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xpectation of what is to follow, or of what is to be the inference or conclusion from the arguments or observations employed.

The regular logical form of every argument, consisting of three propositions, of which the first two are called the premises, and the last, the conclusion. The conclusion necessarily follows from the premises; so that, if these are true, the conclusion must be true, and the argument amounts to demonstration;…

sm; consisting of a syllogism, or of the form of reasoning by syllogisms; as, syllogistic arguments or reasoning.

on by means of syllogisms. Men have endeavored . . . to teach boys to syllogize, or frame arguments and refute them, without any real inward knowledge of the question. I. Watts.

ck time. The term has recently been applied to large orchestral works in freer form, with arguments or programmes to explain their meaning, such as the "symphonic poems" of Liszt. The term was formerly applied to any composition for an orchestra, as overtures, etc., and still earlier, to certain compositions partly voc…

That the reader may see in one view the exactness of the method, as well as force of the argument, I shall here draw up a short synopsis of this epistle. Bp. Warburton.

or of the principal parts of a thing; as, a synoptic table; a synoptical statement of an argument. "The synoptic Gospels." Alford. -- Syn*op"tic*al*ly, adv.

troy; as, to take off life. (d) To remove; to invalidate; as, to take off the force of an argument. (e) To withdraw; to call or draw away. Locke. (f) To swallow; as, to take off a glass of wine.

To cause to ring or sound loudly; to ring. Let thy tongue tang arguments of state. Shak. To tang bees, to cause a swarm of bees to settle, by beating metal to make a din.

nt or objector, or againts attempts to take or process; as, a tenable fortress, a tenable argument. If you have hitherto concealed his sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still. Shak. I would be the last man in the world to give up his cause when it was tenable. Sir W. Scott.

Lacking substance, as a tenuous argument.

or standard; to try; as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument. Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution. Washington.

Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, or the like; topic; theme.

A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text. My theme is alway one and ever was. Chaucer. And when a soldier was the theme, my name Was not far off. Shak.

that time. (b) By the time that. [Obs.] But that opinion, I trust, by then this following argument hath been well read, will be left for one of the mysteries of an indulgent Antichrist. Milton. Now and then. See under Now, adv. -- Till then, until that time; until the time mentioned. Milton.

sition which a person advances and offers to maintain, or which is actually maintained by argument.

To that point, end, or result; as, the argument tended thither. Hither and thither, to this place and to that; one way and another.

ord to a tree; to knit; to knot. "We do not tie this knot with an intention to puzzle the argument." Bp. Burnet.

One of the various general forms of argument employed in probable as distinguished from demonstrative reasoning, -- denominated by Aristotle to`poi (literally, places), as being the places or sources from which arguments may be derived, or to which they may be referred; also, a prepared form of argument, applicable to…

esembling a topic, or general maxim; hence, not demonstrative, but merely probable, as an argument. Evidences of fact can be no more than topical and probable. Sir M. Hale.