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ash, in opinion; to think conceitedly; to presume. They that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen. Milton.

y small portion or part; the smallest portion; as, he has not a particle of patriotism or virtue. The houses had not given their commissioners authority in the least particle to recede. Clarendon.

; patient; not opposing; unresisting; as, passive obedience; passive submission. The best virtue, passive fortitude. Massinger.

Love of country; devotion to the welfare of one's country; the virtues and actions of a patriot; the passion which inspires one to serve one's country. Berkley.

icult. And to each in ward part, With gentle penetration, though unseen, Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep. Milton. A penetration into the difficulties of algebra. Watts.

or filtering; filtration; straining. Specifically (Pharm.), the process of exhausting the virtues of a powdered drug by letting a liquid filter slowly through it.

count it. Hooker. My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes, That Heaven will weigh man's virtues and his crimes With nice attention. Cowper.

The quality or state of being perverse. "Virtue hath some perverseness." Donne.

een a piece of a logician before I came to him." Sir P. Sidney. Thy mother was a piece of virtue. Shak. His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world. Coleridge. a piece of cake, a task easily accomplished. a piece of work, a disparaging term for a person considered to have an excess of some undes…

To attribute; to ascribe; to set down. Place it for her chief virtue. Shak. To place (a person), to identify him. [Colloq. U.S.]

he President of the United States of a bill unsigned so that it does not become a law, in virtue of the following constitutional provision (Const. Art. I., sec. 7, cl. 2): "If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be…

That quality or condition of a body in virtue of which it exhibits opposite, or contrasted, properties or powers, in opposite, or contrasted, parts or directions; or a condition giving rise to a contrast of properties corresponding to a contrast of positions, as, for example, attraction and repulsion in the opposite pa…

The right by virtue of which persons and things taken by an enemy in war are restored to their former state when coming again under the power of the nation to which they belonged. Kent.

A prescribing for title; the claim of title to a thing by virtue immemorial use and enjoyment; the right or title acquired by possession had during the time and in the manner fixed by law. Bacon. That profound reverence for law and prescription which has long been characteristic of Englishmen. Macaulay.…

fluence; general existence, reception, or practice; wide extension; as, the prevalence of virtue, of a fashion, or of a disease; the prevalence of a rumor. The duke better knew what kind of argument were of prevalence with him. Clarendon.

First in rank, degree, dignity, authority, or importance; as, prime minister. "Prime virtues." Dryden.

table for, or becoming to, a prince; grand; august; munificent; magnificent; as, princely virtues; a princely fortune. "Most princely gifts." Shak.

pecifically: (a) The novitiate which a person must pass in a convent, to probe his or her virtue and ability to bear the severities of the rule. (b) The trial of a ministerial candidate's qualifications prior to his ordination, or to his settlement as a pastor. (c) Moral trial; the state of man in the present life, in…

Tried virtue or integrity; approved moral excellence; honesty; rectitude; uprightness. "Probity of mind." Pope.

kindle with thy own productive fire. Dryden. This is turning nobility into a principle of virtue, and making it productive of merit. Spectator.