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Not publicly known; not open; secret; as, a private negotiation; a private understanding.

ltural, or the like, to which one devotes one's self; the business which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physician; the profession of lecturer on chemistry. Hi tried five or six professions i…

conclusive evidence; demonstration. I'll have some proof. Shak. It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to confirm whatever he pleases. Emerson.

On condition; by stipulation; with the understanding; if; -- usually followed by that; as, provided that nothing in this act shall prejudice the rights of any person whatever. Provided the deductions are logical, they seem almost indifferent to their truth. G. H. Lewes.

A combining form from Gr. the soul, the mind, the understanding; as, psychology.

tive letter; a letter that belongs to the radix. The words we at present make use of, and understand only by common agreement, assume a new air and life in the understanding, when you trace them to their radicals, where you find every word strongly stamped with nature; full of energy, meaning, character, painting, and…

s; to scoff; followed by at or against, formerly by on. Shak. And rail at arts he did not understand. Dryden. Lesbia forever on me rails. Swift.

rt" ( Etym: [F.], in accord, harmony, or sympathy; having a mutual, especially a private, understanding; in mesmerism, in that relation of sympathy which permits influence or communication.

ers to; as, he had, or would, rather go than stay. "I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousands words in an unknown tongue." 1 Cor. xiv. 19. See Had rather, under Had.

Having reason, or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason or understanding; reasoning. It is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature. Law.

The doctrine or system of those who deduce their religious opinions from reason or the understanding, as distinct from, or opposed to, revelation.

To understand; to comprehend. [Obs.] Do what, sir I reach you not. Beau. & Fl.

To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation. An armed corse did lie, In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. Spenser. Those about her From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. Shak.

r existence of anything, in distinction from mere appearance; fact. A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning. Addison.

it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty. We have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing anything divine or human, but by our five senses and our reason. P. Browne. In common and popular discours…

d the manner of them, by reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations in the understanding. Locke. This delight grows and improves under thought and reflection. South.

To cause to perceive or understand; to acquaint; to inform; to convince; to assure; to make certain. Sir, be resolved. I must and will come. Beau & Fl. Resolve me, Reason, which of these is worse, Want with a full, or with an empty purse Pope. In health, good air, pleasure, riches, I am resolved it can not be equaled b…

reveries." Tennyson. When ideas float in our mind without any reflection or regard of the understanding, it is that which the French call revery, our language has scarce a name for it. Locke.

One well versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric. The understanding is that by which a man becomes a mere logician and a mere rhetorician. F. W. Robertson.

Rough and ready. (a) Acting with offhand promptness and efficiency. "The rough and ready understanding." Lowell.