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governing the physical or mechanical, in distinction from the vital, forces, and which comprehends the consideration and general investigation of the whole range of the forces concerned in physical phenomena. [R.]

To look in the face of; to apprehend; to regard. [R.] Keats. From the very dawn of existence the infant must envisage self, and body acting on self. McCosh.

Not comprehended in a settled rule or method; anomalous. The Jews . . . [were] inured with causes exorbitant, and such as their laws had not provided for. Hooker.

ublic; suitable to be imparted to the public; hence, capable of being readily or fully comprehended; -- opposed to esoteric, or secret. The foppery of an exoteric and esoteric doctrine. De Quincey.

Not comprehended within a rule or rules. Jer. Taylor.

A confidential officer employed in the service of the tribunal, especially in apprehending and imprisoning the accused.

sure by a sounding line; especially, to sound the depth of; to penetrate, measure, and comprehend; to get to the bottom of. Dryden. The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import. Hawthotne.

An act or state of perception by the sense above described; an act of apprehending any object whatever; an act or state of apprehending the state of the soul itself; consciousness. The apprehension of the good Gives but the greater feeling to the worse. Shak.

Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars; as, a general inference or conclusion.

To investigate or apprehend geometrical quantities or laws; to make geometrical constructions; to proceed in accordance with the principles of geometry. Nature geometrizeth, and observeth order in all things. Sir T. Browne.

To lay hold of with the mind; to become thoroughly acquainted or conversant with; to comprehend.

That branch of military science which comprehends the theory of projectiles, and the manner of constructing and using ordnance.

Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem. The hard causes they brought unto Moses. Ex. xviii. 26. In which are some things hard to be understood. 2 Peter iii. 16.

To perceive by the ear; to apprehend or take cognizance of by the ear; as, to hear sounds; to hear a voice; to hear one call. Lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travelers. Shak. He had been heard to utter an ominous growl. Macaulay.

Very abstract; difficult to comprehend or surmount; grand; noble. Both meet to hear and answer such high things. Shak. Plain living and high thinking are no more. Wordsworth.

The business of a husbandman, comprehending the various branches of agriculture; farming. Husbandry supplieth all things necessary for food. Spenser.

Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of, by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real object that is conceived or thought of. Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the immediate object of perception, thought, or undersanding, that I call idea. Locke.

To apprehend in thought so as to fix and hold in the mind; to memorize. [R.]

ideas; the exercise of this capacity; the act of the mind by which objects of sense are apprehended and retained as objects of thought. The whole mass of residua which have been accumulated . . . all enter now into the process of ideation. J. D. Morell.

proposition is true. -- Illative sense (Metaph.), the faculty of the mind by which it apprehends the conditions and determines upon the correctness of inferences.