Search the Dictionary

To fasten with a clamp or clamps; to apply a clamp to; to place in a clamp.

The act of applying color to; also, that which produces color.

ommon law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. Wharton.

Having power to compel; exercising or applying compulsion. Religion is . . . inconsistent with all compulsive motives. Sharp.

To apply the rules of syntax to (a sentence or clause) so as to exhibit the structure, arrangement, or connection of, or to discover the sense; to explain the construction of; to interpret; to translate.

To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of; to apply to for information or instruction; to refer to; as, to consult a physician; to consult a dictionary. Men fergot, or feared, to consult . . . ; they were content to consult liberaries. Whewell.

To apply to any use by a diversion from the proper or intended use; to appropriate dishonestly or illegally. When a bystander took a coin to get it changed, and converted it, [it was] held no larceny. Cooley.

in physical diseases." Macaulay. -- Counter irritation (Med.), the act or the result of applying a counter irritant. -- Counter opening, an aperture or vent on the opposite side, or in a different place. -Counter parole (Mil.), a word in addition to the password, given in time of alarm as a signal. -- Counter plea…

To brace in such a way that opposite strains are resisted; to apply counter braces to.

To apply a countenmark to; as, to countermark silverware; to countermark a horse's teeth.

To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist. [Archaic] There is no one thing that crooks youth more than such unlawfull games. Ascham. What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends. Bacon.

To apply a cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping. See Cupping.

Produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to the gums; or representing a sound so formed. -- n.

One who, or that which, disinfects; an apparatus for applying disinfectants.

To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct. While you dispense the laws, and guide the state. Dryden.

To deal out; to assign to a use; to bestow for an object or purpose; to apply; to employ; to dispose of. Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor. Evelyn.

The art or practice of applying tests to ascertain the nature, quality, etc., of objects, as of metals or ores, of medicines, or of facts pertaining to physiology.

To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart. [Colloq.]

One who would apply to political or other practical concerns the abstract doctrines or the theories of his own philosophical system; a propounder of a new set of opinions; a dogmatic theorist. Used also adjectively; as, doctrinaire notions.

A mild vesicatory; a sinapism; as, to apply draughts to the feet.