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Habitual; constitutional; pertaining especially to slow waste of animal tissue, as in consumption; as, a hectic type in disease; a hectic flush.

The assumption of disguise or of a feigned character; the state of being in disguise or not recognized. His incognito was endangered. Sir W. Scott.

from the parts to the whole, and forms, from the general analogy of nature, or special presumptions in the case, conclusions which have greater or less degrees of force, and which may be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience and experiment. It relates to actual existences, as in physical science or the conc…

or kraken, would be credulity; to reject the possibility of their existence, would be presumption. Goldsmith. Like a kraken huge and black. Longfellow.

mmature form of any animal when more or less of a metamorphosis takes place, before the assumption of the mature shape.

A writ based upon the presumption that the person summoned was hiding. Blackstone.

A wasting of flesh without fever or apparent disease; a kind of consumption; atrophy; phthisis. Pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence. Milton. Marasmus senilis Etym: [L.], progressive atrophy of the aged.

Greatest in quantity or highest in degree attainable or attained; as, a maximum consumption of fuel; maximum pressure; maximum heat.

Evincing modestly in the actor, author, or speaker; not showing presumption; not excessive or extreme; moderate; as, a modest request; modest joy.

estimate of one's own worth and importance; absence of self-assertion, arrogance, and presumption; humility respecting one's own merit.

Excessive presumption. [R.] B. Jonson.

An assumption of buffoonery to cover some serious purpose. [R.] Donaldson.

. Their small paternal field of corn. Dryden. Paternal government (Polit. Science), the assumption by the governing power of a quasi-fatherly relation to the people, involving strict and intimate supervision of their business and social concerns, upon the theory that they are incapable of managing their own afffairs.…

By way of begging the question; by an assumption. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

Pulmonary consumption.

A wasting or consumption of the tissues. The term was formerly applied to many wasting diseases, but is now usually restricted to pulmonary phthisis, or consumption. See Consumption. Fibroid phthisis. See under Fibroid.

The assumption of several structural forms without a corresponding difference in function; -- said of sponges, etc.

entious; boastful; vainlorious; as, pompous manners; a pompous style. "Pompous in high presumption." Chaucer. he pompous vanity of the old schoolmistress. Thackeray. -- Pom"ous*ly, adv. -- Pomp"ous*ness, n.

The act of postulating, or that which is postulated; assumption; solicitation; suit; cause.

In a presumable manner; by, or according to, presumption.