Search the Dictionary

nal; as, seminal principles of generation; seminal virtue. The idea of God is, beyond all question or comparison, the one great seminal principle. Hare. Seminal leaf (Bot.), a seed leaf, or cotyleden. -- Seminal receptacle. (Zoöl.) Same as Spermatheca.

To determine, as something which is exposed to doubt or question; to free from unscertainty or wavering; to make sure, firm, or constant; to establish; to compose; to quiet; as, to settle the mind when agitated; to settle questions of law; to settle the succession to a throne; to settle an allowance. It will settle the…

in to occur, and the expression approximates in meaning to our emphatic "I will go." In a question, the relation of speaker and source of obligation is of course transferred to the person addressed; as, "Shall you go" (answer, "I shall go"); "Shall he go" i. e., "Do you require or promise his going" (answer, "He shall…

That which is shipped. The question is, whether the share of M. in the shipment is exempted from condemnation by reason of his neutral domicle. Story.

Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.

To shrive; to question. [Obs.] "She gan him soft to shrieve." Spenser.

To change one's position; to shift ground; to evade questions; to resort to equivocation; to prevaricate. I muself, . . . hiding mine honor in my necessity, am fain to shuffle. Shak.

t; characterized by weakness or folly; unwise; absurd; stupid; as, silly conduct; a silly question.

wn; a universal doubter; a Pyrrhonist; hence, in modern usage, occasionally, a person who questions whether any truth or fact can be established on philosophical grounds; sometimes, a critical inquirer, in opposition to a dogmatist. All this criticism [of Hume] proceeds upon the erroneous hypothesis that he was a dogma…

ose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps. How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank! Shak.

To pass or put imperceptibly; to slip; as, to slide in a word to vary the sense of a question.

To embarrass; to insnare. [The] question that they would have snarled him with. Latimer.

his well- being as a member of an organized community; sociology. It concerns itself with questions of the public health, education, labor, punishment of crime, reformation of criminals, and the like. -- Social whale (Zoöl.), the blackfish. -- The social evil, prostitution.

, or the state of being solved; the disentanglement of any intricate problem or difficult question; explanation; clearing up; -- used especially in mathematics, either of the process of solving an equation or problem, or the result of the process.

and supreme authority is vested; especially, in a monarchy, a king, queen, or emperor. No question is to be made but that the bed of the Mississippi belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation. Jefferson.

termining by a mark or limit; notation of limits. This specification or limitation of the question hinders the disputers from wandering away from the precise point of inquiry. I. Watts.

rent aspects and relations; to meditate; to contemplate; to theorize; as, to speculate on questions in religion; to speculate on political events. It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most pefect quietude to the external regulations of society. Hawthorne.…

In sport; sportively. The question you there put, you do it, I suppose, but sportingly. Hammond.

ar of pain or punishment; to speak; to confess. [Colloq.] If he be obstinate, put a civil question to him upon the rack, and he squeaks, I warrant him. Dryden.

That can be stated; as, a statablegrievance; the question at issue is statable.