Search the Dictionary

Excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning zeal, or wild and extravagant notions, on any subject, especially religion; religious frenzy.

One who is governed by fancy. "Not reasoners, but fanciers." Macaulay.

Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects.

nt, wit, or embellishment; imagination. In the soul Are many lesser faculties, that serve Reason as chief. Among these fancy next Her office holds. Milton.

ssment, and unable to proceed; puzzled; thhrown off the track. -- To find fault, to find reason for blaming or complaining; to express dissatisfaction; to complain; -- followed by with before the thing complained of; but formerly by at. "Matter to find fault at." Robynson (More's Utopia).

n of, or shared in, with delight; something highly agreeable; entertainment. The feast of reason, and the flow of soul. Pope. Feast day, a holiday; a day set as a solemn commemo

hment; to satisfy the physical huger of. If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Rom. xii. 20. Unreasonable reatures feed their young. Shak.

One of the same race or kind; one made by the same Creator. Reason, by which we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes. I. Watts.

slight; vain; without strength or solidity; of loose and unsubstantial structure; without reason or plausibility; as, a flimsy argument, excuse, objection. Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines. Pope. All the flimsy furniture of a country miss's brain. Sheridan.

ic, or the like, resembling the quiet, steady movement of a river; a stream. The feast of reason and the flow of soul. Pope.

Follow peace with all men. Heb. xii. 14. It is most agreeable to some men to follow their reason; and to others to follow their appetites. J. Edwards.

One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural.

rinciple; basis; plan; -- used only in the singular. Answer directly upon the foot of dry reason. Berkeley.

Having sore or tender feet, as by reason of much walking; as, foot-sore cattle.

of an action; the motive or inducement accompanying and prompting to an act or state; the reason of anything; that on account of which a thing is or is done. With fiery eyes sparkling for very wrath. Shak. How to choose dogs for scent or speed. Waller. Now, for so many glorious actions done, For peace at home, and for…

not to heed. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Of force, of necessity; unavoidably; imperatively. "Good reasons must, of force, give place to better." Shak. -- Plastic force (Physiol.), the force which presumably acts in the growth and repair of the tissues. -- Vital force (Physiol.), that force or power which is inherent in organ…

b. vi. 2 Sweet smells are most forcible in dry substances, when broken. Bacon. But I have reasons strong and forcible. Shak. That punishment which hath been sometimes forcible to bridle sin. Hooker. He is at once elegant and sublime, forcible and ornamented. Lowth (Transl. )

to alienate the right to possess, by some neglect or crime; as, to forfeit an estate by treason; to forfeit reputation by a breach of promise; -- with to before the one acquiring what is forfeited. [They] had forfeited their property by their crimes. Burke. Undone and forfeited to cares forever! Shak.…

As soon as the thing required may be done by reasonable exertion confined to that object. Bouvier.

o compose; in a bad sense, to invent or fabricate, as something false. How many excellent reasonings are framed in the mind of a man of wisdom and study in a length of years. I. Watts.