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on; to affix to (a document) an earlier than the actual date; to antedate; as, a predated deed or letter.

Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.

Present letters or instrument, as a deed of conveyance, a lease, letter of attorney, or other writing; as in the phrase, " Know all men by these presents," that is, by the writing itself, " per has literas praesentes; " -- in this sense, rarely used in the singular.

e or authority previously obtained. Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner Shak. Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve. Milton.

That of which the essence is the absence of something. Blackness and darkness are indeed but privatives. Bacon.

strument offered, purporting to be the last will and testament of a person deceased, is indeed his lawful act; the copy of a will proved, under the seal of the Court of Probate, delivered to the executors with a certificate of its having been proved. Bouvier. Burrill.

The quality or state of being productive; productiveness. Emerson. Not indeed as the product, but as the producing power, the productivity. Coleridge.

The original copy of any writing, as of a deed, treaty, dispatch, or other instrument. Burrill.

Powerful; strong; mighty; forcible; as, a puissant prince or empire. " Puissant deeds." Milton. Of puissant nations which the world possessed. Spenser. And worldlings in it are less merciful, And more puissant. Mrs. Browning.

my eternal purpose hath decreed. Milton. The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it. Shak.

y; briskness; especially, rapidity of motion; speed; celerity; as, quickness of wit. This deed . . . must send thee hence With fiery quickness. Shak. His mind had, indeed, great quickness and vigor. Macaulay.

The state or quality of being quiescent. "Quiescence, bodily and mental." H. Spencer. Deeds will be done; -- while be boasts his quiescence. R. Browning.

A release or relinquishment of a claim; a deed of release; an instrument by which some right, title, interest, or claim, which one person has, or is supposed to have, in or to an estate held by himself or another, is released or relinquished, the grantor generally covenanting only against persons who claim under himsel…

Indeed; forsooth. To affront the blessed hillside drabs and thieves With mended morals, quotha, -- fine new lives ! Mrs. Browning.

The rolls of deeds on parchment in which the Scottish nobility and gentry subscribed allegiance to Edward I. of England, A. D. 1296. [Also written ragman-roll.]

rtain price or degree. To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible. South. You seem not high enough your joys to rate. Dryden.

The formal statement, or setting forth, of some matter of fact in any deed or writing in order to explain the reasons on which the transaction is founded; the statement of matter in pleading introductory to some positive allegation. Burn.

ocument, or from recollection; to rehearse; as, to recite the words of an author, or of a deed or covenant.

nseth the gift. Robynson (More's Utopia). To recompense My rash, but more unfortunate, misdeed. Milton.

corded of him . . . are written in the chronicles of the kings. 1 Esd. i. 42. To record a deed, mortgage, lease, etc., to have a copy of the same entered in the records of the office designated by law, for the information of the public.