s cited by Burton in the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ so far back as 1621.

ABRASE, TO. To dubb or smooth planks.

ABRASION. The rubbing off or wearing away of the parts of a rock, or of
the soil, by the impinging and friction of other bodies.

ABREAST. Side by side, parallel, or opposite to; generally used in
opposition to _abaft_ or _afore_.--_Line abreast_ means a fleet
advancing or retreating uniformly on a line parallel with the
beam.--_Abreast of a place_, is directly off it; a direction at right
angles with the keel or ship's length. In the army the term was formerly
used for any number of men in front; but at present they are determined
by files.--_Abreast._ Within-board, signifies on a parallel with the
beam.

ABRID. A pintle-plate.

ABROACH. On tap, in use; spoken of barrels of beer or other liquors.

ABROAD. Synonymous with foreign, or being on a foreign station. Also an
old word for _spread_; as, all sail _abroad_.

ABRUPT. A word applied to steep, broken, or craggy cliffs and headlands,
especially such as are bold-to and precipitous.

ABSCISS. A part either of the diameter or the transverse axis of a conic
section, intercepted between the vertex or any other fixed point and a
semi-ordinate.--_Abscission of a planet_, its being outstripped by
another, which joins a third one before it.

ABSENCE. A permission occasionally obtained, on urgent affairs, by
officers to quit their duties.

ABSOLUTE. Anything free from conditions.--_Absolute equations_, the sum
of the optic and eccentric equation, or the anomalies arising from a
planet's not being equally distant from the earth at all times, and its
motion not being uniform.--_Absolute gravity_ is the whole force with
which a body tends downwards.

ABSORPTION. A term formerly used for the sinking of islands and tracts
of land, instead of _subsidence_.

ABSQUATULATE. _See_ SQUATTER.

ABSTRACT. A brief register of the warrant officer's stores, by which
the supplies, expenses, and remains are duly balanced. An _abstract log_
contains the most important subjects of a ship's log.

ABSTRACT MATHEMATICS, OR PURE. The branch which investigates and
demonstrates the properties of magnitude, figure, or quantity,
absolutely and generally considered, without restriction to any species
in particular; such as arithmetic and geometry.

A-BURTON. The situation of casks when they are stowed in the hold
athwart ship, or in a line with the beam.

ABUT. When two timbers