Search the Dictionary

a former work are reduced within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement. [An] epitome of the contents of a very large book. Sydney Smith.

The act of expelling; a driving or forcing out; summary removal from membership, association, etc. The expulsion of the Tarquins. Shak.

sually in the plural, a collection of such principles and precepts; esp., a comprehensive summary of legal principles and decisions; as, the Institutes of Justinian; Coke's Institutes of the Laws of England. Cf. Digest, n. They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy. Burke. To make the Stoics' institutes thy ow…

A book in which a summary of accounts is laid up or preserved; the final book of record in business transactions, in which all debits and credits from the journal, etc., are placed under appropriate heads. [Written also leger.]

ament as Van Troil's chapter on the snakes of Iceland, which delivers its business in one summary sentence, announcing, that snakes in Iceland -- there are none. De Quincey.

To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of. The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance. Bancroft.

a town of Asia Minor, or to the ecumenial council held there A. D. 325. Nicene Creed (, a summary of Christian faith, composed and adopted by the Council of Nice, against Arianism, A. D. 325, altered and confirmed by the Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381, and by subsequent councils.

A concise or abridged statement or view; an abstract; a summary.

A figure by which, in pretending to pass over anything, a summary mention of it is made; as, "I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just." Called also paraleipsis.

A summary, plan, or scheme of something proposed, affording a prospect of its nature; especially, an exposition of the scheme of an unpublished literary work.

To repeat, as the principal points in a discourse, argument, or essay; to give a summary of the principal facts, points, or arguments of; to relate in brief; to summarize.

The act of recapitulating; a summary, or concise statement or enumeration, of the principal points, facts, or statements, in a preceding discourse, argument, or essay.

Sought for; demanded. [R.] Summary on Du Bartas (1621).

A work in the Persian tongue, being a summary of the Zend- Avesta, or sacred books.

A philosophical or theological opinion; a dogma; as, Summary of the Sentences; Book of the Sentences.

A summary account. The short and the long is, our play is preferred. Shak.

ns [wings]. Milton. Summing up, a compendium or abridgment; a recapitulation; a résumé; a summary.

In a summary manner.

To comprise in, or reduce to, a summary; to present briefly. Chambers.

One who sums up; one who forms an abridgment or summary. Sir E. Dering.