Search the Dictionary

ng; as, the definite article. Definite article (Gram.), the article the, which is used to designate a particular person or thing, or a particular class of persons or things; -- also called a definitive. See Definitive, n. -- Definite inflorescence. (Bot.) See Determinate inflorescence, under Determinate. -- Law of de…

To give a name to; to characterize by an epithet; to entitle; to name; to designate. Passions commonly denominating selfish. Hume.

To mark out and exhibit; to designate; to indicate; to show; to point out; to appoint. We shall see Justice design the victor's chivalry. Shak. Meet me to-morrow where the master And this fraternity shall design. Beau. & Fl.

Capable of being designated or distinctly marked out; distinguishable. Boyle.

That which designates; a distinguishing mark or name; distinctive title; appellation. The usual designation of the days of the week. Whewell.

Serving to designate or indicate; pointing out.

One who designates.

Serving to designate; designative; indicating. [R.]

To designate, choose, or select, as an object of mercy or favor.

One of the principal names by which God is designated in the Hebrew Scriptures.

To designate as by an ensign. [Obs.] Henry but joined the roses that ensigned Particular families. B. Jonson.

Drawn outside of; -- used to designate a circle that touches one of the sides of a given triangle, and also the other two sides produced.

To denote; to designate. Moses and Aaron took these men, which are expressed by their names. Num. i. 17.

Tending or serving to extract or draw out. Certain branches of industry are conveniently designated extractive: e.g., agriculture, pastoral and mining pursuits, cutting of lumber, etc. Cairnes.

o buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.

Soldiers who march and fight on foot; the infantry, usually designated as the foot, in distinction from the cavalry. "Both horse and foot." Milton.

Mineral deposits and rock masses designated with reference to their origin; as, the siliceous formation about geysers; alluvial formations; marine formations.

unites with another of like or unlike character to form a new individual. In Bot., gamete designates esp. the similar sex cells of the lower thallophytes which unite by conjugation, forming a zygospore. The gametes of higher plants are of two sorts, sperm (male) and egg (female); their union is called fertilization, an…

To name; to designate; to call. And such a son as all men hailed me happy. Milton.

male being (or object personified to which the masculine gender is assigned), previously designated; a pronoun of the masculine gender, usually referring to a specified subject already indicated. Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Gen. iii. 16. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt…