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ee Pandect), but is also specially given by authors to compilations of laws on particular topics; a summary of laws; as, Comyn's Digest; the United States Digest. A complete digest of Hindu and Mahommedan laws after the model of Justinian's celebrated Pandects. Sir W. Jones. They made a sort of institute and digest of…

Any external topical application to the body, except ointments and plasters, as a poultice, lotion, etc.

appended to a work, and containing a more extended exposition of some important point or topic.

tal endowment; characteristic knack. He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament. Hawthorne.

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

niversal principles, of the nature and orders of celestial beings, of medicine, and other topics.

A table for facilitating reference to topics, names, and the like, in a book; -- usually alphabetical in arrangement, and printed at the end of the volume.

figures. Hence, presenting many questions or subjects for consideration; as, a many-sided topic.

arce by De Brueys, revenons à nos moutons let us return to our sheep.] To return to one's topic, subject of discussion, etc. [Humorous] I willingly return to my muttons. H. R. Haweis.

Of intellectual notions or ideas, like the topics of a discource.

To pass from one point, topic, or stage, to another; as, to proceed with a story or argument.

To remind, as an actor or an orator, of words or topics forgotten.

by the exclamation " Pshaw!" The goodman used regularly to frown and pshaw wherever this topic was touched upon. Sir W. Scott.

To sum up, or enumerate by heads or topics, what has been previously said; to repeat briefly the substance.

A peculiar species of poetry, for the most part devoted to moral and religious topics, and commonly satirical, -- often used by the troubadours of the Middle Ages.

A collection of short essays by different authors on a common topic; -- so called from the appellation given to the philosophical dialogue by the Greeks.

Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, or the like; topic; theme.

A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text. My theme is alway one and ever was. Chaucer. And when a soldier was the theme, my name Was not far off. Shak.

Fig.: Worn out; as, a threadbare subject; stale topics and threadbare quotations. Swift.

some person or event, sung to a familiar air in couplets with a refrain; a street song; a topical song.