Aim, subst. 1) the direction of a missile or of any thing compared with it: “in the a. and very flash of it,” Caes. I, 3, 52. “I will watch the a.” Merch. I, 1, 150. “fly with false a.” All's III, 2, 113. “our safest way is to avoid the a.” Mcb. II, 3, 149.
2) the point, to which the thing thrown is directed, the butt: “mistakes that a.” Ven. 942. “the a. of all is but . . .” Lucr. 141. Lucr. 141 “I miss'd my a.” H6A I, 4, 4. “the Parthian darts lost a.” Ant. IV, 14, 71. “the --s and ends of burning youth,” Meas. I, 3, 5. “the a. of every shot,” R3 IV, 4, 90. Err. III, 2, 63. H4B I, 1, 123. H5 I, 2, 186. H8 V, 3, 118. “her that gave a. to all thy oaths,” Gentl. V, 4, 101, i. e. to whom all thy oaths were addressed. “But, gentle people, give me a. awhile,” Tit. V, 3, 149 (explained by the following stand all aloof) == give room and scope to my thoughts.
To cry aim, an expression borrowed from archery, == to encourage the archers by crying out aim, when they were about to shoot, and then in a general sense to applaud, to encourage with cheers: it ill beseems “this presence to cry aim to these ill-tuned repetitions,” John II, 196. “to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry a.” Wiv. III, 2, 45. Very dubious in Wiv. II, 3, 93: cried I a.? said I well? (Qq Ff cried game and cride-game), cf. Game.
3) the pointing of a missile and of what is similar to it: “end thy ill a. before thy shoot be ended,” Lucr. 579. “the hail of his all-hurting a.” Compl. 310. “a certain a. he took at . . .” Mids. II, 1, 157. “that from the hunter's a. had ta'en a hurt,” As II, 1, 34. H4B III, 2, 285. Troil. I, 3, 15. Hence == intention: “we shall be shorten'd in our a.” Cor. I, 2, 23. “proclaim myself against the level of my a.” All's II, 1, 159.
4) guess, conjecture: “a man may prophesy with a near a.” H4B III, 1, 83. “what you would work me to, I have some a.,” Caes. I, 2, 163. “in these cases, where the a. reports,” Oth. I, 3, 6. Gentl. III, 1, 28. Ado IV, 1, 239.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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