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The act of explaining, expounding, or interpreting; the act of clearing from obscurity and making intelligible; as, the explanation of a passage in Scripture, or of a contract or treaty.

Serving to explain; containing explanation; as explanatory notes. Swift.

To explain; to unfold. [Obs.] Like Solon's self explatest the knotty laws. B. Jonson.

Capable of being explicated; that may be explained or accounted for; admitting explanation. It is not explicable upon any grounds. Burke.

To unfold the meaning or sense of; to explain; to clear of difficulties or obscurity; to interpret. The last verse of his last satire is not yet sufficiently explicated. Dryden.

The act of opening, unfolding, or explaining; explanation; exposition; interpretation. The explication of our Savior's parables. Atterbury.

Serving to unfold or explain; tending to lay open to the understanding; explanatory. Sir W. Hamilton.

One who unfolds or explains; an expounder; an explainer.

Not implied merely, or conveyed by implication; distinctly stated; plain in language; open to the understanding; clear; not obscure or ambiguous; express; unequivocal; as, an explicit declaration. The language of the charter was too explicit to admit of a doubt. Bancroft.

In an explicit manner; clearly; plainly; without disguise or reservation of meaning; not by inference or implication; as, he explicitly avows his intention.

To expound; to explain; also, to expose; to imperil. [Old Eng. & Scotch] Drummond.

Serving to explain; expository. Bp. Pearson.

One who, or that which, expounds or explains; an expounder; a commentator. Bp. Horsley.

Pertaining to, or containing, exposition; serving to explain; explanatory; illustrative; exegetical. A glossary or expository index to the poetical writers. Johnson.

To lay open the meaning of; to explain; to clear of obscurity; to interpret; as, to expound a text of Scripture, a law, a word, a meaning, or a riddle. Expound this matter more fully to me. Bunyan.

One who expounds or explains; an interpreter.

A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration. [Obs.] The only remanent express of Christ's sacrifice on earth. Jer. Taylor.

A small oval porcelain or glass cup, having a rim curved to fit the orbit of the eye. it is used in the application of liquid remedies to eyes; -- called also eyeglass.

Plural of eye; obsolete, or used only in poetry. Shak. With such a plaintive gaze their eyne Are fastened upwardly on mine. Mrs. Browning.

Speech; eloquence. [Obs.] Her facound eke full womanly and plain. Chaucer.