adminiculation

[Lat. adminicu lat us, pa. par. of adminiculor.] A prop or support. "Some plants are helpt by adminiculation to be straight."-Hacket: Life of Williams, ii. 217. ad-min-ist-er, vt. & i. [In Ger. admin is triren; Fr. administrer; Ital. am mini str are ; fr. Lat. administro (1) to attend upon, to a ist, to serve, (2) to execute, to perform: ad to, and ministro to attend, to wait upon; fr. minister = a servant.) (MINISTER.] A. Transitive : I. Ordinary Language: 1. To act as minister, i.e., as servant to. (Used of the political ministers of a constitutional country, who constitute the executive government for carrying out the enactments of the legislative body.) "Beyond that mark is treason. He is ours, To administer , to guard, to adorn the state." Cowper: Task , bk. v. 44 2. To dispense, as, e.g., justice, the sacraments, grace, . the settlements of those squatters who, far to the west of the Mi i ippi, administer a rude Justice with the rifle and the dagger."- Macaulay : Hist. Eng ., ch. iii. "Have not they the old popish custom of administering the ble ed sacrament of the holy eucharist with wafer cakes?"-Hooker. this grace, which is administered by us to Authoritatively to the glory of the same Lord."-2 Cor . viii. 19. 3. To tender an oath. require one to take an oath. "Swear by the duty that you owe to heav'n To keep the oath that we administer ." Shakesp. Richard II., L. & 4. To give to one as medicine is given. "He a erted that his malady was not natural, that a noxious drug had been administered to him in a dish of porridge."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. xv. 5. To grant, to bestow, to afford. "When he was come up to the gate, he looked up to the writing that was above, and then began to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly administered to him."-Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progre . II. Technically. Law : To take legal charge of the affairs of a person dying intestate; to act as administrator. [ADMINISTRATION, Β. 1.] that in case of intestacy, the ordinary shall depute the nearest and most lawful friends of the deceased to administer his good a." Black stone: Comm., bk. ii., ch. 32. B. Intransitive : 1. Ord. Lang. To conduce, to tend. The simple form minister is generally used in this sense. "I must not omit, that there is a fountain rising in the upper part of my garden, which forms a little wandering rill, and administers to the pleasure as well as the plenty of the place."-Spectator. 2. Law : To arrange financial matters connected with the real or personal estate of one dying without a will. [ADMINISTRATION, B. 1.] † ad-min'-ist-ěr, s. [From the verb.] An administrator. a good administer of the revenue."-Bacon: To Sir John Denham, Administering, having the power of performing ministerial functions; conducive to an end. ad-min-is-tra-ble, a [ADMINISTER.) Able to be administered.