Apter to give than thou wit be to ask.
Beau. & Fl.
That lofty pity with which prosperous folk are apt to remember their grandfathers.
F. Harrison.
4. Ready; especially fitted or qualified (to do something); quick to learn; prompt; expert; as, a pupil apt to learn; an apt scholar. "An apt wit." Johnson.
Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die.
Shak.
I find thee apt . . . Now, Hamlet, hear.
Shak.
Syn. -- Fit; meet; suitable; qualified; inclined; disposed; liable; ready; quick; prompt.
Apt, v. t. [L. aptare. See Aptate.] To fit; to suit; to adapt. [Obs.] " To apt their places." B. Jonson.
That our speech be apted to edification.
Jer. Taylor.
Apt"a*ble (&?;), a. [LL. aptabilis, fr. L. aptare.] Capable of being adapted. [Obs.] Sherwood.
Ap"tate (&?;), v. t. [L. aptatus, p. p. of aptare. See Apt.] To make fit. [Obs.] Bailey
||Ap"te*ra (&?;), n. pl. [NL. aptera, fr. Gr. &?; without wings; 'a priv. + &?; wing, &?; to fly.] (Zoöl.) Insects without wings, constituting the seventh Linnæn order of insects, an artificial group, which included Crustacea, spiders, centipeds, and even worms. These animals are now placed in several distinct classes and orders.
Ap"ter*al (&?;), a. 1. (Zoöl.) Apterous.
2. (Arch.) Without lateral columns; -- applied to buildings which have no series of columns along their sides, but are either prostyle or amphiprostyle, and opposed to peripteral. R. Cyc.
Ap"ter*an (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) One of the Aptera.
||Ap*te"ri*a (&?;), n. pl. [NL. See Aptera.] (Zoöl.) Naked spaces between the feathered areas of birds. See Pteryliæ.
Ap"ter*ous (&?;), a. 1. (Zoöl.) Destitute of wings; apteral; as, apterous insects.
2. (Bot.) Destitute of winglike membranous expansions, as a stem or petiole; -- opposed to alate.
||Ap*ter"y*ges (&?;), n. pl. [NL. See Apteryx.] (Zoöl.) An order of birds, including the genus Apteryx.
||Ap"te*ryx (&?;), n. [Gr. 'a priv. + pte`ryx wing. Cf. Aptera.] (Zoöl.) A genus of New Zealand birds about the size of a hen, with only short rudiments of wings, armed with a claw and without a tail; the kiwi. It is allied to the gigantic extinct moas of the same country. Five species are known.
Apt"i*tude (&?;), n. [F. aptitude, LL. aptitudo, fr. L. aptus. See Apt, and cf. Attitude.] 1. A natural or acquired disposition or capacity for a particular purpose, or tendency to a particular action or effect; as, oil has an aptitude to burn.
He seems to have had a peculiar aptitude for the management of irregular troops.
Macaulay.