Search the Dictionary

Conducted with secrecy; withdrawn from public notice, usually for an evil purpose; kept secret; hidden; private; underhand; as, a clandestine marriage. Locke.

Shaped like a lattice; cancellate. Gray.

The act of cutting off, curtailing, or diminishing; the practice of clipping the edges of coins. clipping by Englishmen is robbing the honest man who receives clipped money. Locke.

Disposed to keep secrets; secretive; reticent. "For servecy, no lady closer." Shak.

The act or practice of pitting gamecocks to fight.

cive*ly, adv. -- Co*er"cive*ness, n. Coercive power can only influence us to outward practice. Bp. Warburton. Coercive or Coercitive force (Magnetism), the power or force which in iron or steel produces a slowness or difficulty in imparting magnetism to it, and also interposes an obstacle to the return of a bar to its…

The practice of quartering one's self as landlord on a tenant; a quartering of one's self on anybody. [Ireland] Spenser.

One who collects things which are separate; esp., one who makes a business or practice of collecting works of art, objects in natural history, etc.; as, a collector of coins. I digress into Soho to explore a bookstall. Methinks I have been thirty years a collector. Lamb.

Fig.: A community. [R.] Thick as the college of the bees in May. Dryden. College of justice, a term applied in Scotland to the supreme civil courts and their principal officers. -- The sacred college, the college or cardinals at Rome.

Specious; plausible; having an appearance of right or justice. "Colorable pretense for infidility." Bp. Stillingfleet. -- Col"or*a*ble*ness, n. -- Col"or*a*bly, adv. Colorable and subtle crimes, that seldom are taken within the walk of human justice. Hooker.

y over; to obtain as if by ordering; to reeceive as a due; to challenge; to claim; as, justice commands the respect and affections of the people; the best goods command the best price. 'Tis not in mortals to command success. Addison.

To recommend as worthy of confidence or regard; to present as worthy of notice or favorable attention. Among the objects of knowlwdge, two especially commend themselves to our contemplation. Sir M. Hale. I commend unto you Phebe our sister. Rom. xvi. 1.

e until a pastor was provided. A living so held was said to be held in commendam. The practice was abolished by law in 1836. There was [formerly] some sense for commendams. Selden. Partnership in commendam. See under Partnership.

Fellowship at table; the act or practice of eating at the same table. [Obs.] "Promiscuous commensality." Sir T. Browne.

sion of the peace, a commission under the great seal, constituting one or more persons justices of the peace. [Eng.] -- To put a vessel into commission (Naut.), to equip and man a goverment vessel, and send it out on service after it has been laid up; esp., the formal act of tacking command of a vessel for service, hoi…

eam, or closure; the place where two bodies, or parts of a body, meet and unite; an interstice, cleft, or juncture.

An advocate for the theory or practice of communism.

their success, are presumed . . . to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice. Burke.

The act of writing for practice in a language, as English, Latin, German, etc.

The act or practice of justifying or confirming a man's veracity by the oath of others; -- called also wager of law. See Purgation; also Wager of law, under Wager.