American Dictionary of the English Language

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Websters Dictionary 1828


This online edition has been carefully prepared in a special format. All words, definitions, and examples have been preserved, but the explanations of word origins have been left out to make the data easier to use in a digital format. We have also removed Webster's long technical introduction for the same reason.

Scripture references have been converted to a modern format, and many abbreviations have been expanded to make them easier to understand.

Word of the Day

Castor

CASTOR, noun

1. A beaver, an amphibious quadruped, with a flat ovate tail, short ears, a blunt nose, small fore feet, and large hind feet.

2. A reddish brown substance of a strong penetrating smell, taken from bags or cods in the groin of the beaver; a powerful antispasmodic.

3. In astronomy, a moiety of the constellation Gemini, called also Apollo.

CASTOR and Pollux, in meterology, a fiery meteor, which, at sea, appears sometimes adhering to a part of a ship, in the form of one, two and even three or four balls. When one is seen alone, it is called Helena, which portends that the severest part of the storm is yet to come. Two appearing at once are denominated castor and Pollux, or Tyndaridoe, and portend a cessation of the storm.

First Occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Acts 28:11