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Beginning; commencement; incipient state.

The act or process of inducting or bringing in; introduction; entrance; beginning; commencement. I know not you; nor am I well pleased to make this time, as the affair now stands, the induction of your acquaintance. Beau. & Fl. These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction dull of prosperous hope. Shak.…

Of or pertaining to the beginning; marking the commencement; incipient; commencing; as, the initial symptoms of a disease.

consist of 365 days, each fourth year having 366 days. -- Julian epoch, the epoch of the commencement of the Julian calendar, or 46 b. c. -- Julian period, a chronological period of 7,980 years, combining the solar, lunar, and indiction cycles (28 x 19 x 15 = 7,980), being reckoned from the year 4713 B. C., when the…

A dropsical habit of body, or the commencement of anasarca; paleness, with viscid juices and cold sweats.

Of or pertaining to, or suitable for, the commencement of the year; as, New-year gifts or odes.

rp remorse his heart did prick and nip. Spenser. To nip in the bud, to cut off at the verycommencement of growth; to kill in the incipient stage.

The act or process of opening; a beginning; commencement; first appearance; as, the opening of a speech. The opening of your glory was like that of light. Dryden.

Origin; commencement; source. It hath it original from much grief. Shak. And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Addison.

Originating in the character of the germ, or at the first commencement of an individual; -- said of peculiarities of structure, character, etc.

English kings." Drayton. Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine. Blackstone. -- Primer seizin (Feudal Law), the right of the king, when a tenant in capite died seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, if of full age, one year's profits of the land if in…

Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. Spenser.

The institution, or commencement, and continuance of a criminal suit; the process of exhibiting formal charges against an offender before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the state or government, as by indictment or information.

The student who pronounces the salutatory oration at the annual Commencement or like exercises of a college, -- an honor commonly assigned to that member of the graduating class who ranks second in scholarship. [U.S.]

ome; greeting; -- applied especially to the oration which introduces the exercises of the Commencements, or similar public exhibitions, in American colleges.

ized; untaught; unpolished; rude; as, savage life; savage manners. What nation, since the commencement of the Christian era, ever rose from savage to civilized without Christianity E. D. Griffin.

like, serving for various uses. Specifically: (a) The lintel of a door or window. (b) The commencement of a cross vault.

olleges, the student who pronounces the valedictory of the graduating class at the annual commencement, usually the student who ranks first in scholarship.

A valedictory oration or address spoken at commencement in American colleges or seminaries by one of the graduating class, usually by the leading scholar.

d directly; -- called also null method. -- Zero point, the point indicating zero, or the commencement of a scale or reckoning.