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An aggregate of individuals classed together; a permanent social class; an order; a division; as, ranks and orders of men; the highest and the lowest ranks of men, or of other intelligent beings.

The poorer and lower classes of people.[Obs.] The chief heads of their clans with their several rascalities T. Jackson.

The order or class to which a war vessel belongs, determined according to its size, armament, etc.; as, first rate, second rate, etc.

in seclusion from intercourse with the world, as a hermit or monk; specifically, one of a class of secluded devotees who live in single cells; usually attached to monasteries.

To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules.…

To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances. To refer one's self, to have recourse; to betake one's self; to make application; to appeal. [Obs.] I'll refer me to all…

s; as, the witness perjured himself; I bethought myself. Applied also to pronouns of this class; reciprocal; reflective. -- Re*flex"ive*ly, adv. -- Re*flex"ive*ness, n.

kind of cigar of large size and superior quality; also, the size in which such cigars are classed.

In or by a regiment or regiments; as, troops classified regimentally.

Rising again; -- applied to a class of roses which bloom more than once in a season; the hybrid perpetual roses, of which the Jacqueminot is a well-known example.

The transitional movement in Europe, marked by the revival of classical learning and art in Italy in the 15th century, and the similar revival following in other countries.

roduce again, by generation or the like; to cause the existence of (something of the same class, kind, or nature as another thing); to generate or beget, as offspring; as, to reproduce a rose; some animals are reproduced by gemmation.

A class of air-breathing oviparous vertebrates, usually covered with scales or bony plates. The heart generally has two auricles and one ventricle. The development of the young is the same as that of birds.

he Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, and distinguished as that era in which the class of reptiles attained its highest expansion; -- called also the Secondary or Mezozoic age.

Any one of a class of yellowish brown solid inflammable substances, of vegetable origin, which are nonconductors of electricity, have a vitreous fracture, and are soluble in ether, alcohol, and essential oils, but not in water; specif., pine resin (see Rosin).

Hence, to recover from a state of oblivion, obscurity, neglect, or depression; as, classical learning revived in the fifteenth century.

The class of skin disease developed by the dartrous diathesis. See under Dartrous.

One of a proposed class of flowering plants growning on the roots of other plants and destitute of green foliage.

An extensive class of Protozoa, including those which have pseudopodia, by means of which they move about and take their food. The principal groups are Lobosa (or Amoebea), Helizoa, Radiolaria, and Foraminifera (or Reticularia). See Protozoa.

w, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow. Spenser. Pope. Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . . . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal. Earle.