Search the Dictionary

The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation; as, a man's character for truth and veracity; to give one a bad character. This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it. Addison.

To impute or ascribe; to lay to one's charge. No more accuse thy pen, but charge the crime On native loth and negligence of time. Dryden.

That may be charged, laid, imposed, or imputes; as, a duty chargeable on iron; a fault chargeable on a man.

Liberality in judging of men and their actions; a disposition which inclines men to put the best construction on the words and actions of others. The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable. Buckminster.

Careful; wary; cautious; not rash, reckless, or spendthrift; saving; frugal. His rising reputation made him more chary of his fame. Jeffrey.

As much as is put in the mouth at once; a chew; a quid. [Law]

To make a move which puts an adversary's piece, esp. his king, in check; to put in check.

adversary's king) in such a manner that escape in impossible; to defeat (an adversary) by putting his king in check from which there is no escape.

A bargain or contract; an agreement about a matter in dispute, such as a debt; a business compact.

ake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1. Cor. xii. 11.

A sarcasm by which one is put to silence; anything that can not be answered. [Low] S. Richardson.

for another. We go on chopping and changing our friends. L'Estrange. To chop logic, to dispute with an affected use of logical terms; to argue sophistically.

sting of several kinds mingled together; mixed; as, chowchow sweetmeats (preserved fruits put together).

A circular piece of wood put under a dish at table. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

circumscriptions of terrestrial nature. Johnson. I would not my unhoused, free condition Put into circumscription and confine. Shak.

To roll round; to cause to revolve; to put into a circular motion. Herrick.

To thrust, drive, put, or close, in a hasty or abrupt manner; -- often followed by to, into, on, or upon. He had just time to get in and clap to the door. Locke Clap an extinguaisher upon your irony. Lamb.

Anything put together or made in a careless or slipshod way; hence, a sluttish or slipshod woman.

To free from the imputation of guilt; to justify, vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the thing imputed. I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality. Dryden. How! wouldst thou clear rebellion Addison.

The quality of being cleared. Imputed by his friends to the clearedness, by his foes to the searedness, of his conscience. T. Fuller.