Search the Dictionary

Having large hands, Fig.: Taking, or giving, in large quantities; rapacious or bountiful.

Liberality; generosity; bounty. [Obs.] Fulfilled of largesse and of all grace. Chaucer.

d dance, for two persons, being a kind of waltz, in which the woman made a high spring or bound. Shak.

An obligation; a vow. [Obs.] They bound themselves by a sacred lay and oath. Holland.

To spring or move suddenly, as by a jump or by jumps; to bound; to move swiftly. Also Fig. My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky. Wordsworth.

Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable; as, the surety is liable for the debt of his principal.

Bestowing in a large and noble way, as a freeman; generous; bounteous; open-handed; as, a liberal giver. " Liberal of praise." Bacon. Infinitely good, and of his good As liberal and free as infinite. Milton.

Characterized by license; passing due bounds; excessive; abusive of freedom; wantonly offensive; as, a licentious press. A wit that no licentious pertness knows. Savage.

serving an independent sovereign or master; bound by a feudal tenure; obliged to be faithful and loyal to a superior, as a vassal to his lord; faithful; loyal; as, a liege man; a liege subject.

The fiber by which the petioles of the date palm are bound together, from which various kinds of cordage are made.

The act of binding, or the state of being bound.

The state of being bound or stiffened; stiffness; as, the ligature of a joint.

The connection between sovereign and subject by which they were mutually bound, the former to protection and the securing of justice, the latter to faithful service; allegiance. [Written also ligeancy and liegance.] Chaucer.

confess that it likes me much better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favored creature. Sir P. Sidney.

That which terminates, circumscribes, restrains, or confines; the bound, border, or edge; the utmost extent; as, the limit of a walk, of a town, of a country; the limits of human knowledge or endeavor. As eager of the chase, the maid Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed. Pope.

That which serves to limit; a boundary; border land. [Obs.] Fuller.

Bounded by a distinct line.

A friar licensed to beg within certain bounds, or whose duty was limited to a certain district. [Formerly written also limitour.] Chaucer. A limitour of the Gray Friars, in the time of his limitation, preached many times, and had one sermon at all times. Latimer.

Having no limits; unbounded; boundless. Davies (Wit's Pilgr.).

The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; boundary; contour; outline. Eden stretched her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia. Milton.