In Henry V. IV. Chorus 12, it occurs in its literal sense :
The armourers accomplishing the knights;

that is, giving the finishing touch to their equipment.

Accordingly, adv. (Litany). In an appropriate and becoming manner, correspondingly. "That they may set forth and shew it accordingly,' that is, in a manner corresponding to its importance.

Then came in an other bende of horse men, freshly and well appareled in clothe of gold, in siluer, in Goldsmithes worke, and brouderie, to the nombre of three score, with trappers accordingly to their garmentes. Hall, Hen. VIII. fol. 5a.

Compare Shakespeare, All's Well, II. 5. 9:

I do assure you, my lord, he is very great in knowledge, and accordingly valiant;

that is, as valiant as he is learned.

According to (Ezek. xlii. 12), corresponding to. Richard-
son quotes from Chaucer, The Floure and the Leafe, 112:
That gaue so passing a delicious smell
According to the eglantere full well.

Accurse, v. t. To curse. This word, of which the participle 'accursed' is now the only part in common use, occurs in the heading of Gal. i. It is an intensive form of 'curse.'

Hii myзte acorsy the fole quene, þat Seynt Edward slou. Robert of Gloucester, p. 296.

He acorsede alle thulke men, that he hadde uorth ibrou3t. Ibid. p. 474,

Drede is at the laste

Lest Crist in consistorie
A-corse ful manye.

Vision of Piers Ploughman, 198. They decreed also, that all the religious priests and women should ban and accurse him. North's Plutarch, Alcib. p. 222.

Accustomably, adv. (Communion Service; last Rubric). Customarily, habitually. Richardson quotes from Lord Berners's Translation of Froissart, II. c. 91: 'It was shewed the howe he was about the marchesse of Wanes, wher as most accustomably he lay.'

Upon the which day, as is plain in the Acts of the Apostles, the people accustomably resorted together, and heard diligently the Law and the Prophets read among them. Homilies, ed. Griffiths, p. 339.

The title of one of the works attributed to Coverdale is an 'Exhortation to accustomable swearers.'

Acquaint, v. refl. (Job xxii. 21). To make oneself acquainted with, accustom oneself to. The etymology of the word is doubtful. There is an old French word accointer, corresponding to the Prov. accoindar, the former being from coint = Lat. cognitus. On the other hand there is the Germ. kund, kundig, akin to O.E. couth, ken, can. Most probably the word came to us through the former channel.

Acqueinte the with charite,

Which is the vertue sovereine.

Gower, Conf. Am. 1. 277.

To bring them therefore by his example, to acquaint themselves with hardnes: he tooke more paines in warres and in hunting. North's Plutarch, Alex. p. 740.

Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,

The moment on't.

Shakespeare, Macb. III. 1. 130.

Acquaintance, sb. (Ps. xxxi. 11). Used as a collective noun.

Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
My best-esteem'd acquaintance.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, II. 2. 181. And to see how many of my old acquaintance are dead! Id. 2 Henry IV. III. 2. 38.

Acquaintance of, to take (Gen. xxix. c). To become acquainted with, to recognize.

So it befell upon a chaunce

A yonge knight toke her acqueintaunce.

Gower, Conf. Am. 1. 305›

They then will lose their thoughts, and be ashamed
To take acquaintance of them.

Ben Jonson, Sejanus, II. 1.

For though I dare not goe out of the bounds of Canaan to give these Nations a visit at their own homes, yet finding them here within my Precincts, it were incivility in me not to take some acquaintance of them. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, 11. 5, § 15. Acquainted with (Is. liii. 3). Familiar with, accustomed to.

For their purses being full, and they acquainted with finenes, were become so dull and lasie, that they could endure no paines nor hardnes of warres. North's Plutarch, Lucullus, p. 562.

'To acquaint with,' in the sense of 'to accustom, make familiar,' is used by Bacon.

The illiberalitie of parents, in allowance towards their children, is an harmefull errour; makes them base; acquaints them with shifts. Ess. VII. p. 24.

Adamant, så. (Ezek. iii. 9; Zech. vii. 12). From the Greek áðáμas, 'the unconquerable.' The word has now assumed the form of 'diamond' (G. demant, Du. diamant), which is the hardest known stone. In the old writers, and in one instance in a modern work (the Arabian Nights' Entertainments), the word adamant is erroneously used to mean ‘loadstone,' or 'magnet.' You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel.

Shakespeare, Mid. N.'s Dr. 11. 1. 195.

If you will have a young man to put his travaile, into a little roome......when he stayeth in one city or towne, let him change his lodging, from one end and part of the towne, to another; which is a great adamant of acquaintance. Bacon, Ess. XVIII. P. 73.

That diamond and adamant were the same is clear from a passage in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, IV. 1 :

Mam. Does not this diamant better on my finger
Than i' the quarry?

Dol.

Dol.

Yes. Mam. Why you are like it.

You were created, lady, for the light.

Here, you shall wear it; take it, the first pledge
Of what I speak, to bind you to believe me.
In chains of adamant?

On the other hand, they are distinguished by Lodge, Euphues Golden Legacie (Collier's Shakespeare's Library), p. 10: ‘And therefore, if you love, choose her that hath eyes of adamant, that wil turne onely to one poynt; her heart of a diamond, that will receive but one forme.'

Adder (Ps. lviii. 4). A feminine noun, like A.S. næddre.

Thenne seide god to Eue, woman whi ete p" of pe appul. A lorde sche seide; pe fend came to me in liknes of an edder, ande begyled me wt faire wordes, & per for I did as sche bad me.

Bonaventura, Life of Christ, MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. fol. 2a.

The Adders death, is her own broode. Gosson, Schoole of
Abuse (ed. Arber), p. 46.

S. Jerom saith, that when the Adder is thirsty and goeth
to drink, she first of all at the water side casteth up her venom.
Topsell, History of Serpents (ed. 1658), p. 629.

The usage continued as late as Bunyan's time and may
possibly still survive. In his Grace Abounding, § 12, he says,
speaking of various deliverances from danger, 'Besides another
time, being in the field with one of my companions, it chanced
that an adder passed over the highway; so I having a stick in
my hand, struck her over the back; and having stunned her, I
forced open her mouth with my stick, and plucked her sting out
with my fingers.'

In Shakespeare and his contemporaries the usage varied.
For instance, in The Taming of the Shrew, IV. 3. 179, 180, we find,
Or is the adder better than the eel,

Because his painted skin contents the eye?

And in Titus Andronicus, II. 3. 35:

Even as an adder when she doth unroll

To do some fatal execution.

In Midsummer Night's Dream, II. 1. 255, 'snake' is also
feminine:

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin.

Addicted themselves (1 Cor. xvi. 15). Devoted them-
selves, given themselves up to. 'Addicted' is now used gener-
ally in the sense of given up to some bad habit, but it was not
so restricted formerly. Compare Shakespeare, Twelfth Night,
II. 5. 223: 'Being addicted to a melancholy as she is.'

Adjure, v. t. (Josh. vi. 26; Matt. xxvi. 63, &c.). To bind by
oath, solemnly entreat, conjure; from Lat. adjurare.

Then I adiure you by the faithe that you owe to God, by
your honour and by your othe made to Saincte George patron of
the noble ordre of the gartier &c. Hall, Rich. III, fol. ix. a.

Admiration, sb. (Rev. xvii. 6). Like the Lat. admiratio,
used in the sense of simple wonder, astonishment, whether ac-
companied by approval or disapproval of the object.

Season your admiration for a while

With an attent ear. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1. 2. 192.

Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration. Ibid. III. 2. 339.

In the same sense Milton uses admire:

The undaunted fiend what this might be admired;
Admired, not feared. Par. Lost, 11. 677, 678.

For my part, saith Maximus Tyrius, a great Platonist himself, me non tantum admiratio habet, sed etiam stupor, I do not only admire, but stand amazed to read that Plato and Socrates both should expel Homer from their city.

Burton, Anat. of Mel. Part. 3, Sec. 1, Mem. 1, Subs. 1.
Compare also Shakespeare, Tempest, V. 1. 154:
I perceive, these lords

At this encounter do so much admire
That they devour their reason.

Ado, sỏ. (Mark v. 39). This is only once used in the Authorised
Version, but can hardly be said to be an uncommon word so
long as 'Much Ado about Nothing' remains in the language.
Examples may be found in great numbers.

All the moste a dooe was lyke to bee, how the pieteous creature might come to bee in the sighte of Jesus.

Udal's Erasmus, Luke v. 18, fol. 57a.

A man that is busy, and inquisitive, is commonly envious: for to know much of other mens matters, cannot be, because all that adoe may concerne his own estate: therfore it must needs be, that he taketh a kinde of plaie-pleasure, in looking upon the fortunes of others. Bacon, Ess. IX. p. 30.

It is used by Latimer like the infinitive 'to do,' which has still the same sense in provincial dialects.

I have had ado with many estates, even with the highest of all. Serm. p. 216.

To consider his high wisdom might utterly discomfort our frailty to have anything ado with him. Homilies, p. 472, 1. 37. Advantage, v. t. (Luke ix. 25; 1 Cor. xv. 32). To benefit, profit.

What may a heavy groan advantage thee?

Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 950. It shall advantage more than do us wrong.

Id. Julius Cæsar, III. 1. 242.

Adventure, v. t. and i. (Deut. xxviii. 56; Judg. ix. 17; Acts xix. 31). From Latin advenire, 'to arrive, happen,' is