Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang An abscess caused by injecting an illegal drug, usually heroin.
- n. Slang An abdominal muscle. Often used in the plural.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The eleventh month of the Jewish civil year, and the fifth of the ecclesiastical year, answering to a part of July and a part of August. In the Syriac calendar Ab is the last summer month.
- n. A prefix of Latin origin, denoting disjunction, separation, or departure, off, from, away, etc., as in abduct, abjure, etc. Before c and t, ab becomes (in Latin, and so in English, etc.) abs, as in abscond, abstain, etc.; before v and m, it becomes a, as in
avert , amentia, etc. — In abbacinate and abbreviate, the prefix (reduced to a- in abridge, which see) is rather an assimilation of ad-.
Wiktionary
- n. abdominal muscle.
- n. An abscess caused by injecting an illegal drug, usually heroin.
- n. water
- abbr. abort or abortion
- abbr. about
- n. abdominal muscle.
- n. An abscess caused by injecting an illegal drug, usually heroin.
- n. water
- abbr. abort or abortion
- abbr. about
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The fifth month of the Jewish year according to the ecclesiastical reckoning, the eleventh by the civil computation, coinciding nearly with August.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences
- n. the muscles of the abdomen
- n. the blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens
- n. the eleventh month of the civil year; the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar (in July and August)
Examples
“= Similar instrumental uses of _ab_ at _Her_ X 138 'tunicas lacrimis sicut _ab imbre_ graues', _AA_ III 545 'ingenium placida mollitur _ab arte_', _Met_ I 65-66 'contraria tellus/nubibus assiduis pluuiaque madescit ab Austro', _Met_ IV 162-63 'pectus ... adhuc _a caede_ tepebat', and _Fast_ V 323 'caelum nigrescit _ab Austris_'.”
“Middel-erd for mon wes mad," is English, and is interesting as copying not the least intricate of the _trouvère_ measures -- an eleven-line stanza of eight sevens or sixes, rhymed _ab, ab, ab, ab, c, b, c_; but moral-religious in tone and much alliterated.”
The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II)
“He meets some friends at the temple of Tellus by appointment with the sacristan, "_ab_ aeditimo, _ut dicere didicimus a patribus nostris; ut corrigimur ab recentibus urbanis, ab_ aedituo.”
The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius
“The name is derived from abba, the Syriac form of the Hebrew word ab, and means "father".”
“Now you have read the parts of the word ab-ra-ca-dab-ra all separated, you can read them very easily together, so as to make one word, and the word will be Abracadabra.”
“An example of schwa (* shwà) is the neutral grunt which begins the word abòut (* əbòut).”
“It was first published in ab ovo. ang dalaga at ang bu’aia (the maiden & the crocodile)”
“From the oral opening the ten zones diverge, spreading over the whole surface, like the ribs on a melon, and converging in the opposite direction till they meet in the small space which we have called the ab-oral region opposite the starting-point.”
“Lewis called ab domum to inquire about Jim's case (J.T. H-- d's) -- Party at Campbell's -- Tom Ford and Mahala Hammond married.”
Diary of Jason Niles (1814-1894) : June 22, 1861-December 31, 1864,
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ab’.
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Noteworthy Words
Here I have in mind a list of words that could be spelled with only the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G--and thus could also be played as a tune on the piano.
face, ace, bag, cage, bad, fad, fade, fee, gee, beg, fed, deaf and 98 more...
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Etymological finds
Words that have perhaps fallen out of usage.
aarde, varken, abaka, bæc, ab, abax, abhaq, baft, bæftan, abulón, abandounen, abessen and 97 more...
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Prefixes
intra, inter, ir, in, im, il, magni, hydro, hydr, homo, hetero, intro and 71 more...
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