Search the Dictionary

Capable of being defined, limited, or explained; determinable; describable by definition; ascertainable; as, definable limits; definable distinctions or regulations; definable words. -- De*fin"a*bly, adv.

Serving to define or restrict; limiting; determining; as, the definite article. Definite article (Gram.), the article the, which is used to designate a particular person or thing, or a particular class of persons or things; -- also called a definitive. See Definitive, n. -- Definite inflorescence. (Bot.) See Determina…

finition. Definition being nothing but making another understand by words what the term defined stands for. Locke.

A word used to define or limit the extent of the signification of a common noun, such as the definite article, and some pronouns.

One against whom a fictitious action of fine was brought. [Obs.] Burrill.

rm against; to accuse; to denounce. As men were delated, they were marked down for such a fine. Bp. Burnet.

Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fiber or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.

Pleasing to the senses; refinedly; hence, adapted to please a nice or cultivated taste; nice; fine; elegant; as, a delicate dish; delicate flavor.

singularly pleasing. Macaulay. The men, as usual, liked her artless kindness and simple refined demeanor. Thackeray.

One who refines metals by separation. [Obs.]

lorians, whose credibility on this point can not be called in question, depones to the confinement of Merlin in a tree. Dunlop.

as a new creation; conception or plan shown in completed work; as, this carved panel is a fine design, or of a fine design.

Confinement; restraint; custody. The archduke Philip . . . found himself in a sort of honorable detention at Henry's court. Hallam.

Having defined limits; not uncertain or arbitrary; fixed; established; definite. Quantity of words and a determinate number of feet. Dryden.

To define or limit by adding a differentia.

rriage, after the death of the first husband of wife; -- in distinction from bigamy, as defined in the old canon law. See Bigamy. Goldsmith.

or testament, conveying real estate; the clause of a will making a gift of real property. Fines upon devises were still exacted. Bancroft.

teaching some moral lesson; as, didactic essays. "Didactical writings." Jer. Taylor. The finest didactic poem in any language. Macaulay.

arance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars. Remarked by Grimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called diffraction. Whewell. Diffraction grating. (Optics) See under Grating. -- Diffraction spectrum. (Optics) See under Spectr…

An admirer or lover of the fine arts; popularly, an amateur; especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge, desultorily, or for amusement only.