JOHNSON using them in his Magnetic Lady, where one comes out from dinner, and Relates the quarrels and disorders of it; to save the indecent appearing of them on the Stage, and to abbreviate the story: and this, in express imitation of TERENCE, who had done the same before him, in his Eunuch; where PYTHIAS makes the like Relation of what had happened within, at the soldiers' entertainment.

And, then, if all those Poets that have so fervently laboured to give Rules as Maxims, would but be pleased to abbreviate; or endure to hear their Reasons reduced into one strict Definition; it must be, That there are degrees in impossibilities, and that many things, which are not possible, may yet be more or less impossible; and from this, proceed to give Rules to observe the least absurdity in things, which are not at all.

This argument is so scattered into parts, that it can scarce be united into a Syllogism: yet, in obedience to him, I will abbreviate, and comprehend as much of it, as I can, in few words; that my Answer to it, may be more perspicuous.

We must greatly abbreviate the formidable list of churches furnished us by travellers.

572. abridger, epitomist^, epitomizer^. V. be short &c adj.; render short &c adj.; shorten, curtail, abridge, abbreviate, take in, reduce; compress &c (contract) 195; epitomize &c 596. retrench, cut short, obtruncate^; scrimp, cut, chop up, hack, hew; cut down, pare down; clip, dock, lop, prune, shear, shave, mow, reap, crop; snub; truncate, pollard, stunt, nip, check the growth of; foreshorten (in drawing).

V. abridge, abstract, epitomize, summarize; make an abstract, prepare an abstract, draw an abstract, compile an abstract &c n.. recapitulate, review, skim, run over, sum up. abbreviate &c (shorten) 201; condense &c (compress) 195; compile &c (collect) 72.

Voschius would have good scholars to be highly rewarded, and had in some extraordinary respect above other men, "to have greater [2000]privileges than the rest, that adventure themselves and abbreviate their lives for the public good."

Yet it's so like the long, expansive, good-natured, eloquent fellow it stands for, that I must not shorten it, though we shall presently abbreviate it for purposes of affectionate reference.

"It is not so very good a name,that must be owned, Del. All is, you will have to call him 'Mr. Sampson,' or 'My dear,' or 'You'; or, stay, you might abbreviate it into Ame, Ami.

It was one of those mighty and terrible joys which are like the effect of opiumone of those joys which condense life and abbreviate it, which excite and yet stupefy, which intoxicate and kill.

I am half inclined to think that his insistence was mainly intended to abbreviate the martyrdom of Longfellow, whom I conducted every day to the Oaks, to insure pre-Raphaelite fidelity, making him sit on a huge boulder under the tree and even forgetting to carry a cushion for him, so that he sat on the bare stone until at last the discomfort was evident to me, when I folded my coat to cushion his stone seat.

The second does his best to abbreviate the one, and to hasten and make definite the other, yet he does not insist on hurrying changes which, to be effective, would require the active support of numbers of persons not yet ripe for them.

He does not tell us how many elementary sounds there are; but, professing to arrange the vowels, long and short, "in the order in which they are naturally found," as well as to show of the consonants that the mutes and liquids form correspondents in regular pairs, he presents a scheme which I abbreviate as follows.

To abbreviate expression, we not unfrequently, in this manner, convert adjectives into nouns.

The nature and idiom of our language, "the accent and pronunciation of it," incline us to abbreviate or "contract even all our regular verbs;" so as to avoid, if possible, an increase of syllables in the inflection of them.

In many instances, however, he may conveniently abbreviate his explanation, by parsing the conjunction as connecting "what precedes and what follows;" or, if the terms are transposed, as connecting its own clause to the second, to the third, or to some other clause in the context.

OBS 7.To abbreviate expressions, and give them vivacity, verbs of self-motion (such as go, come, rise, get, &c.) are sometimes suppressed, being suggested to the mind by an emphatic adverb, which seems to be put for the verb, but does in fact relate to it understood; as, "I'll hence to London, on a serious matter.

"An Apostrophe, marked thus ' is used to abbreviate or shorten a word.

"I have known lords to abbreviate almost half of their words.

"The Apostrophe, placed above the line, thus ', is used to abbreviate or shorten words.

They sometimes abbreviate common NOUNS, after a manner of their own: as, amaze, for amazement; acclaim, for acclamation; consult, for consultation; corse, for corpse; eve or even, for evening; fount, for fountain; helm, for helmet; lament, for lamentation; morn, for morning; plaint, for complaint; targe, for target; weal, for wealth.

7. abbreviate.

In compound names, as North Dakota and West Virginia, do not abbreviate one part of the compound and write out the other.

Either abbreviate both or write out both.

" This argument is so scattered into parts, that it can scarce be united into a syllogism; yet, in obedience to him, I will abbreviate, and comprehend as much of it as I can in few words, that my answer to it may be more perspicuous.