ABO 
and without tricks. L'EJlrange .—Without difguife or con¬ 
cealment. 
Above-cited, adv. Cited before. A figurative ex- 
preflion, taken from the ancient manner of writing, books 
on fcrolls; where whatever is cited or mentioned before in 
the fame page, mult be above. 
Above-ground, adv. An exprefiion ufed to fignify 
alive; not in the grave.. 
Above-mentioned, adv. The fame as above-cited.— • 
1 do not remember, that Homer any where falls into the 
faults above-mentioned, which were indeed the falfe refine¬ 
ments of latter ages. Addifon. 
ABQUKIR, al'mall town of Egypt, fituate in the de¬ 
fart between Alexandria and Roletta. It is the ancient 
Canopus, and is fituated, according to Mr. Savary, (ix 
leagues from Pharos. The town is built upon a rock, 
which forms a handfome road for {hipping, and is out of 
the reach of inundations. See Canopus. 
To ABOUND, v. n. \_abundo, Lat. abondcr, Fr.J To have 
in great plenty; to be copioufly ltored. It is ufed fome- 
times with the particle in, andfometimes the particle with. 
To be in great plenty :• 
Words are like leaves, and where they mod abound, 
Much fruit of l'enfe beneath is rarely found. Pope. 
ABOUT, prep. [abutan , or abuton, Sax. which feems to 
fignify encircling on the outfide.] Round, furrounding, 
encircling.—Let not mercy and truth forfake thee. Bind 
them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thy 
heart. Proverbs, iii. 3. — Near to. Concerning/ with re¬ 
gard to, relating to.—The painter is not to take fo much 
pains about the drapery as about the face, where the prin¬ 
cipal refemblance lies. Dry den .— In a Bate-of being en¬ 
gaged in, or employed upon.—Our armies ought to be 
provided with fecretaries, to tell their ftory in plain En- 
glifh, and to let us know, in our mother tongue, what it is 
our countrymen are about. Addifon ,— Appendant to the 
perfon, as clothes. Relating to the perfon, as a fervant or 
dependant. Relating to perfon, as an act or office.—Good 
corporal, for my old dame’s fake, {land my friend: file 
hath nobody to do any thing about her when I am gone, and 
Hie is old and cannot help herfelf. Shakcfpeare. 
About , adv. Circularly, in a round; circum. In cir¬ 
cuit, in compafs. Nearly; circiter. Here and there; eve¬ 
ry way; circa .— A wolf that was paft labour, in his old 
age, borrows a habit, and fo about he goes, begging cha¬ 
rity from door to door, under the difguife of a pilgrim. 
L'EJlrange. —With to before a verb ; as about to jly, upon 
the point, within a fmall diftance of: 
Thefe dying lovers, and their floatingfons, 
Sufpend the fight, and filence all our guns: 
Beauty and youth, about to perifh, finds 
■Such noble pity in brave Englifii minds. Waller. 
Round; the longeft way, inoppofition to the ffiort firaight 
way. To bring about-, to bring to the point or ftate defired ; 
as, he has brought about his purpofes. To come about ; to come to 
feme certain (late or point. It has commonly the idea of 
revolution, or gyration.—Wherefore it came to pafs, when 
the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived, that 
file bare a foil. 1 Sam. i. 20. 
One evening it befel, that looking out, 
The wind they long had wifh’d was come about ; 
Yv r ell pleas’d they went to reft; and if the gale 
Till morn continu’d, both refolv’d to fail. Dryden. 
To go about ; to prepare to do it. In common language, 
they fay, to come about a man, to circumvent him. Some of 
thefe phrafes feem to derive their original from the French 
a bout-, venir a bout d'une chofe-, venir a bout de quelqu'un. 
About, adv. in fea-language, thefituationof a iliip im¬ 
mediately after file has tacked, or changed her courfe by 
going about and Banding on the other tack.— About 'flip ! 
the order to the fliip’s crew for tacking. 
ABOUTIGE, a tow n in Upper Egypt, in Africa, near 
the Nile, where they make the befi opium in all the Le- 
A B R 27 
vant. It was formerly a large, but now is a mean place. 
N. Lat. 26. 50. 
ABRA, afilver coin ftruck in Poland, worth about one 
Bulling Iferling. It is current in feveral parts of Germa¬ 
ny, Confiantinople, Aftracan, Smyrna, and Grand.Cairo. 
ABRABANEL, Abarbanel, or Avravanel, (I- 
faac), a celebrated rabbi, defeended from King David, 
and born at Lifbon A. D. 1437. He became counfellor to 
Alphonfo V. king of Portugal, and afterwards to Ferdi¬ 
nand the catholic; but in 1492 was obliged to leave Spain 
with the other Jews. And, after refiding at Naples, Cor- 
fou, and feveral other cities, he died at Venice in 1508, 
aged 71. Among other works he wrote a Treatife on the 
World; in which he refutes Ariftotle,who imagined that 
the world wms eternal. Though Abrabanel difeovers his 
implacable averfion to Chriftianity in all his writings, yet 
he treated Chriftians with politenefs and good manners in 
all the common affairs of life. 
ABRACADABRA, a magic word, recommended by 
Serenius Sammonicus, fuppofed to have the virtue of a 
charm, or amulet, in curing agues, and preventing other 
difeafes, particularly the fever called by the phyficians he- 
mitratceus. To have this effect, the word muff be wrote on 
paper, and repeated, omitting each time the laft letter in 
the former, fo that the whole may form a kind of inverted 
cone: in which there was this property, that which way fo- 
ever the letters betaken, beginning from the apex and af~ 
cending from the left to the right, they make the fame 
word, or, as forne would have it, the fame fentiment, as is 
found in the firft.whole line. According to Julius Afri- 
canus, another ancient writer, the pronouncing of the word 
in the fame manner, will do as well. 
To ABRADE, v. a. \_abrado, Lat.] To rubotf; to wear 
away from the other parts ; to walte by degrees. 
ABRAHAM, the father and ftock from whence the 
faithful fprung, was thefon of Terah. He was defeended 
Irom Noah by Shem, from whom he wms nine degrees re¬ 
moved. Some fix his birth in the 130th year of Terah’s 
age, but others place it in his father’s 70th year. It is 
highly probable he was born in the city of Ur, in Chaldea, 
which he and his father left when they went to Canaan, 
where they remained till the death of Terah; after which 
Abraham refumed his firft delign of going to Paleftine. 
The Scriptures mention the feveral places he flopped at in 
Canaan; his journey into Egypt, where his wrife was car¬ 
ried off' from him; his going into Gerar, where Sarah was 
again taken from him; but reftored as before ; the victo¬ 
ry he obtained over the four kings wdio had plundered So¬ 
dom; his compliance with his wife, who infifted that he 
Ihould make ufe of their maid Hagar in order to raife up 
children; the covenant God made with him, fealed with 
the ceremony of circumCifion ; his obedience to the com¬ 
mand of God, who ordered him to offer up his only fon as 
a facrifice, and how this was prevented; his marriage with 
Keturah; his death at the age of 175 years; and his in¬ 
terment at tire cave of Macpelah, near the body of Sarah 
his firft wife. It would be of little ufe to dwell long upon 
thefe particulars, lince they are fo well known. But tra¬ 
dition has fupplied numberlefs other's, tire mention of one 
or two of which may not be unacceptable. 
Many extraordinary particulars have been told relating 
to his converfioii from idolatry. It is a pretty genera! opi¬ 
nion, that he fucked in the poifon with his milk.; that his 
father made ftatues, and taught that they were to be wor- 
fliippedas gods. Some Tewifii authors relate, that Abra¬ 
ham followed the fame trade with Terah for a considera¬ 
ble time. Maimonides fays, that he was bred up in the re¬ 
ligion of the Sabieans, who acknowledged no deity but the 
ftars ; that his reflexions on the nature of the planets, his 
admiration of their motions, beauty, and order, made him 
conclude there muff, be a Being fuperior to the machine of 
the univerfe, a Being who created and governed it; how¬ 
ever, according to an old tradition, he did not renounce 
Paganifm till the fiftieth year of his age. It is related, 
that his father, being gone a journev, left him to fell the 
ftatues 
