acme (akme)

[ For beauty's acme hath a term as brief As the wave's poise before it break in pearls. Lowell, Cathedral. The independence of the individual, the power to stand alone as regards men and the gods, is the acme of stoical attainment. G. P. Fisher, Begin. of Christianity, p. 178. 2. The maturity or perfection of an animal.3. In med.: (a) The height or crisis of a disease. (b) Another, and probably the correct, form of acne.-4. [ cap.] In zool., a genus of land shells. Hartmann, 1821.