ASS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ass

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noun

Ass n.

(Zool.) A quadruped of the genus Equus (Equus 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.

A dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a dolt.

Asses' Bridge. The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." (Sportive) "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge."

To make an ass of one's self, to do or say something very foolish or absurd.

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Etymology of 'Ass'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ass" Quotes from Famous Books

... saloom, and the friends and familiars came and seated themselves, each in his rank and degree. Presently, in walked Abu Nowas and was about to take his usual seat, when the Caliph cried to Masrur, the sworder, and bade him strip the poet of his clothes and bind an ass's packsaddle on his back and a halter about his head and a crupper under his rump and lead him round to all the lodgings of the slave-girls, —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... The Somali ass is generally speaking a miserable animal. Lieut. Speke, however, reports that on the windward coast it is not to be despised. At Harar I found a tolerable breed, superior in appearance but inferior in size to the thoroughbred ...

— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... talked to your father," he said, "I was in a position to marry, and I told him I wanted to marry you. What he said to that was: 'Don't be an ass!' Then I told him he was unintelligent—and I told him why. First, because he could not see that a man might want to marry his daughter in spite of her money; and second, because he couldn't see that her money wouldn't make up to a man for ...

— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis

... very hard in the wind's, answers unexpectedly and ominously, that She need be. Upon this the lazy gentleman instantly falls very low in the popular estimation, and the passengers, with looks of defiance, whisper to each other that he is an ass, and an impostor, and clearly don't know ...

— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens

... God's faithful ministers, to understand every part of divine revelation, be neither surprised nor disheartened at the want of comprehension, far less attempt to reduce it to human reason, as many have done to their ruin. The Scripture says, 'Vain man would be wise, though born like the wild ass's colt.' 'The wisdom of this world is foolishness ...

— The Power of Faith - Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham. • Isabella Graham

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