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Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation. Whewel.

Occupying an inferior position or place; not high or elevated; depressed in comparison with something else; as, low ground; a low flight.

l parts used in the field of a telescope or microscope, for measuring distances by direct comparison.

To let go; to leave unmentioned; not to insert or name; to drop. These personal comparisons I omit. Bacon.

A comparison; a similitude; specifically, a short fictitious narrative of something which might really occur in life or nature, by means of which a moral is drawn; as, the parables of Christ. Chaucer. Declare unto us the parable of the tares. Matt. xiii. 36.

Similitude; comparison.

To be equal; to hold comparison. [R.] Few or none could . . . paragon with her. Shelton.

A comparison made; elaborate tracing of similarity; as, Johnson's parallel between Dryden and Pope.

A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate.

egree (Gram.), that state of an adjective or adverb which denotes simple quality, without comparison or relation to increase or diminution; as, wise, noble. -- Positive electricity (Elec), the kind of electricity which is developed when glass is rubbed with silk, or which appears at that pole of a voltaic battery atta…

elations are denominated laws, which are to be discovered by observation, experiment, and comparison. This philosophy holds all inquiry into causes, both efficient and final, to be useless and unprofitable.

nything that has the appearance of reality or truth. The whole life of man is a perpetual comparison of evidence and balancing of probabilities. Buckminster. We do not call for evidence till antecedent probabilities fail. J. H. Newman.

Something in one's favor in a comparison or a contest; an advantage; means of influencing; as, in weights the favorite had the pull. [Slang]

Characterized by, or addicted to, ratiocination; consisting in the comparison of proportions or facts, and the deduction of inferences from the comparison; argumentative; as, a ratiocinative process. The ratiocinative meditativeness of his character. Coleridge.

est end; for the rational, the natural, and mathematics . . . were but simple pastimes in comparison of the other. Sir T. North.

rocess of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.

Explanation; representation. [R.] The reddition or application of the comparison. Chapman.

Supervision; inspection. At regard of, in consideration of; in comparison with. [Obs.] "Bodily penance is but short and little at regard of the pains of hell." Chaucer. -- Court of regard, a forest court formerly held in England every third year for the lawing, or expeditation, of dogs, to prevent them from running af…

Any sort of connection which is perceived or imagined between two or more things, or any comparison which is made by the mind, is a relation. I. Taylor.

A comparison; a simile. [Obs.] Chaucer.