Search the Dictionary

A supposed material or psychical agent or mode of activity other than a force, law, or purpose; fortune; fate; -- in this sense often personifed. It is strictly and philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident; it being evident that these words do not signify anything real…

That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose. -- Change"less*ness, n.

-- To hold a chapel, to have a meeting of the men employed in a printing office, for the purpose of considering questions affecting their interests.

tteched to the army or navy, to some public institution, or to a family or court, for the purpose of performing divine service.

To pursue for the purpose of killing or taking, as an enemy, or game; to hunt. We are those which chased you from the field. Shak. Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and place. Cowper.

To correct by punishment; to inflict pain upon the purpose of reclaiming; to discipline; as, to chasten a son with a rod. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6.

To inflict pain upon, by means of stripes, or in any other manner, for the purpose of punishment or reformation; to punish, as with stripes. How fine my master is! I am afraid He will chastise me. Shak. I am glad to see the vanity or envy of the canting chemists thus discovered and chastised. Boyle.…

The process of forming an artificial tip or part of a lip, by using for the purpose a piece of healthy tissue taken from some neighboring part.

A scientific study of children, undertaken for the purpose of discovering the laws of development of the body and the mind from birth to manhood.

of a species of Smilax (S. China, from the East Indies; -- formerly much esteemed for the purposes that sarsaparilla is now used for. Also the galanga root (from Alpinia Gallanga and Alpinia officinarum). -- China rose. (Bot.) (a) A popular name for several free-blooming varieties of rose derived from the Rosa Indica,…

To treat or prepare with a chloride, as a plate with chloride of silver, for the purposes of photography. R. Hunt.

the bore of the barrel of a shotgun. To choke off, to stop a person in the execution of a purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.

One of a set of photographs of a moving object, taken for the purpose of recording and exhibiting successive phases of the motion. --Chron`o*pho*tog"ra*phy, n.

he expressed juice of apples. It is used as a beverage, for making vinegar, and for other purposes.

pillar, square or round, commonly having an inscription, used by the ancients for various purposes, as for indicating the distances of places, for a landmark, for sepulchral inscriptions, etc. Gwilt.

Subserving the purposes of circulation; as, circulatory organs; of or pertaining to the organs of circulation; as, circulatory diseases.

One who circumvents; one who gains his purpose by cunning.

A curve invented by Diocles, for the purpose of solving two celebrated problems of the higher geometry; viz., to trisect a plane angle, and to construct two geometrical means between two given straight lines.

, as a passage from a book, or the words of another. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Shak.

Civil architecture, the architecture which is employed in constructing buildings for the purposes of civil life, in distinction from military and naval architecture, as private houses, palaces, churches, etc. -- Civil death. (Law.) See under Death. -- Civil engineering. See under Engineering. -- Civil law. See unde…