Search the Dictionary

its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word. Case is properly a falling off from the nominative or first state of word; the name for which, however, is now, by extension of its signification, applied also to the nominative. J. W. Gibbs.

re money is kept, or where it is deposited and paid out; a money box. [Obs.] This bank is properly a general cash, where every man lodges his money. Sir W. Temple. £20,000 are known to be in her cash. Sir R. Winwood.

Properly the citron, a variety of Citrus medica, with large fruits, not acid, and having a high perfume.

An open hunting ground to which game resorts, and which is private properly, thus differing from a forest, which is not private property, and from a park, which is inclosed. Sometimes written chace. [Eng.]

The extreme end of the chancel or choir; properly the round or polygonal part.

the power of the church against some moral evil. Remember that both church and state are properly the rulers of the people, only because they are their benefactors. Bulwer.

To act as a clown; -- with it [Obs.] Beclowns it properly indeed. B. Jonson.

t not be dismissed with a cursory mention. It might indeed, at that time, have been not improperly called a most important political institution . . . The coffeehouses were the chief organs through which the public opinion of the metropolis vented itself . . . Every man of the upper or middle class went daily to his co…

dyeing, staining, painting, etc.; to dye; to tinge; to aint; to stain. The rays, to speak properly, are not colored; in them there is nothing else than a certain power and disposition to stir up a sensation of this or that color. Sir I. Newton.

Rightfully or properly belonging; incident; -- followed by to. [Rare, except in legal usage.] That is the privillege of the infinite Author of things, . . . but is not competent to any finite being. Locke.

right or duty. Conscience supposes the existence of some such [i.e., moral] faculty, and properly signifies our consciousness of having acted agreeably or contrary to its directions. Adam Smith.

and attendant circumstances in connection with the words employed. Abbott. Interpretation properly precedes construction, but it does not go beyond the written text. Parsons. Construction of an equation (Math.), the drawing of such lines and figures as will represent geometrically the quantities in the equation, and th…

r of lawyers restained in a cause. Writ of consultation (Law), a writ by which a cause, improperly removed by prohibition from one court to another, is returned to the court from which it came; -- so called because the judges, on consultation, find the prohibition ill-founded.

A horizontal row of corbels, with the panels or filling between them; also, less properly used to include the stringcourse on them.

Anything done deceitfully, and which could not be properly designated by any special name, whether belonging to contracts or not. Burrill.

A man who busies himself with affairs which properly belong to women. Addison.

belief or confidence; authority derived from character or reputation. The things which we properly believe, be only such as are received on the credit of divine testimony. Hooker.

oon in her first quarter, or when defined by a concave and a convex edge; also, applied improperly to the old or decreasing moon in a like state.

A coin [In sense (b) properly crown piece.] See Crown, 19.

Any refuse stuff, as rolls not properly baked.