oat 
To get thy steerling, once again 
I'le play thee such another strain 
That thou shalt swear my pipe do's raigne 
Over thine oat as soveraigne. 
Serriek, A Beucolick, or Discourse of Neatherds. 
But now ray oat proceeds, 
And listens to the herald of the sea 
That came in Neptune's plea. 
Milton, Lycidas, 1. 88. 
Corbie oats. See corbie. False oat. Same as oat-grass, 
2 Seaside oat See spike-grass. Short oat, a culti- 
vated variety of the oat. Skinless oat. Same as naked 
oat. See def. 1. To sow one's wild oats, to indulge in 
youthful excesses ; practise the dissipations to which some 
are prone in the early part of life : hence, to ham sown one's 
wild oats is to have given up youthful follies. 
We meane that wilfull and unruly age, which lacketh 
rypeness and discretion, and (as wee saye) hath not sowed 
all tlmjr wi/eld Oates. 
Touchstone of Complexions (1576), p. 99. (Dames.) 
Water-oats. See Indian rice, under rice. Wild oat. (a) 
Various species of Arxna other than A. satica. See def. 1 (b). 
(b) Bromus secalinus. [Prov. Eng.] (c) Pharus latifolius. 
[West Indies.]-Wlld Oatst, a rakish, dissipated person. 
The tailors now-a-days are compelled to excogitate, in- 
vent, and imagine diversities of fashions for apparel, that 
they may satisfle the foolish desire of certain light brains 
and wild oats, which are altogether given to new fangle- 
ness. Bacon, Works (ed. 1843), p. 204. (Nares.) 
oat-cake (ot'kak), n. A cake made of the meal 
of oats. It is generally very thin and brittle. 
oaten (6'tn), a. [< ME. oten, < AS. "Men, of the 
oat, < ate, oat : see oat.'] 1 . Made of the stem of 
the oat. 
He whitest he lived was the noblest swaine 
That ever piped in all oaten quill. 
Spenser, Colin Clout, 1. 441. 
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws. 
Shak., L. L. L., v. 2. 913. 
Might we but hear 
The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes, 
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. 
Milton, Comus, 1. 345. 
2. Made of oats or oatmeal: as, oaten bread. 
They lacked oten meale to make cakes withall. 
Berners, tr. of Froissart's Chron., I. xviii. 
This botcher looks as if he were dough-baked ; a little 
butter now, and I could eat him like an oaten cake. 
Fletcher (and another), Love's Cure, ii. 1. 
Oaten pipe, a musical pipe made of an oat-straw cut so 
as to have one end closed by a knot, the other end open. 
Sear the knot a slit is cut so as to form a reed. 
oat-flight (ot'flit), n. The chaff of oats. Hal- 
liwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
oat-fowl (ot'foul), n. The snow-bunting, Plec- 
trophanes nivalis. [Rare.] 
oat-grass (ot'gras), . 1. The wild species 
of Avena, 2. Another grass, Arrhenatlierum 
avenaceuttl. It is somewhat valued for pasture and hay. 
It is naturalized in the United States from Europe. Also 
called false oat, in the United States tall or meadow oat- 
grass, and evergreen grass. 
3. A grass of the genus Danthonia, distin- 
guished sometimes as wild oat-grass Meadow 
oat-grass, Arrhenatherum avenaceum. See def. 2. [U.S.] 
oath (6th), n. ; pi. oaths (OTHZ). [Early mod. E. 
also othe; <ME. otlt, ootli, earlier ath, < AS. ath 
= OS. eth, ed = OFries. eth, ed = D. eed = OHG. 
eid, MHG. eit, G. eid = Icel. eidhr = Sw. Dan. 
eil = Goth, aitlts, an oath ; prob. = Olr. oeth, an 
oath ; no other forms found : root unknown.] 
1. A solemn appeal to the Supreme Being in 
attestation of the truth of some statement or 
the binding character of some covenant, un- 
dertaking, or promise ; an outward pledge that 
one's testimony or promise is given under an 
immediate sense of responsibility to God. 
For thei seyn, He that swerethe will discey ye his Neygh- 
bore : and therefor alle that thei don, thei don it with- 
outen Othe. Mandevitte, Travels, p. 292. 
Such an act 
. . . makes marriage-vows 
As false as dicers' oaths. 
Shak., Hamlet, iii. 4. 45. 
Neither is there or can be any tie on human society 
when that of an oath is no more regarded ; which being 
an appeal to God, he is immediate judge of it 
Dryden, Vind. of Duke of Guise. 
All the officers appointed by congress were to take an 
oath of fidelity as well as of office. 
Bancroft, Hist. Const, II. 113. 
2. The form of words in which such attestation 
is made. Oaths are of two kinds : (a) assertory oaths, or 
those by which something is asserted as true, and (6) prom- 
issory oaths (see promissory oath, oath of allegiance, and 
oath of office, below). Witnesses are allowed to take an 
oath 1 any form which they consider binding on their 
conscience. Provision is made in the cases of those who 
have conscientious objections to the taking of an oath, or 
those who are objected to as incompetent to take an oath, 
whereby they are allowed to substitute an affirmation or 
solemn promise and declaration. Oaths to perform ille- 
gal acts do not bind, nor do they excuse the performance 
of the act 
3. A light or blasphemous use of the name of 
the Divine Being, or of anything associated 
with the more sacred matters of religion, by 
way of appeal, imprecation, or ejaculation. 
4052 
And specyally in youth gentilmen ben tawght 
To swere gret othis, they sey for jentery ; 
Every boy wenyth it be annext to curtesy. 
MS. Laud 410, f. 39. (UalKuiell, under jentery.) 
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 
A good mouth-nlling oath. 
Shak., I Hen. IV., iii. 1. 259. 
The Axes so oft blistered their tender fingers that many 
times every third blow had a loud othe to drownethe echo. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, I. 197. 
The Accusing Spirit, which flew up to Heaven's chancery 
with the oath, blushed as he gave it in ; and the Recording 
Angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word, 
and blotted it out forever. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vi. 8. 
4. Loosely (a) An ejaculation similar in form 
to an oath, but in which the name of God or of 
anything sacred is not used. 
And laughed, and blushed, and oft did say 
Her pretty oath, by Yea and Nay. 
Scott, Marmion, v. 11. 
(b) An imprecation, differing from a curse in 
its less formal and more exclamatory character : 
it may be humorous, or even affectionate, among 
rude and free-living men. (c) An exclamatory 
word or phrase, usually without appropriate- 
ness to the subject in hand, expressing surprise, 
and generally displeasure, though sometimes 
even approval or admiration. It may refer to some- 
thing sacred, and even be what is called blasphemous, but 
isoften wholly unmeaning, or is a corruption or softening of 
an originally blasphemous expression, as zounds ! for God's 
(Christ's) wounds, egad for by God, etc. Corporal oatht. 
See corporal)-. Hlghgate oatht, a jocose asseveration 
which travelers toward London were required to take at a 
tavern at Highgate. They were obliged to swear that they 
would not drink small beer when they could get strong, 
unless indeed they liked the small better, with other 
statements of a similar character. Iron-clad oath, an 
oath characterized by the severity of its requirements and 
penalties : especially applied to the oath required by the 
United States government from certain persons in civil 
and official life after the civil war of 1861-5, on account 
of its rigor with reference to acts of disloyalty or sympa- 
thy therewith. Judicial oath, an oath administered in 
n judicial proceeding, sometimes used as including any 
oath taken before an authorized officer in a case in which 
the law sanctions the taking of an oath : in contradistinc- 
tion to extrajudicial oath, or an oath which, though taken, 
it may be, before a judicial officer, is not required or sanc- 
tioned by law. Also called voluntary oath. Oath of 
abjuration. See abjuration. Oath of allegiance, a 
declaration under oath promising to bear true allegiance 
to a specified power. Oath of conformity and obe- 
dience, a vow taken by priests, bishops, and members of 
the Roman Catholic Church. Oath of fealty. Bee fealty. 
Oath of office, an oath required by law from an officer, 
promising the faithful discharge of his duties as such. 
Oath of opinion. See opinion. Oath of supremacy. 
See supremacy. Poor debtor's oath. See debtor. 
Promissory oath, an oath by which something is prom- 
ised, such as the oath of a prince to rule constitutionally. 
Promissory Oaths Act, a British statute of 1868 (31 
and 32 Viet, c. 72), amended 1871 (34 and 35 Viet, c. 48), 
which prescribes the form of the oath of allegiance and 
official oaths. Qualified oath, in Scots law, the oath of 
a party on a reference where circumstances are stated 
which must necessarily be taken as part of the oath, and 
which therefore qualify the admission or denial. Imp. 
Diet. To make oath. See makei. Upon one's oath, 
sworn to speak the truth. 
They cannot speak always as if they were upon their 
oath but must be understood, speaking or writing, with 
some abatement. Lamb, Imperfect Sympathies. 
oathablet (6'tha-bl), a. [< oath + -able.'] Fit 
to be sworn. 
You are not oathable, 
Although I know you'll swear. 
Shak., T. of A., iv. 3. 136. 
oath-bound (oth'bound), a. Bound by oath. 
His political aspirations are not forced to find expres- 
sion in the manomvres of oath-bound clubs. 
Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLII. 649. 
oath-breaking (oth'bra'king), . Theviolation 
of an oath ; perjury. 
I told him gently of our grievances, 
Of his oath-breaking. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., v. 2. 38. 
oath-rite (oth'rit), w. The form used at the tak- 
ing of an oath. 
oat-malt (ot'malt), re. Malt made from oats. 
oatmeal (ot'mel), n. 1. Meal made from oats. 
The grain, with the husk removed, is kiln-dried 
and ground. 
O sister, sister, that may not bee . . . 
Till salt and oatmeale grow both of a tree. 
' 
2. A mush or porridge prepared from oatmeal. 
3f. [cop.] One of a band of riotous profli- 
gates who infested the streets of London in 
the seventeenth century. [Slang.] 
Do mad prank with 
Roaring Boys and Oatmeals. 
Dekker and Ford, Sun's Darling, i. 1. 
oat-mill (ot'mil), . A machine for grinding 
oats, (a) A crushing-mill for the rough grinding of oats 
as feed for horses. (6) A mill for grinding oats for oat- 
meal. 
oatseed-bird (ot'sed-berd), n. The yellow wag- 
tail or quaketail, Budytes rayi. [Local, Eng.] 
obconic 
oaze (6z), n. An obsolete or dialectal variant 
of ooze. 
obM (ob), n. [< Heb. 'obh, a necromancer, sor- 
cerer. The resemblance to obi, obeah noted by 
DeQuincey(" Modern Superstition") is appar. 
accidental.] A necromancer; a sorcerer. 
ob 2 t. An abbreviation of objection, used in con- 
nection with sol, abbreviation of solution, in the 
margins of old books of divinity. Hence obs 
and sols, objections and solutions. See ob-and- 
solcr. 
Bale, Erasmus, &c., explode, as a vast ocean of obs and 
sols, school divinity. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., To the Reader, p. 150. 
A thousand idle questions, nice distinctions, subtleties, 
Obs and Sols. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 626. 
The youth is in a wofull case ; 
Whilst he should give us sols and obs, 
He brings us in some simple bobs, 
And fathers them on Mr. Hobs. 
Loyal Songs, II. 217. (Nares.) 
ob. An abbreviation of the Latin obiit, he (or 
she) died: used in dates. 
ob-. [L. ob-, prefix (usually changed to oc- be- 
fore c, to of- before/-, to og- before g-, to op- 
before^), also in some cases obs-, os-), ob, prep., 
toward, to, at, upon, about, before, on account 
of, for; OL. op = Oscan op = Umbrian tip = Gr. 
ini, upon, to: see epi-.'] A prefix in words of 
Latin origin, meaning 'toward,' 'to,' 'against,' 
etc., or 'before,' 'near,' 'along by,' but often 
merely intensive, and not definitely translata- 
ble. Its force is not felt in English, and it is not used in 
the formation of new words, except in a series of geomet- 
rical terms, applied to shape, especially in natural history, 
such terms being based upon oblate or oblong, and the pre- 
fix meaning ' reversed ': as, obclavate, obcompressed, obconic, 
obcordate, oblanceolate, obimbricate, oboval, obovate, obovoid, 
obrotund, etc. 
obambulatet (ob-am'bu-lat), v. i. [< L. obam- 
bulatus, pp. of obambulare, walk before, near, 
or about, < ob, before, about, + ambulare, walk : 
see ambulate an d amble. Cf. perambulate."] To 
walk about. Cockeram. 
obambulation (ob-am-bu-la' shon), n. [< L. 
obambulatio(n-'), a walking about, < obambulare, 
walk about : see obambulate."] A walking about. 
Impute all these obambulatums and nightwalks to the 
quick and fiery atoms which did abound in our Don. 
Gayton, Notes on Don Quixote, p. 217. 
ob-and-soler+, ob-and-sollert (ob'and-sol'er), 
n. [< ob and sol (see o&2) + -erl.] A scholas- 
tic disputant; a religious controversialist; a 
polemic. 
To pass for deep and learned scholars, 
Although but paltry Ob-and-Sollers ; 
As if th' unseasonable fools 
Had been a coursing in the schools. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, III. ii. 1242. 
obang (6-bang'), n. [Jap., < d, great, + ban, di- 
vision.] An oblong gold coin of Japan, round- 
ed at the ends, and worth 100 bu, or about $25 : 
not now in circulation. 
obarnet, obarnit, n. [Origin obscure.] A bev- 
erage associated in texts of the sixteenth cen- 
tury with meath and mead, and in one case 
mentioned as a variety of mead. 
, Carmen 
Are got into the yellow starch ; and chimney-sweepers 
To their tobacco and strong waters, hum, 
Meath, and obarni. B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, i. 1. 
With spiced meades (wholesome but dear), 
As meade obarne, and meade cherunk, 
And the base quasse, by pesants drunk. 
Pymlyco, quoted by Gifford in B. Jonson, VII. 241. 
Obbenite (ob'en-it), n. [Appar. from some one 
named Obbcn."] One of an Anabaptist sect in 
northern Europe, about the time of Menno 
(about 1530). See the quotation. 
Menno attached himself to the Obbenites, who held that 
on earth true Christians had no prospect but to suffer per- 
secution, refused to use the sword, and looked for no mil- 
lennium on earth. Encyc. Brit., XVI. 12. 
obbligato (ob-li-ga'to), a. and n. [It., bound, 
obliged, < L. obligates, bound: see obligate, 
oblige."] I. a. In music, indispensable ; so im- 
portant that it cannot be omitted: especially 
used of accompaniments of independent value. 
II. n. An accompaniment, whether for a solo 
or a concerted instrument, which is of inde- 
pendent importance; especially, an instrumen- 
tal solo accompanying a vocal piece. 
Also spelled obligato. 
obclavate (ob-kla'vat), a. [< ob- + clavate."] 
Inversely clavate. 
obcompressed (ob-kom-prest'), a. [< ob- + 
compressed."] In bot., flattened anteroposte- 
riorly instead of laterally. 
obconic (ob-kon'ik), a. [< ob- + eonie.'] In 
not. liist., inversely conical; conical, with the 
apex downward. 
