Search the Dictionary

gradually or silently upon the rights or possessions of another; unlawful intrusion. An unconstitutional encroachment of military power on the civil establishment. Bancroft.

s in fashion. Locke. As now existing, fashion is a form of social regulation analogous to constitutional government as a form of political regulation. H. Spencer.

ernment, and vested in individuals; an imunity or exemption from ordinary jurisdiction; a constitutional or statutory right or privilege, esp. the right to vote. Election by universal suffrage, as modified by the Constitution, is the one crowning franchise of the American people. W. H. Seward.

A constitutional disease, occurring by paroxysms. It constists in an inflammation of the fibrous and ligamentous parts of the joints, and almost always attacks first the great toe, next the smaller joints, after which, it may attack the greater articulations. It is attended with various sympathettic phenomena, particul…

Habitual; constitutional; pertaining especially to slow waste of animal tissue, as in consumption; as, a hectic type in disease; a hectic flush.

Transmitted, or capable of being transmitted, as a constitutional quality or condition from a parent to a child; as, hereditary pride, bravery, disease.

ligion, justice, and peace in Europe, but really for repressing popular tendencies toward constitutional government, entered into by Alexander I. of Russia, Francis I. of Austria, and Frederic William III. of Prussia, at Paris, on the 26th of September, 1815, and subsequently joined by all the sovereigns of Europe, exc…

d into a country. Even the ship money . . . Johnson could not pronounce to have been an unconstitutional impost. Macaulay.

To deprive of legal or constitutional requisites, or of ability or competency for the performance of certain civil acts; to disqualify. It absolutely incapacitated them from holding rank, office, function, or property. Milman.

Wanting the legal or constitutional qualifications; inadmissible; as, a person professedly wanting in religious belief is an incompetent witness in a court of law or equity; incompetent evidence. Richard III. had a resolution, out of hatred to his brethren, to disable their issues, upon false and incompetent pretexts,…

ht, enforcing some duty, or prohibiting some act; -- distinguished from international and constitutional law. See Law, 1. -- Periodic law. (Chem.) See under Periodic. -- Roman law, the system of principles and laws found in the codes and treatises of the lawmakers and jurists of ancient Rome, and incorporated more or…

A restriction of power; as, a constitutional limitation. Wharton. Bouvier. To know one's own limitations, to know the reach and limits of one's abilities. A. R. Wallace.

Having a long life; having constitutional peculiarities which make long life probable; lasting long; as, a long-lived tree; they are a longlived family; long-lived prejudices.

The substance of which anything is made; material; hence, constitutional disposition; character; temper. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Shak.

Full of spirit; possessing constitutional ardor; fiery; as, a mettlesome horse. -- Met"tle*some*ly, adv. -- Met"tle*some*ness, n.

Physical force or steadiness; muscular power and control; constitutional vigor. he led me on to mightiest deeds, Above the nerve of mortal arm. Milton.

, by its sovereign act or decree, an enactment of the general government which it deems unconstitutional.

An erythematous affection of the skin, with severe constitutional and nervous symptoms, endemic in Northern Italy.

ed States of a bill unsigned so that it does not become a law, in virtue of the following constitutional provision (Const. Art. I., sec. 7, cl. 2): "If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as…

are the prerogative of man -- the powers of abstraction and imagination. I. Taylor. An unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative. Macaulay.