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To introduce into a society or organization; to confer membership on; especially, to admit to a secret order with mysterious rites or ceremonies. The Athenians believed that he who was initiated and instructed in the mysteries would obtain celestial honor after death. Bp. Warburton. He was initiated into half a dozen c…

act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced; as, initiation into a society, into business, literature, etc. "The initiation of coursers of events." Pope.

The step, or socket, in which the lower end of a millstone spindle runs.

One of the colleges (societies or buildings) in London, for students of the law barristers; as, the Inns of Court; the Inns of Chancery; Serjeants' Inns. Inns of chancery (Eng.), colleges in which young students formerly began their law studies, now occupied chiefly by attorneys, solicitors, etc. -- Inns of court (Eng…

Without weight of character or social standing; mean; contemptible; as, an insignificant person.

To originate and establish; to found; to organize; as, to institute a court, or a society. Whenever any from of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government. Jefferson (Decl. of Indep. ).

An established or organized society or corporation; an establishment, especially of a public character, or affecting a community; a foundation; as, a literary institution; a charitable institution; also, a building or the buildings occupied or used by such organization; as, the Smithsonian Institution.…

To mix up together; to associate. H. Spencer.

Of or concerning the association called the International. International code (Naut.), a common system of signaling adopted by nearly all maritime nations, whereby communication may be had between vessels at sea. -- International copyright. See under Copyright. -- International law, the rules regulating the mutual in…

The state of being intimate; close familiarity or association; nearness in friendship.

An intimate friend or associate; a confidant. Gov. of the Tongue.

ing the act or results of conscious knowledge of physical phenomena; -- contrasted with associational. J. S. Mill.

One at enmity with society; a wanderer; a vagabond; an outcast. Thackeray.

ristic (as a theory, doctrine, idiom, etc.); as, baptism, galvanism, organism, hypnotism, socialism, sensualism, Anglicism.

, indicating identity, or equality; the same numerical value; as in isopod, isomorphous, isochromatic. Specif.:

ing an agent, or doer, one who practices, a believer in; as, theorist, one who theorizes; socialist, one who holds to socialism; sensualist, one given to sensuality.

One of a society of violent agitators in France, during the revolution of 1789, who held secret meetings in the Jacobin convent in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris, and concerted measures to control the proceedings of the National Assembly. Hence: A plotter against an existing government; a turbulent demagogue.…

name of contempt for a flatterer of persons high in social or official life; as, the Jenkins employed by a newspaper. [Colloq. Eng. & U.S.] G. W. Curtis.

The chief city of Palestine, intimately associated with the glory of the Jewish nation, and the life and death of Jesus Christ. Jerusalem artichoke Etym: [Perh. a corrupt. of It. girasole i.e., sunflower, or turnsole. See Gyre, Solar.] (Bot.) (a) An American plant, a perennial species of sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus…

religious order founded by Ignatius Loyola, and approved in 1540, under the title of The Society of Jesus.