Search the Dictionary

Deviation from moral rectitude. [R.]

Deviation from ordinary rules; irregularity; deviation from moral rectitude. To disobey [God]...imports a moral obliquity. South.

sents what is offensive to chasity or purity of mind; obscene or impure lanquage or acts; moral impurity; lewdness; obsceneness; as, the obscenity of a speech, or a picture. Mr.Cowley asserts plainly, that obscenity has no place in wit. Dryden. No pardon vile obscenity should find. Pope.

way, or opposes; anything that hinders progress; a hindrance; an obstruction, physical or moral. If all obstacles were cut away. And that my path were even to the crown. Shak.

To transgress the moral or divine law; to commit a crime; to stumble; to sin. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. James ii. 10. If it be a sin to cevet honor, I am the most offending soul alive. Shak.

To act or produce effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence. The virtues of private persons operate but on a few. Atterbury. A plain, convincing reason operates on the mind both of a learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live. Swift.

The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral. The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach. Locke. Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection. Dryden.

Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects; as, an operative motive. It holds in all operative principles. South.

Consonance to genuine Scriptural doctrines; -- said of moral doctrines and beliefs; as, the orthodoxy of a creed.

To be bound in duty or by moral obligation. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Rom. xv. 1.

us narrative of something which might really occur in life or nature, by means of which a moral is drawn; as, the parables of Christ. Chaucer. Declare unto us the parable of the tares. Matt. xiii. 36.

, so that nothing requisite is wanting; entire development; consummate culture, skill, or moral excellence; the highest attainable state or degree of excellence; maturity; as, perfection in an art, in a science, or in a system; perfection in form or degree; fruits in perfection.

One pretending to perfection; esp., one pretending to moral perfection; one who believes that persons may and do attain to moral perfection and sinlessness in this life. South.

, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child. Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. Locke.

Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive; as, a pestiferous demagogue. Pestiferous reports of men very nobly held. Shak.

Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers. I'll pour this pestilence into his ear. Shak. Pestilence weed (Bot.), the butterbur coltsfoot (Petasites vulgaris), so called because formerly considered a remedy for the plague. Dr. Prior.

Hence: Mischievous; noxious; pernicious; morally destructive. So pestilential, so infectious a thing is sin. Jer. Taylor.

t genuine piety; hypocrisy in religion; a censorious, self-righteous spirit in matters of morals or manners. "A piece of pharisaism." Hammond.

ilistine, 3. [Recent] Carlyle. On the side of beauty and taste, vulgarity; on the side of morals and feeling, coarseness; on the side of mind and spirit, unintelligence, -- this is Philistinism. M. Arnold.

To play the philosopher; to moralize. [Obs.] Barrow.