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Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or employment; as, a private citizen; private life. Shak. A private person may arrest a felon. Blackstone.

One who is employed to manage to affairs of another. Specifically:

To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile. So idly to profane the precious time. Shak.

s which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physician; the profession of lecturer on chemistry. Hi tried five or six professions in turn. Macaulay.

manner or capacity; by profession or calling; in the exercise of one's profession; one employed professionally.

To employed in pruning. [Obs.]

s another, as an actor or an orator, of the words to be spoken next; specifically, one employed for this purpose in a theater.

Having the power to make propitious; pertaining to, or employed in, propitiation; expiatory; as, a propitiatory sacrifice. Sharp.

A base hireling; a mercenary; one who offers himself to infamous employments for hire. No hireling she, no prostitute to praise. Pope.

ake a solemn declaration or affirmation of; to proclaim; to display; as, to protest one's loyalty. I will protest your cowardice. Shak.

One employed to procure supplies, as for an army, a steamer, etc.; a purveyor; one who provides for another. Jer. Taylor.

To preen; to prepare; to dress. Spenser. His royal bird Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak. Shak.

One who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at suction to bid up the price; a by-bidder. Bouvier.

The pure fetters on his shins great. Chaucer. A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy. I. Watts.

Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end; as, mercantile pursuits; a literary pursuit.

forth = to thrust out). His chief designs are . . . to put thee by from thy spiritual employment. Jer. Taylor.

Putridity. Floyer.

any natural endowment, or any acquirement, which fits a person for a place, office, or employment, or which enables him to sustian any character with success; an enabling quality or circumstance; requisite capacity or possession. There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive. Bur…

dge, skill, or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; to make capable, as of an employment or privilege; to supply with legal power or capacity. He had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession. Macaulay.

The act, process, or result (in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold; -- called also inquartation. Compare Parting.