out and balance.] To over-weigh; to preponderate.
Let dull Ajax bear away my right,
When all his days outbalance this one night. DRYDEN.
OU’TERLY. adv. [from outer.] Towards the outside.
In the lower jaw, two tusks like those of a boar, standing outerly, an inch behind the cutters. GREW’S MUSÆUM.
To OUTFA’WN. v.a. [out and fawn.] To excel in fawning.
In affairs of less import,
That neither do us good nor hurt,
And they receive as little by,
Outfawn as much and out-comply. HUDIBRAS.
To OUTKNA’VE. v.a. [out and knave.] To surpass in knavery.
The world calls it out-witting a man, when he’s only outknaved. L’ESTRANGE.
OUTLA’NDISH. adj. [out and land.] Not native; foreign.
Yourself transplant
A while from hence: perchance outlandish ground
Bears no more wit than ours; but yet more scant
Are those diversions there which here abound. DONNE.
Tedious waste of time to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish flatteries. MILTON’S PARADISE REGAIN’D, B. IV.
Upon the approach of the king’s troops under General Wills, who was used to the outlandish way of making war, we put in practice passive obedience. ADDISON.
OU’TMOST. adj. [out and most.] Remotest from the middle.
Chaos retir’d,
As from her outmost works a broken foe. MILTON.
If any man suppose that it is not reflected by the air, but by the outmost superficial parts of the glass, there is still the same difficulty. NEWTON’S OPTICKS.
The generality of men are readier to fetch a reason from the immense distance of the starry heavens, and the outmost walls of the world. BENTLEY’S SERMONS.
OUTPA’RISH. n.s. [out and parish.] Parish not lying within the walls.
In the greater outparishes many of the poorer parishioners, through neglect, do perish for want of some heedful eye to overlook them. GRAUNT’S MORTALITY.
OUTRA’GIOUS. adj. [outrageux, French. It should, I think, be written outrageous; but the custom seems otherwise.]
1. Violent; furious; raging; exorbitant; tumultuous; turbulent.
Under him they committed divers the most outragious villanies, that a base multitude can imagine. SIDNEY.
As she went her tongue did walk,
In foul reproach and terms of vile despight,
Provoking him by her outragious talk,
To heap more vengeance on that wretched wight. FAIRY QUEEN.
They view’d the vast immeasurable abyss,
Outragious as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. MILTON.
When he knew his rival freed and gone,
He swells with wrath; he makes outragious moan:
He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground;
The hollow tow’r with clamours rings around. DRYDEN.
2. Excessive; passing reason or decency.
My characters of Antony and Cleopatra, though they are favourable to them, have nothing of outragious panegyrick. DRYDEN’S DUFRESNOY.
3. Enormous; atrocious.
Think not, although in writing I prefer’d
The manner of thy vile outragious crimes,
That therefore I have forg’d. SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY VI.
To OUTSI’T. v.a. [out and sit.] To sit beyond the time of any thing.
He that prolongs his meals and sacrifices his time, as well as his other conveniences, to his luxury, how quickly does he outsit his pleasure? SOUTH.
To OUTSTA’ND. v.a. [out and stand.]
1. To support; to resist.
Each could demolish the other’s work with ease enough, but not a man of them tolerably defend his own; which was sure never to outstand the first attack that was made. WOODWARD.
2. To stand beyond the proper time.
I have outstood my time, which is material
To th’ tender of our present. SHAKESPEARE’S CYMBELINE.
To OUTSTA’ND. v.n. To protuberate from the main body.
OUTSTREE’T. n.s. [out and street.] Street in the extremities of a town.
To OUTVI’E. v.a. [out and vie.] To exceed; to surpass.
For folded flocks, on fruitful plains,
Fair Britain all the world outvies. DRYDEN.
The farmers used to make gratias to the English merchants, endeavouring sometimes to out-vie one another in such indulgencies. ADDISON.
One of these petty sovereigns will be still endeavouring to equal the pomp of greater princes, as well as to out-vie those of his own rank. ADDISON.
OUTWA’LL. n.s. [out and wall.]
1. Outward part of a building.
2. Superficial appearance.
For confirmation that I am much more
Than my out-wall, open this purse and take
What it contains. SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR.
OYE’S. n.s. [oyez, hear ye, French.] Is the introduction to any proclamation or advertisement given by the publick criers both in England and Scotland. It is thrice repeated.
Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
Attend your office and your quality.
Crier hobgoblin make the fairy O yes. SHAKESPEARE.
O yes! if any happy eye
This roving wanton shall descry;
Let the finder surely know
Mine is the wag. CRASHAW.