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put to the left or larboard side of a ship; -- said of the helm, and used chiefly in the imperative, as a command; as, port your helm.

That which is required; an imperative or authoritative command; an essential condition; something needed or necessary; a need. One of those who believe that they can fill up every requirement contained in the rule of righteousness. J. M. Mason. God gave her the child, and gave her too an instinctive knowledge of its na…

to be lost, for the sake of obtaining something; to give up in favor of a higher or more imperative object or duty; to devote, with loss or suffering. Condemned to sacrifice his childish years To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears. Prior. The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum . . . for the sake of . . . making th…

ion or suggest as an estimate, hypothesis, or approximation; hence, to suppose; -- in the imperative, followed sometimes by the subjunctive; as, he had, say fifty thousand dollars; the fox had run, say ten miles. Say, for nonpayment that the debt should double, Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble Shak. It is said,…

command, a threat, or a promise. If the auxillary be emphasized, the command is made more imperative, the promise or that more positive and sure. It is also employed in the language of prophecy; as, "the day shall come when . . . , " since a promise or threat and an authoritative prophecy nearly coincide in significanc…

to the patient. It is usually prefaced by S or Sig. (an abbreviation for the Latin signa, imperative of signare to sign or mark).

imperative sing. of L. videre, to see; -- used to direct attention to something; as, vide supra, see above.

y in the phrases, woe worth the day, woe worth the man, etc., in which the verb is in the imperative, and the nouns day, man, etc., are in the dative. Woe be to the day, woe be to the man, etc., are equivalent phrases. I counsel . . . to let the cat worthe. Piers Plowman. He worth upon [got upon] his steed gray. Chauce…