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Inclination; liking, formed by caprice rather than reason; as, to strike one's fancy; hence, the object of inclination or liking. To fit your fancies to your father's will. Shak.

n and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane. Though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. Milton.

t under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty. That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free. Locke.

The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.

alifies him for certain kinds of action or special success in any pursuit; special taste, inclination, or disposition; as, a genius for history, for poetry, or painting.

An instrument for measuring angles, especially the angles of crystals, or the inclination of planes. Contact, or Hand, goniometer, a goniometer having two movable arms (ab, cd), between which (at ab) the faces of the crystals are placed. These arms turn about a fixed point, which is the center of the graduated circle o…

l wishing; kindly feeling. (b) (Law) The custom of any trade or business; the tendency or inclination of persons, old customers and others, to resort to an established place of business; the advantage accruing from tendency or inclination. The good will of a trade is nothing more than the probability that the old custo…

Rising or descending by regular degrees of inclination; as, the gradient line of a railroad.

Temper; natural disposition; inclination. [Obs.] Brothers . . . not united in grain. Hayward.

The inclination or deviation from the vertical of any mineral vein.

An uneasy, burning sensation in the stomach, often attended with an inclination to vomit. It is sometimes idiopathic, but is often a symptom of often complaints.

lose quarters, in a torpid or lethargic state, as certain mammals, reptiles, and insects. Inclination would lead me to hibernate, during half the year, in this uncomfortable climate of Great Britain. Southey.

of hope, or agreeable expectation; inclined to hope; expectant. Men of their own natural inclination hopeful and strongly conceited. Hooker.

Having the feelings and inclinations creditable to man; having a disposition to treat other human beings or animals with kindness; kind; benevolent. Of an exceeding courteous and humane inclination. Sportswood.

of a graduated quadrant, and held in a stream to measure the velocity of the water by the inclination given to the thread; a kind of current gauge.

A mental force which simply and directly urges to action; hasty inclination; sudden motive; momentary or transient influence of appetite or passion; propension; incitement; as, a man of good impulses; passion often gives a violent impulse to the will. These were my natural impulses for the undertaking. Dryden.…

The state or quality of being inclinable; inclination.

ral sense; to favor an opinion, a course of conduct, or a person; to have a propensity or inclination; to be disposed. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech. Judges ix. 3. Power finds its balance, giddy motions cease In both the scales, and each inclines to peace. Parnell.

Inclination; disposition. On the first inclining towards sleep. Burke.

An apparatus to determine the inclination of the earth's magnetic force to the plane of the horizon; -- called also inclination compass, and dip circle.