Search the Dictionary

A sacred character; a character in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representatio…

lematic; expressive of some meaning by characters, pictures, or figures; as, hieroglyphic writing; a hieroglyphic obelisk. Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his, hieroglyphical of wisest secrets. Prof. Wilson.

A form of sacred or hieratic writing.

Written in, or pertaining to, hierograms; expressive of sacred writing. Bp. Warburton.

Of or pertaining to sacred writing.

Sacred writing. [R.] Bailey.

A treatise on sacred things; especially, the science which treats of the ancient writings and inscriptions of the Egyptians, or a treatise on that science.

ch includes the study of the contents, literary character, date, authorship, etc., of any writing; as, the higher criticism of the Pentateuch. Called also historical criticism.

To move roughly or irregularly; -- said of style in writing. Prior. The hobbling versification, the mean diction. Jeffreys.

A document, as a letter, deed, or will, wholly in the handwriting of the person from whom it proceeds and whose act it purports to be.

king, shivering, or shuddering, as in the cold fit which precedes a fever; in old medical writings, a chill of less severity than a rigor, and more marked than an algor.

One who displays humor in speaking or writing; one who has a facetious fancy or genius; a wag; a droll. The reputation of wits and humorists. Addison.

Art of writing or engraving on glass.

The dramatic practice or purpose characteristic of the writings of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian poet and dramatist, whose best-known plays deal with conventional hypocrisies, the story in each play thus developing a definite moral problem.

lt of distinct volitional efforts, as the act of expressing the thoughts in speech, or in writing, while the mind is occupied in the composition of the sentence. Carpenter.

An original, pictorial element of writing; a kind of hieroglyph expressing no sound, but only an idea. Ideograms may be defined to be pictures intended to represent either things or thoughts. I. Taylor (The Alphabet). You might even have a history without language written or spoken, by means of ideograms and gesture. J…

The system of writing in ideographic characters; also, anything so written.

s independently of sounds, or in an ideographic manner, as sometimes is done in shorthand writing, etc.

Incapable of being read; not legible; as, illegible handwriting; an illegible inscription. -- Il*leg"i*ble*ness, n. -- Il*leg"i*bly, adv.

Rhetorical decoration in writing or speaking; vivid descriptions presenting or suggesting images of sensible objects; figures in discourse. I wish there may be in this poem any instance of good imagery. Dryden.