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Inherent excellence; any endowment or characteristic fitted to win favor or confer pleasure or benefit. He is complete in feature and in mind. With all good grace to grace a gentleman. Shak. I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and ful…

Wanting in grace or excellence; departed from, or deprived of, divine grace; hence, depraved; corrupt. "In a graceless age." Milton.

The quality of being handsome. Handsomeness is the mere animal excellence, beauty the mere imaginative. Hare.

Elevation in excellence of any kind, as in power, learning, arts; also, an advanced degree of social rank; preëminence or distinction in society; prominence. Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts. R. Browning. All would in his power hold, all make his subjects. Chapman.

esteem, respect, or consideration; self-respect; dignity; courage; fidelity; especially, excellence of character; high moral worth; virtue; nobleness; specif., in men, integrity; uprightness; trustworthness; in women, purity; chastity. If she have forgot Honor and virtue. Shak. Godlike erect, with native honor clad. M…

Reaching an imaginary standard of excellence; fit for a model; faultless; as, ideal beauty. Byron. There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence. Rambler.

To make ideal; to give an ideal form or value to; to attribute ideal characteristics and excellences to; as, to idealize real life.

To make worse; to diminish in quantity, value, excellence, or strength; to deteriorate; as, to impair health, character, the mind, value. Time sensibly all things impairs. Roscommon. In years he seemed, but not impaired by years. Pope.

Inequality; disparity; disproportion; difference of degree, rank, excellence, number, etc. Milton.

Of superior or unusual size or excellence; as, imperial paper; imperial tea, etc. Imperial bushel, gallon, etc. See Bushel, Gallon, etc. -- Imperial chamber, the, the sovereign court of the old German empire. -- Imperial city, under the first German empire, a city having no head but the emperor. -- Imperial diet, an…

Lower in place, rank, excellence, etc.; less important or valuable; subordinate; underneath; beneath. A thousand inferior and particular propositions. I. Watts. The body, or, as some love to call it, our inferior nature. Burke. Whether they are equal or inferior to my other poems, an author is the most improper judge.…

Without limit in power, capacity, knowledge, or excellence; boundless; immeasurably or inconceivably great; perfect; as, the infinite wisdom and goodness of God; -- opposed to finite. Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite. Ps. cxlvii. 5. O God, how infinite thou art! I. Watts.…

Unlimited capacity, energy, excellence, or knowledge; as, the infinity of God and his perfections. Hooker.

To do harm to; to impair the excellence and value of; to hurt; to damage; -- used in a variety of senses; as: (a) To hurt or wound, as the person; to impair soundness, as of health. (b) To damage or lessen the value of, as goods or estate. (c) To slander, tarnish, or impair, as reputation or character. (d) To impair or…

apprehension of superiority. Shenstone. Whoever had qualities to alarm our jealousy, had excellence to deserve our fondness. Rambler.

One possessing in a high degree the distinctive qualities of manhood; one having manly excellence of any kind. Shak. This was the noblest Roman of them all . . . the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world "This was a man! Shak.

J. S. Mill. A marked man, a man who is noted by a community, or by a part of it, as, for excellence or depravity; -- usually with an unfavorable suggestion.

Intermediate in excellence of any kind. According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly. Milton.

The condition, or quality, of being mean; want of excellence; poorness; lowness; baseness; sordidness; stinginess. This figure is of a later date, by the meanness of the workmanship. Addison.

Of a middle quality; of but a moderate or low degree of excellence; indifferent; ordinary. " A very mediocre poet." Pope.