adjuration
Americannoun
-
an earnest request; entreaty.
-
a solemn or desperate urging or counseling.
an adjuration for all citizens of the beleaguered city to take shelter.
Etymology
Origin of adjuration
1605–15; < Latin adjūrātiōn- (stem of adjūrātiō ), equivalent to adjūrāt ( us ), past participle of adjūrāre to adjure + -ion- -ion
Explanation
Use the noun adjuration to describe the serious, whole-hearted way you begged your parents to let you have a puppy when you were little. During your adjuration to get that puppy, did you say, "I swear I'll feed it and walk it every day! I swear to clean up after it!"? If so, you were really in tune with the origin of adjuration, the Latin ad- or "to" and jurare, "swear" — in the sense of taking an oath of honesty. Adjuration involves both begging and promising.
Vocabulary lists containing adjuration
Frankenstein
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Wuthering Heights
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Novel Study: Frankenstein, Chapters 14–24
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There was no pretence of moderation, and, save in the technical adjuration for mercy, no attempt to evade the responsibility.
From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume I by Henry Charles Lea
And added: "This is but an intimation Of more wicked adjuration," while he pointed to the second entrance, the inscription over which read: "Arbour of Wicked Vows."
From The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann
The adjuration spoke volumes, and for a few moments the old man stood there as if in a catalyptic state.
From The Haute Noblesse A Novel by George Manville Fenn
The solemn adjuration is made in the name of the Church by her ministers and in the ritual form prescribed by her, as in the exorcisms of Baptism.
From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles Jerome Callan
But this time, too, her adjuration failed to awaken an echo.
From The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
