Apposi´tion, in grammar, the relation in which one or more nouns or substantive phrases or clauses stand to a noun or pronoun, which they explain or characterize without being predicated of it, and with which they agree in case; as Cicero, the orator, lived in the first century before Christ; the opinion, that a severe winter is generally followed by a good summer, is a vulgar error.
Apprai´ser, a person employed to value property, and duly licensed to do so by licence taken out every year. The valuation must be duly set down in writing, and there is a certain fixed scale of charges for the appraiser's services.
Apprehen´sion, the seizing of a person as a criminal whether taken in the act or on suspicion, and with or without a warrant, a warrant being necessary when the person apprehending is not present at the commission of the offence. See Arrest.
Appren´tice, one bound by indenture to serve some particular individual or company of individuals for a specified time, in order to be instructed in some art, science, or trade. In England a person under the age of twenty-one cannot bind himself apprentice, and accordingly the usual way is for a relation or friend to become a contracting party to the indenture, and engage for the faithful performance of the agreement.
An infant cannot be bound apprentice by his friends without his own expressed consent. In Scotland a boy under fourteen or a girl under twelve years of age cannot become a party to an indenture without the concurrence of a parent or guardian; above that age they may enter into an indenture of themselves, and thereby become personally bound. An indenture is determinable by the consent of the parties to it, and also by the death, bankruptcy, or retirement from business of the master. Parish apprentices are bound out by the guardians of the poor to suitable persons, and in this case the consent of the apprentice is not necessary. The system of apprenticing by indenture is now much less common than formerly.—Cf. R. A. Bray, Boy Labour and Apprenticeship.
Approach´es, in field-engineering, an old-fashioned name for what are now called 'communication trenches'.
Appropria´tion. See Impropriation.
Appro´ver (ap-prö´vėr), in English law, any accomplice in a crime who is allowed by the judges of jail-delivery to become king's evidence, that is, to be examined in evidence against his accomplices, it being understood that the approver will himself be pardoned upon making a full and open confession.
Approxima´tion, a term used in mathematics to signify a continual approach to a quantity required, when no process is known for arriving at it exactly. Although, by such an approximation, the exact value of a quantity cannot be discovered, yet, in practice, it may be found sufficiently correct; thus the diagonal of a square, whose sides are represented by unity, is √2, the exact value of which quantity cannot be obtained; but its approximate value may be substituted in the nicest calculations.
Appuleius. See Apuleius.