Search the Dictionary

ny action toward another which manifests contempt for him; an offense against personal dignity; unmerited contemptuous treatment; contumely; incivility or injury, accompanied with insult. How might a prince of my great hopes forget So great indignities you laid upon me Shak. A person of so great place and worth constra…

Want or absence of divine power or of divinity. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

Unlimited or boundless, in time or space; as, infinite duration or distance. Whatever is finite, as finite, will admit of no comparative relation with infinity; for whatever is less than infinite is still infinitely distant from infinity; and lower than infinite distance the lowest or least can not sink. H. Brooke.…

Without bounds or limits; beyond or below assignable limits; as, an infinitely large or infinitely small quantity.

The state or quality of being infinite; infinity; greatness; immensity. Jer. Taylor.

Infinitely or indefinitely small; less than any assignable quantity or value; very small. Infinitesimal calculus, the different and the integral calculus, when developed according to the method used by Leibnitz, who regarded the increments given to variables as infinitesimal.

By infinitesimals; in infinitely small quantities; in an infinitesimal degree.

Pertaining to the infinite mood. "Infinitival stems." Fitzed. Hall.

Unlimited; not bounded or restricted; undefined. Infinitive mood (Gram.), that form of the verb which merely names the action, and performs the office of a verbal noun. Some grammarians make two forms in English: (a) The simple form, as, speak, go, hear, before which to is commonly placed, as, to speak; to go; to hear.…

Infinite; perpetual, as a canon whose end leads back to the beginning. See Infinite, a., 5.

The quality or state of being infinite, or without limits; infiniteness.

Multipied an infinite number of times. [R.] Wollaston.

Unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity; eternity; boundlessness; immensity. Sir T. More. There can not be more infinities than one; for one of them would limit the other. Sir W. Raleigh.

Innate; inborn; inbred; inherent; native; ingenerate. [Obs.] It is naturalor ingenite, which comes by some defect of the organs and overmuch brain. Burton.

The quality or state of being inhuman; cruelty; barbarity. Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn. Burns.

or pertaining to the beginning; marking the commencement; incipient; commencing; as, the initial symptoms of a disease.

In an initial or incipient manner or degree; at the beginning. Barrow.

t; to originate; to commence; to begin or enter upon. How are changes of this sort to be initiated I. Taylor.

The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced; as, initiation into a society, into business, literature, etc. "The initiation of coursers of events." Pope.

Serving to initiate; inceptive; initiatory; introductory; preliminary.