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xpression to ideas, or to the laws of harmony or proportion; as, to compose a sentence, a sermon, a symphony, or a picture. Let me compose Something in verse as well as prose. Pope. The genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper". B. R. Haydon.

r husband within the bed curtains, or in bed. Jerrold. A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. W. Irving. -- The curtain falls, the performance closes. -- The curtain rises, the performance begins. -- To draw the curtain, to close ot over an obj…

sly; to execute rapidly, or with careless haste; -- with off; as, to dash off a review or sermon.

book from which the liturgical service is read, differing from the pulpit from which the sermon is preached; also (esp. in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for "the clerical profession."

either written or unwritten, on a given line of thought; speech; treatise; dissertation; sermon, etc.; as, the preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

ith. My charming friend . . . has, I am almost sure, a double, who preaches his afternoon sermons for him. Atlantic Monthly.

dity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand. "But sermons are mere drugs." Fielding. And virtue shall a drug become. Dryden.

y; uninteresting; tedious; cheerless; gloomy; melancholy; depressing; as, a dull story or sermon; a dull occupation or period; hence, cloudy; overcast; as, a dull day. Along life's dullest, dreariest walk. Keble.

A funeral sermon; -- usually in the plural. [Obs.] Mr. Giles Lawrence preached his funerals. South.

on; also with out; as, to get out one's Greek lesson. It being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty. Bp. Fell.

The characteristics or actions of a goose; silliness. The finical goosery of your neat sermon actor. Milton.

part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.

The art of preaching; that branch of theology which treats of homilies or sermons, and the best method of preparing and delivering them.

A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse. Shak.

able mind, or heart. They will be credulous in all affairs of life, but impenetrable by a sermon of the gospel. Jer. Taylor.

The fundamental fact or idea; that which gives the key; as, the keynote of a policy or a sermon.

discourse, intended for instruction; sometimes, a familiar discourse, in contrast with a sermon.

sea birds are remarkable for the length of their wings; he was tired by the length of the sermon, and the length of his walk.

itour of the Gray Friars, in the time of his limitation, preached many times, and had one sermon at all times. Latimer.

A course of extraordinary sermons and services at a particular place and time for the special purpose of quickening the faith and zeal participants, and of converting unbelievers. Addis & Arnold.