Search the Dictionary

capable of cultivation, or of being advanced in good qualities. Man is accommodated with moral principles, improvable by the exercise of his faculties. Sir M. Hale. I have a fine spread of improvable lands. Addison.

d in view; not large enough to contain or hold; deficient in physical strength, mental or moral power, etc.; not capable; as, incapable of holding a certain quantity of liquid; incapable of endurance, of comprehension, of perseverance, of reform, etc.

Fig.: To lean or tend, in an intellectual or moral sense; to favor an opinion, a course of conduct, or a person; to have a propensity or inclination; to be disposed. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech. Judges ix. 3. Power finds its balance, giddy motions cease In both the scales, and each inclines to peace. Parn…

The quality or state of being incompetent; want of physical, intellectual, or moral ability; insufficiency; inadequacy; as, the incompetency of a child hard labor, or of an idiot for intellectual efforts. "Some inherent incompetency." Gladstone.

s a very unhappy token of our corruption, that therinconsiderate among us as to sacrifice morality to politics. Addison.

Not accordant with duty or morality; not duly regulated or subordinated; unbecoming; improper; as, incorrect conduct. It shows a will most incorrect to heaven. Shak. The wit of the last age was yet more incorrect than their language. Dryden.

Incapable of being bribed or morally corrupted; inflexibly just and upright.

That which is morally incumbent, or is imposed, as a rule, a duty, obligation, or responsibility. "The incumbencies of a family." Donne.

omedy. Blair. Your papers would be chargeable with worse than indelicacy; they would be immoral. Addison.

expurgatory index, is a catalogue of books from which passages marked as against faith or morals must be removed before Catholics can read them. These catalogues are published with additions, from time to time, by the Congregation of the Index, composed of cardinals, theologians, etc., under the sanction of the pope. H…

tone. To give ourselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause. Fuller. Moral liberty . . . does not, after all, consist in a power of indifferency, or in a power of choosing without regard to motives. Hazlitt.

A heresy consisting in an unconcern for any particular creed, provided the morals be right and good. Gregory XVI.

Not admitting dispensation; not subject to release or exemption. [R.] The law was moral and indispensable. Bp. Burnet.

To clothe; to invest; hence, to endow; to furnish; to supply with moral or mental qualities. Indu'd with robes of various hue she flies. Dryden. Indued with intellectual sense and souls. Shak.

al character of supreme pontiff, err in defining a doctrine of Christian faith or rule of morals, to be held by the church. This was decreed by the Ecumenical Council at the Vatican, July 18, 1870.

Incapable of error in defining doctrines touching faith or morals. See Papal infallibility, under Infallibility.

That which taints or corrupts morally; as, the infection of vicious principles. It was her chance to light Amidst the gross infections of those times. Daniel.

Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate; vitiating; demoralizing. It [the court] is necessary for the polishing of manners . . . but it is infectious even to the best morals to live always in it. Dryden.

Breach of trust; unfaithfulness to a charge, or to moral obligation; treachery; deceit; as, the infidelity of a servant. "The infidelity of friends." Sir W. Temple.

Hence, in general, the bringing about of an effect, phusical or moral, by a gradual process; controlling power quietly exerted; agency, force, or tendency of any kind which the sun exerts on animal and vegetable life; the influence of education on the mind; the influence, according to astrologers,of the stars over affa…