Search the Dictionary

Of or pertaining to a jurist, to the legal profession, or to jurisprudence. [R.] "Juristic ancestry." Lowell.

spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence. Burns.

Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice. Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. Coke. Law is beneficence acting by rule. Burke. And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repres…

re of his own level. Swift. Be the fair level of thy actions laid As temperance wills and prudence may persuade. Prior.

edicine; as, the medical profession; medical services; a medical dictionary; medical jurisprudence.

ct, or of acts, of observing; view; reflection; conclusion; judgment. In matters of human prudence, we shall find the greatest advantage in making wise observations on our conduct. I. Watts.

ining to punishment, to penalties, or to crimes and offenses; pertaining to criminal jurisprudence: as:

Prudence or wisdom in the management of public and private affairs; wisdom; sagacity; wit. The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him. Fuller.

Prudence in the management of one's concerns; economy; frugality. It is a high point of providence in a prince to cast an eye rather upon actions than persons. Quarles.

The quality or state of being provident; carefulness; prudence; economy.

eserve, or coyness; one who is overscrupulous or sensitive; one who affects extraordinary prudence in conduct and speech. Less modest than the speech of prudes. Swift.

Prudence. [Obs.] Hakluyt.

reful; discreet; sensible; -- opposed to rash; as, a prudent man; dictated or directed by prudence or wise forethought; evincing prudence; as, prudent behavior. Moses established a grave and prudent law. Milton.

Proceeding from, or dictated or characterized by, prudence; prudent; discreet; sometimes, selfish or pecuniary as distinguished from higher motives or influences; as, prudential motives. " A prudential line of conduct." Sir W. Scott.

g; low; vulgar; as, a reptile race or crew; reptile vices. There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear. Burke. And dislodge their reptile souls From the bodies and forms of men. Coleridge.

n of gravity and wisdom; especially, a man venerable for years, and of sound judgment and prudence; a grave philosopher. At his birth a star, Unseen before in heaven, proclaims him come, And guides the Eastern sages. Milton.

The quality or state of being sage; wisdom; sagacity; prudence; gravity. Ascham.

a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. John viii. 51. Improvement in visdom and prudence by seeing men. Locke.

foolish." (d) When the substantive is emphasized: "Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to habits of acquired learning or of speculation." -- Moral sense. See under Moral, (a). -- The inner, or internal, sense, capacity of…

A certain quantity; a portion; a part; a division; as, a small share of prudence.