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Any one trained to contend in exercises requiring great physical agility and strength; one who has great activity and strength; a champion.

The standard atmospheric pressure used in certain physical measurements calculations; conventionally, that pressure under which the barometer stands at 760 millimeters, at a temperature of 0º Centigrade, at the level of the sea, and in the latitude of Paris. Sir W. Thomson.

The portion of air in any locality, or affected by a special physical or sanitary condition; as, the atmosphere of the room; a moist or noxious atmosphere.

To affect or infect, as with physical or mental disease or with moral contagion; to taint or corrupt. My tender youth was never yet attaint With any passion of inflaming love. Shak.

t received its impetus from the unsystematic but vigorous skepticism of Pierre Bayle, the physical doctrines of Newton, and the epistemological theories of Locke, in the preceding century. Its chief center was in France, where it gave rise to the skepticism of Voltaire , the naturalism of Rousseau, the sensationalism o…

Wanting good qualities, whether physical or moral; injurious, hurtful, inconvenient, offensive, painful, unfavorable, or defective, either physically or morally; evil; vicious; wicked; -- the opposite of good; as a bad man; bad conduct; bad habits; bad soil; bad health; bad crop; bad news.

A conception or image of consummate beauty, moral or physical, formed in the mind, free from all the deformities, defects, and blemishes seen in actual existence; an ideal or faultless standard or model.

A system for the identification of persons by a physical description based upon anthropometric measurements, notes of markings, deformities, color, impression of thumb lines, etc.

To improve the condition of, morally, physically, financially, socially, or otherwise. The constant effort of every man to better himself. Macaulay.

To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind; as, attraction binds the planets to the sun; frost binds the earth, or the streams. He bindeth the floods from overflowing. Job xxviii. 11. Whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years. Luke xiii. 16.

The physical phenomena of organized bodies, in opposition to their organic or vital phenomena.

Any mark of deformity or injury, whether physical or moral; anything; that diminishes beauty, or renders imperfect that which is otherwise well formed; that which impairs reputation. He shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish. Lev. xiv. 10. The reliefs of an envious m…

The infliction of evil; a sudden calamity; something which produces mental, physical, or financial suffering or loss (esp. when sudden); a buffet. A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows. Shak. At a blow, suddenly; at one effort; by a single vigorous act. "They lose a province at a blow." Dryden. -- To come to b…

Having a body or material form; physical; corporeal; consisting of matter. You are a mere spirit, and have no knowledge of the bodily part of us. Tatler.

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.

ness to others, by stimulating their interest in wholesome mental, moral, industrial, and physical activities, etc. Hence, a member of any of the other similar organizations, which are now worldwide. In "The Boy Scouts of America" the local councils are generally under a scout commissioner, under whose supervision are…

Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent. A great brute farmer from Liddesdale. Sir W. Scott.

A gymnasium; esp. one for light physical exercise by women and children.

receiving or containing; extent of room or space; passive power; -- used in reference to physical things. Had our great palace the capacity To camp this host, we all would sup together. Shak. The capacity of the exhausted cylinder. Boyle.

geological changes in the earth's crust have been caused by the sudden action of violent physical causes; -- opposed to the doctrine of uniformism.