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The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history. J. H. Newman. If the troops . . . prove worthy of their antecedents, the victory is surely ours. Gen. G. McClellan.

specif., in the United States, after the Spanish-American war (1898), to the attitude or principles of those opposing territorial expansion; in England, of those, often called Little Englanders, opposing the extension of the empire and the closer relation of its parts, esp. in matters of commerce and imperial defense.…

A poisonous principle obtained from antiar. Watts.

res strength; resistance or reaction roused by opposition or by the action of an opposite principle or quality.

estroy social intercourse; averse to society, or hostile to its existence; as, antisocial principles.

A comprehensive maxim or principle expressed in a few words; a sharply defined sentence relating to abstract truth rather than to practical matters. The first aphorism of Hippocrates is, "Life is short, and the art is long." Fleming.

A bitter principle obtained from the dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum).

t of what one has voluntarily professed; a total desertion of departure from one's faith, principles, or party; esp., the renunciation of a religious faith; as, Julian's apostasy from Christianity.

One who has forsaken the faith, principles, or party, to which he before adhered; esp., one who has forsaken his religion for another; a pervert; a renegade.

renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one's church, the faith or principles once held, or the party to which one has previously adhered. He apostatized from his old faith in facts, took to believing in Carlyle.

Hence, in specific uses: (a) That part of a sermon or discourse in which the principles before laid down and illustrated are applied to practical uses; the "moral" of a fable. (b) The use of the principles of one science for the purpose of enlarging or perfecting another; as, the application of algebra to geometry.…

An a priori principle.

The science of, or a treatise on, first principles. Fleming.

The vital principle or force which (according to the Paracelsians) presides over the growth and continuation of living beings; the anima mundi or plastic power of the old philosophers. [Obs.] Johnson.

Of or pertaining to Archimedes, a celebrated Greek philosopher; constructed on the principle of Archimedes' screw; as, Archimedean drill, propeller, etc. Archimedean screw, or Archimedes' screw, an instrument, said to have been invented by Archimedes, for raising water, formed by winding a flexible tube round a cylinde…

de of the flame. Argand burner, a burner for an Argand lamp, or a gas burner in which the principle of that lamp is applied.

on; the operation of inferring propositions, not known or admitted as true, from facts or principles known, admitted, or proved to be true. Which manner of argumentation, how false and naught it is, . . . every man that hath with perceiveth. Tyndale.

The principles of aristocrats. Romilly.

A book containing the principles of this science. Arithmetic of sines, trigonometry. -- Political arithmetic, the application of the science of numbers to problems in civil government, political economy, and social science. -- Universal arithmetic, the name given by Sir Isaac Newton to algebra.

Conformably to the principles or methods of arithmetic.