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Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary. Judgment's more essential to a general Than courage. Denham. How to live -- that is the essential question for us. H. Spencer.

A suffix used to form the superlative of adjectives and adverbs; as, smoothest; earl(y)iest.

A game at cards, that may be played by two, three, or four persons, the highest card (except when an extra card called the Joker is used) being the knave of the same suit as the trump, and called right bower, the lowest card used being the seven, or frequently, in two-handed euchre, the nine spot. See Bower.…

Exercising its highest influence; -- said of a planet. [Obs.] Chaucer.

distend; to extend every way; to enlarge; -- opposed to Ant: contract; as, to expand the chest; heat expands all bodies; to expand the sphere of benevolence.

To flatten; to spread out; to unfold; to expand. [Obs.] The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf. Evelyn.

At the utmost point, edge, or border; outermost; utmost; farthest; most remote; at the widest limit.

The extreme part; the utmost limit; the farthest or remotest point or part; as, the extremities of a country. They sent fleets . . . to the extremities of Ethiopia. Arbuthnot.

fictitious; as, a fabulous description; a fabulous hero. The fabulous birth of Minerva. Chesterfield.

Most distant; farthest. A spacious cave within its farmost part. Dryden.

Most distant or remote; as, the farthest degree. See Furthest.

The best or richest productions; the best part; as, to live on the fat of the land.

itor (as a horse in a race) that is judged most likely to win; the competitor standing highest in the betting.

and lower part of the back are ash-colored; the upper part of the back and wing coverts, chestnut; -- called also fellfare.

Polished to the highest degree of excellence; complete; perfect; as, a finished poem; a finished education. Finished work (Mach.), work that is made smooth or polished, though not necessarily completed.

Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest; as, Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece. At first blush. See under Blush. -- At first hand, from the first or original source; without the intervention of any agent. It is the intention of the person to reveal it at first hand, by way of mouth, to yoursel…

Of the best class; of the highest rank; in the first division; of the best quality; first-rate; as, a first-class telescope. First- class car or First-class railway carriage, any passenger car of the highest regular class, and intended for passengers who pay the highest regular rate; -- distinguished from a second-clas…

Of the highest excellence; preëminent in quality, size, or estimation. Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German. M. Arnold. Hermocrates . . . a man of first-rate ability. Jowett (Thucyd).

on, folly. Could he have kept his spirit to that flight, He had been happy. Byron. His highest flights were indeed far below those of Taylor. Macaulay.

A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Archaic] The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never had the like. Howell.