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The quality of state of being proficient; advance in the acquisition of any art, science, or knowledge; progression in knowledge; improvement; adeptness; as, to acquire proficiency in music.

Acquisition beyond expenditure; excess of value received for producing, keeping, or selling, over cost; hence, pecuniary gain in any transaction or occupation; emolument; as, a profit on the sale of goods. Let no man anticipate uncertain profits. Rambler.

The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent. It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance. Franklin.

An acquired trait; accomplishment; acquisition. He had those qualities of horsemanship, dancing, and fencing which accompany a good breeding. Clarendon.

Given to study; devoted to the acquisition of knowledge from books; as, a studious scholar.

Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity. "Your thrift is gone full clean." Chaucer. I have a mind presages me such thrift. Shak.

Thriving by industry and frugality; prosperous in the acquisition of worldly goods; increasing in wealth; as, a thrifty farmer or mechanic.

A violent passion for the acquisition or cultivation of tulips; -- a word said by Beckman to have been coined by Menage.

The acquisition of the title or right to property by the uninterrupted possession of it for a certain term prescribed by law; -- the same as prescription in common law.

An unexpected gain or acquisition; a casual advantage or benefit; a windfall. [Obs.]

ence, for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce, for the acquisition of territory, for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sovereign powers; declared and open hostilities. Men will ever distinguish wa…