Search the Dictionary

A caption or sophistical mode of arguing. [R.]

One of a sect or school of philosophers founded by Antisthenes, and of whom Diogenes was a disciple. The first Cynics were noted for austere lives and their scorn for social customs and current philosophical opinions. Hence the term Cynic symbolized, in the popular judgment, moroseness, and contempt for the views of ot…

Belonging to the sect of philosophers called cynics; having the qualities of a cynic; pertaining to, or resembling, the doctrines of the cynics.

country of northern Africa, and to Cyrene, its principal city; also, to a school of philosophy founded by Aristippus, a native of Cyrene. -- n.

One of a school of philosophers, established at Cyrene by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates. Their doctrines were nearly the same as those of the Epicureans.

the deities Of Egypt. Milton. The Deity, God, the Supreme Being. This great poet and philosopher [Simonides], the more he contemplated the nature of the Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth. Addison.

act or truth which is decisively attested or intuitively known as a psychological or philosophical datum; as, the deliverance of consciousness.

ttle value or claim to esteem; to undervalue. Addison. Which . . . some over-severe phoilosophers may look upon fastidiously, or undervalue and depreciate. Cudworth. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself. Burke.

The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble. Grove. Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, as children make descant upon plain song. Tyndale. She [the nightingale] all night long her amorous descant sung. Milton.

That branch of natural philosophy which treats of the properties of sound as affected by passing through different mediums; -- called also diaphonics. See the Note under Acoustics.

from accident or error, or from those necessary limitations which, according to this philosopher, originate in the constitution of the human intellect.

A Greek Cynic philosopher (412-323 B. C.) who lived much in Athens and was distinguished for contempt of the common aims and conditions of life, and for sharp, caustic sayings. Diogenes' crab (Zoöl.), a species of terrestrial hermit crabs (Cenobita Diogenes), abundant in the West Indies and often destructive to crops.…

doctrine of a future life was no recommendation of the new religion to the wits and philosophers of that disputations period. Buckminster. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ly, adv. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ness, n.

Several; sundry; various; more than one, but not a great number; as, divers philosophers. Also used substantively or pronominally. Divers of Antonio's creditors. Shak.

f the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.

itical or other practical concerns the abstract doctrines or the theories of his own philosophical system; a propounder of a new set of opinions; a dogmatic theorist. Used also adjectively; as, doctrinaire notions.

A medicine to promote sleep; a soporific; an opiate.

Disposing to sleep; lulling; soporific. The drowsy hours, dispensers of all good. Tennyson.

The system of religion, philosophy, and instruction, received and taught by the Druids; the rites and ceremonies of the Druids.

llent in doctrines, opinions, etc.) from various sources or systems; as, an eclectic philosopher.