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Excellence; superiority. [Obs.] Sheldon.

The quality or state of being predominant; superiority; ascendency; prevalence; predomination. The predominance of conscience over interest. South.

The quality or state of being preëminent; superiority in prominence or in excellence; distinction above others in quality, rank, etc.; rarely, in a bad sense, superiority or notoriety in evil; as, preëminence in honor. The preëminence of Christianity to any other religious scheme. Addison. Painful preëminence! yourself…

The quality or state of being prepollent; superiority of power; predominance; prevalence. [R.] Coventry.

The quality or state of being preponderant; superiority or excess of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing. The mind should . . . reject or receive proportionably to the preponderancy of the greater grounds of probability. Locke. In a few weeks he had changed the relative position of all the states in Europ…

To overcome; to gain the victory or superiority; to gain the advantage; to have the upper hand, or the mastery; to succeed; -- sometimes with over or against. When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Ex. xvii. 11. So David prevailed over the Philistine. 1 Sam. xvii…

Gaining advantage or superiority; having superior force, influence, or efficacy; prevailing; predominant; successful; victorious. Brennus told the Roman embassadors, that prevalent arms were as good as any title. Sir W. Raleigh.

ity or state of being proud; inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, rank, etc., which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others. Those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Dan. iv. 37. Pride that dines on vanity su…

Sovereignty; supreme power; hence, superiority; predominance; high, or the highest, station. Sir P. Sidney. Your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. Jer. xiii. 18. The prerogative and principality above everything else. Jer. Taylor.

Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. Macaulay.

of looking down on others as beneath him, merely because he was conscious of his own vast superiority to the common run of men. Prof. Wilson. His whole appearance was something out of the common run. W. Irving. -- To let go by the run (Naut.), to loosen and let run freely, as lines; to let fall without restraint, as a…

rdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally and properly belongs to intellectual superiority. Macaulay.

Hence, a confused contest; a tumultuous struggle for superiority; a fight. The dog leaps upon the serpent, and tears it to pieces; but in the scuffle the cradle happened to be overturned. L'Estrange.

To contend for superiority in an unseemly maner; to scuffle; to struggle; to wrangle; to quarrel.

Descent, as from dignity or superiority; condescension; an act or position of humiliation. Can any loyal subject see With patience such a stoop from sovereignty Dryden.

Exertion or contention for superiority; contest of emulation, either by intellectual or physical efforts. Doting about questions and strifes of words. 1 Tim. vi. 4. Thus gods contended -- noble strife -Who most should ease the wants of life. Congreve.

Hence, assuming superiority; proud. The great and flourishing condition of some of the topping sinners of the world. South.

te; to sicken. -- To turn the tables, to reverse the chances or conditions of success or superiority; to give the advantage to the person or side previously at a disadvantage. -- To turn tippet, to make a change. [Obs.] B. Jonson. -- To turn to profit, advantage, etc., to make profitable or advantageous. -- To turn…

per lip; the upper side of a thing; the upper house of a legislature. The upper hand, the superiority; the advantage. See To have the upper hand, under Hand. Jowett (Thucyd.). -- Upper Bench (Eng. Hist.), the name of the highest court of common law (formerly King's Bench) during the Commonwealth. -- Upper case, the t…

Proud; arrogant; assuming; putting on airs of superiority. [Colloq.] T. Brown. -- Up"pish*ly, adv. [Colloq.] -- Up"pish*ness, n. [Colloq.]