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ty to the principles of righteousness and rectitude in all things; strict performance of moral obligations; practical conformity to human or divine law; integrity in the dealings of men with each other; rectitude; equity; uprightness. Justice and judgment are the haditation of thy throne. Ps. ixxxix. 11. The king-becom…

A sect of Jews who adhere closely to the letter of the Scriptures, rejecting the oral law, and allowing the Talmud no binding authority; -- opposed to the Rabbinists.

A gorgonian coral having a horny axis.

omus discolor), the only living type of a family allied to the rollers. It has a pair of loral plumes. The male is glossy green above, with metallic reflections; the female is spotted with brown and black.

One or more detached verses at the end of a literary composition, serving to convey the moral, or to address the poem to a particular person; -- orig. employed in old French poetry. Shak.

decay; ruin. There is in it such a labefaction of all principles as may be injurious to morality. Johnson.

A lake in a coral island, often occupying a large portion of its area, and usually communicating with the sea. See Atoll. Lagoon island, a coral island consisting of a narrow reef encircling a lagoon.

Figuratively, anything which enlightens intellectually or morally; anything regarded metaphorically a performing the uses of a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Ps. cxix. 105. Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared. Cowper.

attached to a saddle or stirrup strap, in which to rest the but of a lance. -- Lance corporal, same as Lancepesade. -- Lance knight, a lansquenet. B. Jonson. -- Lance snake (Zoöl.), the fer-de-lance. -- Stink-fire lance (Mil.), a kind of fuse filled with a composition which burns with a suffocating odor; -- used in…

An assistant to a corporal; a private performing the duties of a corporal; -- called also lance corporal.

Europe. See Crake. (b) An Australian rail (Hypotænidia Phillipensis); -- called also pectoral rail. -- Land scrip, a certificate that the purchase money for a certain portion of the public land has been paid to the officer entitled to receive it. [U.S.] -- Land shark, a swindler of sailors on shore. [Sailors' Cant] -…

Connecticut; -- a nickname alluding to the moral character of its inhabitants, implied by the rigid laws (see Blue laws) of the early period.

To slide or slip in moral conduct; to fail in duty; to fall from virtue; to deviate from rectitude; to commit a fault by inadvertence or mistake. To lapse in fullness Is sorer than to lie for need. Shak.

stroke of satire or sarcasm; an expression or retort that cuts or gives pain; a cut. The moral is a lash at the vanity of arrogating that to ourselves which succeeds well. L'Estrange.

Lax in moral or religious principles.

In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.

Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.

Free to excess; regardless of law or moral restraint; licentious. " Most like a liberal villain." Shak.

Dissolute; licentious; profligate; loose in morals; as, libertine principles or manners. Bacon.

e, a tall flagstaff planted in the ground, often surmounted by a liberty cap. [U. S.] -- Moral liberty, that liberty of choice which is essential to moral responsibility. -- Religious liberty, freedom of religious opinion and worship.