<B>aged, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>having lived a long time; old. <BR> <I>Ex. The aged woman was wrinkled and bent.</I> (SYN) elderly. <DD><B> 2. </B>of the age of. <BR> <I>Ex. A child aged six must go to school.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>characteristic of old age. <BR> <I>Ex. aged wrinkles.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>improved by aging. <BR> <I>Ex. aged cheese.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> elderly people. <BR> <I>Ex. a home for the aged, care of the aged.</I> adv. <B>agedly.</B> noun <B>agedness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="agee">
<B>agee, </B>adverb, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Dialect.) to one side; awry; ajar. Also, <B>ajee.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="agegroup">
<B>age group,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a group of people of about the same age. <BR> <I>Ex. The youth culture is the special set of mores, customs, roles and values of youth considered as a distinctive, separate age group (American Scholar).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="ageing">
<B>ageing, </B>noun. <B>=aging.</B></DL>
<A NAME="ageism">
<B>ageism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> discrimination against old or elderly people, especially in employment and housing. </DL>
<A NAME="ageist">
<B>ageist, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> discriminating against old or elderly people; practicing ageism. <BR> <I>Ex. Our ageist society usually lumps all old people into one great, gray mass (Maggie Kuhn).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="ageless">
<B>ageless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> never growing old or out of date; never coming to an end. <BR> <I>Ex. the ageless wisdom of the Bible.</I> adv. <B>agelessly.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="agelong">
<B>agelong, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> lasting a long time; everlasting. <BR> <I>Ex. agelong legends.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="agemate">
<B>age mate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a member of the same age group. </DL>
<A NAME="agency">
<B>agency, </B>noun, pl. <B>-cies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a business of a person or company that acts for another. <BR> <I>Ex. An agency rented our house for us. Employment agencies help workers to get jobs, and find workers for people who need them.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the office of such a person or company. <DD><B> 3. </B>a special department of the government concerned with the administration of affairs within a specific field. <BR> <I>Ex. The agency in charge of intelligence activities for the United States is the Central Intelligence Agency.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>any organization or bureau providing a public service. <BR> <I>Ex. The international agencies chiefly concerned with marine pollution are the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Program (Walter Sullivan).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(U.S.) an Indian agency. <DD><B> 6. </B>means of producing effects; action or operation. <BR> <I>Ex. Snow is drifted by the agency of the wind.</I> (SYN) instrumentality. </DL>
<A NAME="agencyshop">
<B>agency shop,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a factory or business firm in which employees pay union dues or equivalent fees whether they belong to the union or not. </DL>
<A NAME="agenda">
<B>agenda, </B>noun, pl. of <B>agendum.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a list of things to be dealt with or done; business to be brought before a meeting of a committee, council, board, or other group. <BR> <I>Ex. The agenda for today's club meeting includes reading of committee reports, admission of new members, and planning of the month's activities.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative:) <BR> <I>Ex. ... an expanding agenda of political and human problems (Adlai E. Stevenson). The TC is ... an auto with a hidden agenda: the prestige it brings to Chrysler will spill over onto the company's more utilitarian offerings (Vanity Fair).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Theology.) matters of practice as contrasted with matters of belief or credenda. </DL>
<A NAME="agene">
<B>Agene, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Trademark.) a bleaching agent formerly used to bleach flour. </DL>
<A NAME="agenesia">
<B>agenesia, </B>noun. <B>=agenesis.</B></DL>
<A NAME="agenesis">
<B>agenesis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Medicine.) <DD><B> 1. </B>sexual impotence or sterility. <DD><B> 2. </B>absence or incomplete development of a part or organ. </DL>
<A NAME="agenize">
<B>agenize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-nized,</B> <B>-nizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to bleach with Agene. </DL>
<A NAME="agent">
<B>agent, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or company that acts for another. <BR> <I>Ex. I made my brother my agent while I was out of the city. An insurance agent will insure your property against losses from accidents.</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> (Abbr:) agt. (SYN) representative, deputy, intermediary. <DD><B> 2. </B>a law-enforcement officer. <BR> <I>Ex. a federal agent.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a member of the government secret service; secret agent. <DD><B> 4a. </B>any power or cause that produces an effect by its action. <BR> <I>Ex. Yeast is the agent that causes bread to rise. Electricity is an important agent of convenience in the modern home. Many insects are agents of fertilization. Conscience is a moral agent.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a person who produces an effect. <BR> <I>Ex. I was still to be the willful agent of all my own miseries (Daniel Defoe).</I> <DD><B> c. </B>any substance or force capable of causing a chemical reaction. <BR> <I>Ex. a catalytic agent.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>means; instrument. <BR> <I>Ex. Graphite is used as a lubricating agent.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Informal.) a traveling salesman. <DD><B> 7. </B>(British.) a candidate's campaign manager. <DD><B> 8. </B>(U.S., Historical.) a road agent; highwayman. </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="agentgeneral">
<B>agent-general, </B>noun, pl. <B>agents-general.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a representative in England of certain of the Canadian provinces, Australian states, etc., under the leadership of a high commissioner. </DL>
<A NAME="agential">
<B>agential, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or in the capacity of an agent or an agency. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=agentive.</B> </DL>
<B>agentive, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> having the grammatical function of indicating a person or thing that performs an action. The <I>-er</I> of <I>builder</I> is an agentive suffix. <DD><I>noun </I> a grammatical form or element that expresses or denotes an agent. </DL>
<A NAME="agentnoun">
<B>agent noun,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a noun that indicates an agent (a person or thing acting), especially a noun that indicates the person or thing doing the act expressed by a verb, such as <I>binder, creator, runner,</I> and <I>sleeper,</I> in relation to <I>bind, create, run,</I> and <I>sleep.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="agentorange">
<B>Agent Orange,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a highly toxic herbicide used for defoliation and crop destruction. <BR> <I>Ex. ... Agent Orange ... had been rained down by the tens of thousands of tons, and over some five million acres, in herbicidal warfare operations in South Vietnam (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="agentprovocateur">
<B>agent provocateur, </B>pl. <B>agents provocateurs.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a person secretly hired to join a group of people in order to induce or incite the members of the group to do something unlawful that will make them liable to punishment. <BR> <I>Ex. ... that the charges against Mr. Bouman were unfounded and that an agent provocateur had tried to trap him into bribery (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="agentry">
<B>agentry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the business of an agent. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofaquarius">
<B>Age of Aquarius,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (in astrology) an age of unprecedented freedom and fellowship now newly dawning upon earth. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofconsent">
<B>age of consent,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the minimum age, as fixed by law, at which a person is considered competent to act in his or her own behalf, as in marriage. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofdiscretion">
<B>age of discretion,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Law.) fourteen years. </DL>
<A NAME="ageoffishes">
<B>Age of Fishes,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the Devonian age. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofmammals">
<B>Age of Mammals,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the Cenozoic age. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofreason">
<B>Age of Reason,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the period in Europe from the 1600's to the late 1700's in which philosophers emphasized the use of reason as the best method of learning truth. John Locke, Descartes, Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire were leaders. </DL>
<A NAME="ageofreptiles">
<B>Age of Reptiles,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the Mesozoic age. </DL>
<A NAME="ageold">
<B>age-old, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having existed for a very long time; very old; ancient. <BR> <I>Ex. age-old customs.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="ageratum">
<B>ageratum, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of a genus of chiefly tropical American garden plants of the composite family. Certain species have small, dense flower heads, usually blue, sometimes white or pinkish. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of several other composite plants, usually having blue flowers. </DL>
<A NAME="ages">
<B>ages, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> See under <B>age.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="ageusia">
<B>ageusia, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> partial or total loss of the sense of taste. </DL>
<A NAME="agger">
<B>agger, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a mound of earth, especially an earthen rampart around an ancient Roman camp. <DD><B> 2. </B>a Roman road. </DL>
<A NAME="aggeus">
<B>Aggeus, </B>noun. <B>=Haggai </B>(in the Douay Bible).</DL>
<A NAME="aggie">
<B>Aggie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) <DD><B> 1. </B>Usually, <B>Aggies,</B> <I>pl.</I> a group representing an agricultural college, such as an athletic team. <DD><B> 2. </B>a student at an agricultural college. </DL>
<A NAME="aggie">
<B>aggie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a playing marble made of agate. </DL>
<A NAME="aggiornamento">
<B>aggiornamento, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Italian.) (in the Roman Catholic Church) the modernization of old customs and practices. <DD><B> 2. </B>(literally) an updating. </DL>
