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Having conspicuous flowers; -- used as an epithet with many names of plants; as, flowering ash; flowering dogwood; flowering almond, etc. Flowering fern, a genus of showy ferns (Osmunda), with conspicuous bivalvular sporangia. They usually grow in wet places. -- Flowering plants, plants which have stamens and pistils,…

insipid. He [Prof. Ayton] would purge his book of much offensive matter, if he struck out epithets which are in the bad taste of the forcible-feeble school. N. Brit. Review.

like; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; -- usually in a good sense, when no epithet is expressed; the better or lovelier part of our nature; the spring of all our actions and purposes; the seat of moral life and character; the moral affections and character itself; the individual disposition and character…

An epithet of respect or distinction; as, the honorable Senate; the honorable gentleman.

An unexplained epithet used by Chaucer in reference to ships. By some it is defined as "dancing (on the wave)"; by others as "opposing," "warlike." T. R. Lounsbury.

applied to a particular person, place, or thing. -- To call names, to apply opprobrious epithets to; to call by reproachful appellations. -- To take a name in vain, to use a name lightly or profanely; to use a name in making flippant or dishonest oaths. Ex. xx. 7.

d in, or having the nature or position of, an object; outward; external; extrinsic; -- an epithet applied to whatever ir exterior to the mind, or which is simply an object of thought or feeling, and opposed to subjective. In the Middle Ages, subject meant substance, and has this sense in Descartes and Spinoza: sometime…

A figure in which an epithet of a contrary signification is added to a word; e. g., cruel kindness; laborious idleness.

An assumed name; a fanciful epithet or appellation; a nickname. [Sometimes less correctly written soubriquet.]

A human being; a person; -- a familiar appellation, usually with a qualifying epithet; as, poor soul. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. Prov. xxv. 25. God forbid so many simple souls Should perish by the aword! Shak. Now mistress Gilpin (careful soul). Cowper.

One who thunders; -- used especially as a translation of L. tonans, an epithet applied by the Romans to several of their gods, esp. to Jupiter. That dreadful oath which binds the Thunderer. Pope.

Being three in one; -- an epithet used to express the unity of a trinity of persons in the Godhead.

Having two hands; -- often used as an epithet equivalent to large, stout, strong, or powerful. "Two-handed sway." Milton.

ison. Upon the whole, it will be necessary to avoid that perpetual repetition of the same epithets which we find in Homer. Pope. He had abandoned the frontiers, retiring upon Glasgow. Sir. W. Scott. Philip swore upon the Evangelists to abstain from aggression in my absence. Landor.