Search the Dictionary

Quality suited to inspire respect or reverence; loftiness and grace; impressiveness; stateliness; -- said of A letter written with singular energy and dignity of thought Macaulay.

To rid of a burden; to free from a load borne or from something oppressive; to unload; to disencumber; to relieve. He did it to disburden a conscience. Feltham. My mediations . . . will, I hope, be more calm, being thus disburdened. Hammond.

To render less painful or oppressive; to mitigate; to alleviate. My couch shall ease my complaint. Job vii. 13.

Oratorical or expressive delivery, including the graces of intonation, gesture, etc.; style or manner of speaking or reading in public; as, clear, impressive elocution. "The elocution of a reader." Whately

A peculiar impressiveness of expression or weight of thought; vivid representation, enforcing assent; as, to dwell on a subject with great emphasis. External objects stand before us . . . in all the life and emphasis of extension, figure, and color. Sir W. Hamilton.

Uttered with emphasis; made prominent and impressive by a peculiar stress of voice; laying stress; deserving of stress or emphasis; forcible; impressive; strong; as, to remonstrate in am emphatic manner; an emphatic word; an emphatic tone; emphatic reasoning.

ally as regards fullness and distinctness or articulation; as, to speak with a clear or impressive enunciation.

ling forth; serving to evoke; developing. Evocative power over all that is eloquent and expressive in the better soul of man. W. Pater.

Oppressive or unreasonably severe in making demands or requiring the exact fulfillment of obligations; harsh; severe. "A temper so exacting." T. Arnold -- Ex*act"ing*ly, adv. -- Ex*act"ing*ness, n.

Lively or vivid representation of meaning, sentiment, or feeling, etc.; significant and impressive indication, whether by language, appearance, or gesture; that manner or style which gives life and suggestive force to ideas and sentiments; as, he reads with expression; her performance on the piano has expression. The i…

Characterized by extortion; oppressive; hard.

Expressive of great sensibility; attended by, or evincing, sensibility; as, he made a feeling representation of his wrongs.

Possessing force; characterized by force, efficiency, or energy; powerful; efficacious; impressive; influential. How forcible are right words! Job. vi. 2 Sweet smells are most forcible in dry substances, when broken. Bacon. But I have reasons strong and forcible. Shak. That punishment which hath been sometimes forcible…

The forehead, countenance, or personal presence, as expressive of character or temper, and especially, of boldness of disposition, sometimes of impudence; seeming; as, a bold front; a hardened front. With smiling fronts encountering. Shak. The inhabitants showed a bold front. Macaulay.

External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. Shak.

A motion of the body or limbs expressive of sentiment or passion; any action or posture intended to express an idea or a passion, or to enforce or emphasize an argument, assertion, or opinion. Humble and reverent gestures. Hooker. Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love. Milton.…

righteousness, and work, and holds that in good time, without warlike intervention, the oppressive white rule will be removed by the higher powers. The religion spread through a majority of the western tribes of the United States, only in the case of the Sioux, owing to local causes, leading to an outbreak.…

Impressive or elevating in effect; vimposing; splendid; striking; -- in a good sense. The tone of the parts was to be perpetually kept down in order not to impair the grandiose effect of the whole. M. Arnold. The grandiose red tulips which grow wild. C. Kingsley.

Having the faculty of, or characterized by, clear and impressive description; vivid; as, a gruphic writer. Graphic algebra, a branch of algebra in which, the properties of equations are treated by the use of curves and straight lines. -- Graphic arts, a name given to those fine arts which pertain to the representation…

In a griping or oppressive manner. Bacon.