Ass
[æs]
Definition
(noun.) hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse.
(noun.) a pompous fool.
Typed by Clyde--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A quadruped of the genus Equus (E. asinus), smaller than the horse, and having a peculiarly harsh bray and long ears. The tame or domestic ass is patient, slow, and sure-footed, and has become the type of obstinacy and stupidity. There are several species of wild asses which are swift-footed.
(n.) A dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a dolt.
Inputed by Enoch
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Jackass, donkey.[2]. Dolt, fool, blockhead, simpleton, numskull, ninny, DUNCE.
Checker: Raymond
Definition
n. a well-known quadruped of the horse family: (fig.) a dull stupid fellow.—Asses' bridge or Pons asinorum a humorous name for the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid.
Typist: Rex
Unserious Contents or Definition
To see an ass in a dream, you will meet many annoyances, and delays will accrue in receiving news or goods. To see donkeys carrying burdens, denotes that, after patience and toil, you will succeed in your undertakings, whether of travel or love. If an ass pursues you, and you are afraid of it, you will be the victim of scandal or other displeasing reports. If you unwillingly ride on one, or, as jockey, unnecessary quarrels may follow. See Donkey.
Editor: Manuel
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. A public singer with a good voice but no ear. In Virginia City Nevada he is called the Washoe Canary in Dakota the Senator and everywhere the Donkey. The animal is widely and variously celebrated in the literature art and religion of every age and country; no other so engages and fires the human imagination as this noble vertebrate. Indeed it is doubted by some (Ramasilus lib. II. De Clem. and C. Stantatus De Temperamente) if it is not a god; and as such we know it was worshiped by the Etruscans and if we may believe Macrobious by the Cupasians also. Of the only two animals admitted into the Mahometan Paradise along with the souls of men the ass that carried Balaam is one the dog of the Seven Sleepers the other. This is no small distinction. From what has been written about this beast might be compiled a library of great splendor and magnitude rivalling that of the Shakespearean cult and that which clusters about the Bible. It may be said generally that all literature is more or less Asinine.
Editor: Woodrow
Examples
- He is not quite such an ass as I have hitherto supposed. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- It was almost as amusing to the Victorian English as the story of Balaam's ass. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Oh, what an ass I have been! Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- As to Twemlow, he is so sensible of being a much better bred man than Veneering, that he considers the large man an offensive ass. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- My dear Rosy, you don't expect me to talk much to such a conceited ass as that, I hope, said Lydgate, brusquely. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He is the greatest ass in the world. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He is an ass, and I am an invalid, and we are likely to make all sorts of mistakes between us. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I shall always delight to meet an ass after my own heart when I shall have finished my travels. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Did Judy really think you could bring yourself to marry that portentous little ass? Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- But what in the name of the devil is your ass of a coachman keeping us here for? Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- In Rome the _proletarii_ were a voting division of fully qualified citizens whose property was less than 10,000 copper asses (= ?275). H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- A thousand pardons, Mr. Hartright; servants are such asses, are they not? Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- What a set of consummate asses you are, said Argyle to Beckford and his party; and then quietly continued on the gate, whistling as before. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- We rode on asses and mules up the steep, narrow streets and entered the subterranean galleries the English have blasted out in the rock. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- The word sestertius signifies two asses and a half. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- At Rome all accounts appear to have been kept, and the value of all estates to have been computed, either in asses or in sestertii. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Such ASSES as he and Ma make of themselves! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Ye know, also, that when mosques are builded, asses bear the stones and the cement, and cross the sacred threshold. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- In Penzance, then a town of about three thousand inhabitants, and in its picturesque vicinity, the early years of Davy's life were p assed. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
Typist: Rosanna