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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



108 words match “LITERARY”

ELABORATE v.
efine with labor and study, or by successive operations; as, to elaborate a painting or a literary work. The sap is . . . still more elaborated and exalted as it circulates through the vessels of the plant. Arbuthnot.
EMEND v.
To purge of faults; to make better; to correct; esp., to make corrections in (a literary work); to alter for the better by textual criticism, generally verbal.
EPICENE a.
Fig.: Sexless; neither one thing nor the other. The literary prigs epicene. Prof. Wilson. He represented an epicene species, neither churchman nor layman. J. A. Symonds.
EPOCH n.
n during the dreary interval which separates from one another two important epochs of our literary history. A. W. Ward.
FACTURE n.
The act or manner of making or doing anything; -- now used of a literary, musical, or pictorial production. Bacon.
FELLOW n.
A member of a literary or scientific society; as, a Fellow of the Royal Society.
GAME n.
is nearly up. Blackw. Mag. It was obviously Lord Macaulay's game to blacken the greatest literary champion of the cause he had set himself to attack. Saintsbury.
GARRETEER n.
One who lives in a garret; a poor author; a literary hack. Macaulay.
GERMAN n.
and of modern German literature. The dialects of Central Germany, the basis of the modern literary language, are often called Middle German, and the Southern German dialects Upper German; but High German is also used to cover both groups. -- Low German, the language of Northern Germany and the Netherlands, -- includin…
HACK n.
A bookmaker who hires himself out for any sort of literary work; an overworked man; a drudge. Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, Who long was a bookseller's hack. Goldsmith.
HARMONY n.
A literary work which brings together or arranges systematically parallel passages of historians respecting the same events, and shows their agreement or consistency; as, a harmony of the Gospels.
HIGHER CRITICISM n.
Criticism which includes the study of the contents, literary character, date, authorship, etc., of any writing; as, the higher criticism of the Pentateuch. Called also historical criticism.
ILLITERACY n.
An instance of ignorance; a literary blunder. The many blunders and illiteracies of the first publishers of his [Shakespeare's] works. Pope.
ILLUSTRATION n.
A picture designed to decorate a volume or elucidate a literary work.
INELEGANCE; INELEGANCY n.
Anything inelegant; as, inelegance of style in literary composition.
INSTITUTION n.
lishment, especially of a public character, or affecting a community; a foundation; as, a literary institution; a charitable institution; also, a building or the buildings occupied or used by such organization; as, the Smithsonian Institution.
JOHNSONESE n.
The literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson, or one formed in imitation of it; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words. E. Everett.
L'ENVOI; L'ENVOY n.
One or more detached verses at the end of a literary composition, serving to convey the moral, or to address the poem to a particular person; -- orig. employed in old French poetry. Shak.
LAMP n.
ventor, Davy lamp. -- To smell of the lamp, to bear marks of great study and labor, as a literary composition.
LAUTVERSCHIEBUNG n.
hat similar set of changes taking place in the High German dialects (less fully in modern literary German) from the 6th to the 8th century, known as the second Lautverschiebung, the result of which form the striking differences between High German and The Low German Languages. The statement of these changes is commonly…
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