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circumstance, or qualifying conception; as, limitations of thought. The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable. Hooker.

expressions, which carrying with them no clear ideas, are like to remove but little of my ignorance. Locke.

One who mistakes. Well meaning ignorance of some mistakers. Bp. Hall.

Want of knowledge; ignorance; agnosticism. God fetched it about for me, in that absence and nescience of mine. Bp. Hall.

Intellectual and moral darkness; ignorance.

do not well in obstinacy To cavil in the course of this contract. Shak. To shelter their ignorance, or obstinacy, under the obscurity of their terms. Locke.

ion upon; to neglect; to pass over without censure or punishment; to excuse. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. Acts xvii. 30 (Rev. Ver. ) They overlook truth in the judgments they pass. Atterbury. The pardoning and overlooking of faults. Addison.

ical world, is . . . employed in putting objects in motion. J. S. Mill. A society sunk in ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force. Macaulay.

An opossum. [Colloq. U. S.] To play possum, To act possum, to feign ignorance, indifference or inattention, with the intent to deceive; to dissemble; -- in allusion to the habit of the opossum, which feigns death when attacked or alarmed.

Formed before due examination. "Ignorance and prejudicate opinions." Jer. Taylor.

drawing or retiring; a moving back; retreat; as, the recess of the tides. Every degree of ignorance being so far a recess and degradation from rationality. South. My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered. Eikon Basilike.

a small fish. Bacon. Pardon me for reprehending thee. Shak. In which satire human vices, ignorance, and errors . . . are severely reprehended. Dryden. I nor advise nor reprehend the choice. J. Philips.

Rudeness; ignorance. [R.]

to devote, with loss or suffering. Condemned to sacrifice his childish years To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears. Prior. The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum . . . for the sake of . . . making this boy his heir. G. Eliot.

ak; a slip; a fault; an escapade. [Obs.] Not pardoning so much as the scapes of error and ignorance. Milton.

humble the presumption of our modern sciolists, if their pride were not as great as their ignorance. Sir W. Temple. A master were lauded and scolists shent. R. Browning.

Conceit; self-confidence; self-sufficiency. Sufficiency is a compound of vanity and ignorance. Sir W. Temple.

To take advantage of the ignorance of; to impose upon. [Prov. Eng.] I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent; that is, playing on her ignorance. C. Bronte.

The quality or state of being unacquainted; want of acquaintance; ignorance. He was then in happy unacquaintance with everything connected with that obnoxious cavity. Sir W. Hamilton.

Ignorance. [Obs.]