Search the Dictionary

That which exists in any form, whether it be material or spiritual, actual or ideal; living existence, as distinguished from a thing without life; as, a human being; spiritual beings. What a sweet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.

An ecclesiastical living and church preferment, as in the Church of England; a church endowed with a revenue for the maintenance of divine service. See Advowson.

Hast thou here any besides Gen. xix. 12. To all beside, as much an empty shade, An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead. Pope.

The chemistry of living organisms; the chemistry of the processes incidental to, and characteristic of, life.

A doctrine that the genesis or production of living organisms can take place only through the agency of living germs or parents; -- opposed to abiogenesis.

The science of life; that branch of knowledge which treats of living matter as distinct from matter which is not living; the study of living tissue. It has to do with the origin, structure, development, function, and distribution of animals and plants.

ted by Dr. Beale for the germinal matter supposed to be essential to the functions of all living beings; the material through which every form of life manifests itself; unaltered protoplasm.

A tiny mass of bioplasm, in itself a living unit and having formative power, as a living white blood corpuscle; bioblast.

Pertaining to psychical phenomena in their relation to the living organism or to the general phenomena of life.

A physiological organ; a living organ; an organ endowed with function; -- distinguished from idorgan.

The classification of living organisms according to their structural character; taxonomy.

Blind cat (Zoöl.), a species of catfish (Gronias nigrolabris), nearly destitute of eyes, living in caverns in Pennsylvania. -- Blind coal, coal that burns without flame; anthracite coal. Simmonds. -- Blind door, Blind window, an imitation of a door or window, without an opening for passage or light. See Blank door o…

The material organized substance of an animal, whether living or dead, as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person. Absent in body, but present in spirit. 1 Cor. v. 3 For of the soul the body form doth take. For soul is form, and doth the body make. Spenser.

Living among bogs.

herdsmen, or a single herdsman, wandering from place to place with flocks and herds, and living on their milk, like the Tartars; also, a place in the mountain pastures inclosed for the shelter of cattle or their keepers. [Obs.] [Written also boley, bolye, bouillie.] Spenser.

bounty (Eng. Hist.), a provision made in Queen Anne's reign for augmenting poor clerical livings.

New York] were scattered on boweries or plantations; and seeing the evils of this mode of living widely apart, they were advised, in 1643 and 1646, by the Dutch authorities, to gather into "villages, towns, and hamlets, as the English were in the habit of doing." Bancroft.

An order of ganoid fishes of which the bichir of Africa is a living example. See Crossopterygii.

The member of a family whose labor supplies the food of the family; one who works for his living. H. Spencer.

anate; to blow gently. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. Shak. There breathes a living fragrance from the shore. Byron.