Search the Dictionary

ician order; (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect.

One of the aristocracy or people of rank in a community; one of a ruling class; a noble.

Superior; surpassing; ruling. An ascendant spirit over him. South. The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth. J. S. Mill. Without some power of persuading or confuting, of defending himself against accusations, . . . no man could possibly hold an ascendent position. Grote.

To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment.

seek to avail themselves of names. Milton. I have availed myself of the very first opportunity. Dickens.

One living in the back or outlying districts of a community. The English backsettlers of Leinster and Munster. Macaulay.

whole. Wordsworth. The old definition of beauty, in the Roman school, was, "multitude in unity;" and there is no doubt that such is the principle of beauty. Coleridge.

A collection of small houses surrounded by a wall and occupied by a community of Beguines.

The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively. [Obs.]

Fig.: The region or community of social Bohemians. See Bohemian, n., 3. She knew every one who was any one in the land of Bohemia. Compton Reade.

faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. "Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly to the lower orders of society. Restle…

An inclosure; a boundary; a limit. [Obs.] A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit . . . desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. Jer. Taylor.

yet received a prebend. -- Regular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who lived in a conventual community and follower the rule of St. Austin; a Black canon. -- Secular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who did not live in a monastery, but kept the hours.

cal life, the method or rule of living prescribed by the ancient cleargy who lived in community; a course of living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid that the monastic, and more restrained that the secular. -- Canonical obedience, submission to the canons of a canons of a church, especially the submission of the i…

A small community or clan.

Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.] By aventure, or sort, or cas. Chaucer.

A chance, opportunity, privilege, or advantage; specifically, an opportunity of riding; a lift. [Scotch] We bargained with the driver to give us a cast to the next stage. Smollett. If we had the cast o' a cart to bring it. Sir W. Scott.

The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to lay hold of, or of watching he opportunity to seize; as, to lie on the catch. [Archaic] Addison. The common and the canon law . . . lie at catch, and wait advantages one againt another. T. Fuller.

One of a religious order, dwelling in a convent, or a community, in opposition to an anchoret, or hermit, who lives in solitude. Gibbon.

A possibity; a likelihood; an opportunity; -- with reference to a doubtful result; as, a chance result; as, a chance to escape; a chance for life; the chances are all against him. So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune. That I would get my life on any chance, To mend it, or be rid on't Shak.