Search the Dictionary

Incapable of being mistaken or misunderstood; clear; plain; obvious; evident. -- Un`mis*tak"a*bly, adv.

Want of wit or understanding; ignorance. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Understanding; apprehension. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

A blood-sucking ghost; a soul of a dead person superstitiously believed to come from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus causing their death. This superstition is now prevalent in parts of Eastern Europe, and was especially current in Hungary about the year 1730. The persons wh…

, turned him about. Mark v. 30. A man was driven to depend for his security against misunderstanding, upon the pure virtue of his syntax. De Quincey. The virtue of his midnight agony. Keble.

motion. See Kinetic energy, in the Note under Energy. The term vis viva is not usually understood to include that part of the kinetic energy of the body which is due to the vibrations of its molecules.

s vitiates the air. A will vitiated and growth out of love with the truth disposes the understanding to error and delusion. South. Without care it may be used to vitiate our minds. Burke. This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers. Garth.

A degraded form of superstition and sorcery, said to include human sacrifices and cannibalism in some of its rites. It is prevalent among the negroes of Hayti, and to some extent in the United States, and is regarded as a relic of African barbarism.

. I formerly warmed my head with reading controversial writings. Pope. Bright hopes, that erst bosom warmed. Keble.

ddison. We are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects, and warp the understandings, of men. Southey.

To soak water; to fill the interstices of with water.

A fountain; a spring; a source of continual supply. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly. Prov. xvi. 22.

a conveyance of an estate, redeemable at any time on payment of the principal, with an understanding that the profits in the mean time shall be received by the mortgagee without account, in satisfaction of interest. Burrill. -- Welsh mutton, a choice and delicate kind of mutton obtained from a breed of small sheep in…

To hurry; to trouble; to tease. [Obs.] Bickerstaff.

ols. The dullness of the fools is the whetstone of the wits. Shak. Diligence is to the understanding as the whetstone to the razor. South.

Of large scope; comprehensive; liberal; broad; as, wide views; a wide understanding. Men of strongest head and widest culture. M. Arnold.

ecessary to form a distinct notion of what is meant by the word "volition" in order to understand the import of the word will, for this last word expresses the power of mind of which "volition" is the act. Stewart. Will is an ambiguous word, being sometimes put for the faculty of willing; sometimes for the act of that…

Cor. ii. 13). Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. Job xxviii. 28. It is hoped that our rulers will act with dignity and wisdom that they will yield everything to reason, and refuse everything to force. Ames. Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls w…

Mind; intellect; understanding; sense. Who knew the wit of the Lord or who was his counselor Wyclif (Rom. xi. 34). A prince most prudent, of an excellent And unmatched wit and judgment. Shak. Will puts in practice what wit deviseth. Sir J. Davies. He wants not wit the dander to decline. Dryden.

Hence, inside the limits, reach, or influence of; not going outside of; not beyond, overstepping, exceeding, or the like. Both he and she are still within my power. Dryden. Within himself The danger lies, yet lies within his power. Milton. Were every action concluded within itself, and drew no consequence after it, we…