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authority of a particular court to hear and determine causes, to try criminals, or to execute justice; judicial authority over a cause or class of causes; as, certain suits or actions, or the cognizance of certain crimes, are within the jurisdiction of a particular court, that is, within the limits of its authority or…

Acute of mind; sharp; penetrating; having or expressing mental acuteness; as, a man of keen understanding; a keen look; keen features. To make our wits more keen. Shak. Before the keen inquiry of her thought. Cowper.

A piece of steel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction. Knife-edge file. See Illust. of File.

To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge streas, to labor a point or argument.

o seek a settlement of any matter by bringing it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute some one. -- To take, or have, the law of, to bring the law to bear upon; as, to take the law of one's neighbor. Addison. -- Wager of law. See under Wager.

erson as priest, deacon, etc. -- Letters patent, overt, or open (Eng. Law), a writing executed and sealed, by which power and authority are granted to a person to do some act, or enjoy some right; as, letters patent under the seal of England. -- Letter-sheet envelope, a stamped sheet of letter paper issued by the gov…

Acuteness; smartness; also, a smart trick or stratagem.[Obs.] Stanihurst.

To make the subject of a lawsuit; to contest in law; to prosecute or defend by pleadings, exhibition of evidence, and judicial debate in a court; as, to litigate a cause.

A diamond-shaped figure usually with the upper and lower angles slightly acute, borne upon a shield or escutcheon. Cf. Fusil.

Having acute sight.

they are mad upon their idols. Jer. 1. 88. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Acts xxvi. 11.

bring about; to bring forward; to be the cause or agent of; to effect, do, perform, or execute; -- often used with a noun to form a phrase equivalent to the simple verb that corresponds to such noun; as, to make complaint, for to complain; to make record of, for to record; to make abode, for to abide, etc. Call for Sam…

To persecute; to torment; to torture. Chaucer. The lovely Amoret, whose gentle heart Thou martyrest with sorrow and with smart. Spenser. Racked with sciatics, martyred with the stone. Pope.

on. Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss. Bacon. Flying bullets now, To execute his rage, appear too slow; They miss, or sweep but common souls away. Waller.

The act or art of making a model from which a work of art is to be executed; the formation of a work of art from some plastic material. Also, in painting, drawing, etc., the expression or indication of solid form. [Written also modelling.] Modeling plane, a small plane for planing rounded objects. -- Modeling wax, bee…

tomaine) obtained from putrid flesh and from herring brines. As a poison it is said to execute profuse diarrhoea, vomiting, and intestinal inflammation. Brieger.

A soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes cruel orders of a superior without protest or pity; -- sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc. Thackeray. With unabated ardor the vindictive man of law and his myrmidons pressed forward. W. H. Ainsworth.

Quickness of scent; hence, nice discernment; acuteness. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

Work executed with a needle; sewed work; sewing; embroidery; also, the business of a seamstress.

A disease, the chief symptom of which is a very acute pain, exacerbating or intermitting, which follows the course of a nervous branch, extends to its ramifications, and seems therefore to be seated in the nerve. It seems to be independent of any structural lesion. Dunglison.