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ce of a nation, including both those engaged in military service as a business, and those competent and available for such service; specifically, the body of citizens enrolled for military instruction and discipline, but not subject to be called into actual service except in emergencies. The king's captains and soldier…

That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate. The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish. Hooker.

A contract between two or more competent persons for joining together their money, goods, labor, and skill, or any or all of them, under an understanding that there shall be a communion of profit between them, and for the purpose of carrying on a legal trade, business, or adventure. Kent. Story.

Permission to pass; a document given by the competent officer of a state, permitting the person therein named to pass or travel from place to place, without molestation, by land or by water. Caution in granting passports to Ireland. Clarendon.

lfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations.

Official proof; especially, the proof before a competent officer or tribunal that an instrument offered, purporting to be the last will and testament of a person deceased, is indeed his lawful act; the copy of a will proved, under the seal of the Court of Probate, delivered to the executors with a certificate of its ha…

Such a number of the officers or members of any body as is competent by law or constitution to transact business; as, a quorum of the House of Representatives; a constitutional quorum was not present.

ommissioned officer to the ranks. -- To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. -- To take rank of, to have precedence over, or to have the right of taking a higher place than.pull rank, to insist on one's own prerogative or plan of action, by right of a higher rank than that of one suggest…

enforcing; as, to remit the performance of an obligation. "The sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties." Macaulay.

To establish the existence or truth of by proof or competent evidence; to verify; as, to substantiate a charge or allegation; to substantiate a declaration. Observation is, in turn, wanted to direct and substantiate the course of experiment. Coleridge.

Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as, provision sufficient for the family; an army sufficient to defend the country. My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Cor. xii. 9.

, the doctrine that all religious faith is to be based solely upon what is delivered from competent authority, exclusive of rational processes.

The formal examination of the matter in issue in a cause before a competent tribunal; the mode of determining a question of fact in a court of law; the examination, in legal form, of the facts in issue in a cause pending before a competent tribunal, for the purpose of determining such issue.

yment, as those engaged for short periods, those whose trade is decaying, and those least competent.

To make unsuitable or incompetent; to deprive of the strength, skill, or proper qualities for anything; to disable; to incapacitate; to disqualify; as, sickness unfits a man for labor; sin unfits us for the society of holy beings.

To confirm or establish the authenticity of by examination or competent evidence; to authenciate; as, to verify a written statement; to verify an account, a pleading, or the like. To verify our title with their lives. Shak.