abruptly; to bear out, to justify; to fall in, to comply; to give
over, to cease; to set off, to embellish; to set in, to begin
a continual tenour; to set out, to begin a course or journey; to
take off, to copy; with innumerable expressions of the same kind,
of which some appear wildly irregular, being so far distant from
the sense of the simple words, that no sagacity will be able to
trace the steps by which they arrived at the present use. These
I have noted with great care; and though I cannot flatter myself
that the collection is complete, I believe I have so far assisted
the students of our language, that this kind of phraseology will be
no longer insuperable; and the combinations of verbs and particles,
by chance omitted, will be easily explained by comparison with
those that may be found.

Many words yet stand supported only by the name of Bailey, Ainsworth,
Philips, or the contracted Dict. for Dictionaries subjoined; of
these I am not always certain that they are read in any book but
the works of lexicographers. Of such I have omitted many, because
I had never read them; and many I have inserted, because they may
perhaps exist, though they have escaped my notice: they are, however,
to be yet considered as resting only upon the credit of former
dictionaries. Others, which I considered as useful, or know to be
proper, though I could not at present support them by authorities,
I have suffered to stand upon my own attestation, claiming the same
privilege with my predecessors of being sometimes credited without
proof.

The words, thus selected and disposed, are grammatically considered;
they are referred to the different parts of speech; traced, when
they are irregularly inflected, through their various terminations;