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A public officer who is invested with authority to hear and determine litigated causes, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for that purpose. The parts of a judge in hearing are four: to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and col…

The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge; the mandate or sentence of God as the judge of all. In judgments between rich and poor, consider not what the poor man needs, but what is his own. Jer. Taylor. M…

The legal power, right, or authority of a particular court to hear and determine causes, to try criminals, or to execute justice; judicial authority over a cause or class of causes; as, certain suits or actions, or the cognizance of certain crimes, are within the jurisdiction of a particular court, that is, within the…

A committee for determining relative merit or awarding prizes at an exhibition or competition; as, the art jury gave him the first prize. Jury of inquest, a coroner's jury. See Inquest.

ts import. Sir W. Hamilton. To use a word of Bacon's, now unfortunately obsolete, we must determine the relative value of knowledges. H. Spencer.

An instrument for determining the amount of butter fat contained in a given sample of milk.

e often troublesome to man and beast. -- Land measure, the system of measurement used in determining the area of land; also, a table of areas used in such measurement. -- Land, or House, of bondage, in Bible history, Egypt; by extension, a place or condition of special oppression. -- Land o' cakes, Scotland. -- Lan…

a hill or steeple. Landmarks of history, important events by which eras or conditions are determined.

a radical change for the better in one's way of living or doing. [Colloq.] They were both determined to turn over a new leaf. Richardson.

the idea of a power in any agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the other. Locke. This liberty of judgment did not of necessity lead to lawlessness. J. A. Symonds.

A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic a differentia.

attle. (a) (Mil Tactics) The position of troops drawn up in their usual order without any determined maneuver. (b) (Naval) The line or arrangement formed by vessels of war in an engagement. -- Line of battle ship. See Ship of the line, below. -- Line of beauty (Fine Arts),an abstract line supposed to be beautiful in…

To determine by agreement or by litigation the precise amount of (indebtedness); or, where there is an indebtedness to more than one person, to determine the precise amount of (each indebtedness); to make the amount of (an indebtedness); clear and certain. A debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agree…

ere the scene of an action or story is laid. -- Local option, the right or obligation of determining by popular vote within certain districts, as in each county, city, or town, whether the sale of alcoholic beverages within the district shall be allowed.

The line traced by a point which varies its position according to some determinate law; the surface described by a point or line that moves according to a given law. Plane locus, a locus that is a straight line, or a circle. -- Solid locus, a locus that is one of the conic sections.

Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation. Whewel.

Anything (as a die, pebble, ball, or slip of paper) used in determining a question by chance, or without man's choice or will; as, to cast or draw lots. The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Prov. xvi. 33. If we draw lots, he speeds. Shak.

ich are inscribed numbers, and any contrivance (as a wheel containing numbered balls) for determining a set of numbers by chance. The player holding a card having on it the set of numbers drawn from the wheel takes the stakes after a certain percentage of them has been deducted for the dealer. A variety of lotto is cal…

istance, the angular distance of the moon from the sun, a star, or a planet, employed for determining longitude by the lunar method. -- Lunar method, the method of finding a ship's longitude by comparing the local time of taking (by means of a sextant or circle) a given lunar distance, with the Greenwich time correspo…

An instrument for determining the size or distance of inaccessible objects by means of two reflectors on a common sextant.