Search the Dictionary

The theory, principles, or authority of constitutional government; attachment or adherene to a constitution or constitutional government. Carlyle.

The quality or state of being constitutional, or inherent in the natural frame.

The act of constricting by means of some inherent power or by movement or change in the thing itself, as distinguished from compression.

The state of being conventional; adherence to social formalities or usages; that which is established by conventional use; one of the customary usages of social life.

An adherent of the corpuscular philosophy. Bentley.

An adherent crust; an incrustation. Pepys.

The regular form which a substance tends to assume in solidifying, through the inherent power of cohesive attraction. It is bounded by plane surfaces, symmetrically arranged, and each species of crystal has fixed axial ratios. See Crystallization.

A one-seeded, one-called, indehiscent fruit; an achene with the calyx tube adherent.

To wander about; to saunter; to talk incoherently. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

A state in which the thoughts, expressions, and actions are wild, irregular, and incoherent; mental aberration; a roving or wandering of the mind, -- usually dependent on a fever or some other disease, and so distinguished from mania, or madness.

of good or ill; desert. [Obs.] By many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents, [they] acquired this reputation. Holland.

One who is an adherent or advocate of democracy, or government by the people. Whatever they call him, what care I, Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat. Tennyson.

Composed pf two coherent, one-seeded carpels; as, a dicoccous capsule.

, a follower who has learned to believe in the truth of the doctrine of his teacher; an adherent in doctrine; as, the disciples of Plato; the disciples of our Savior. The disciples, or The twelve disciples, the twelve selected companions of Jesus; -- also called the apostles. -- Disciples of Christ. See Christian, n.,…

A Puritan or Presbyterian; -- because of rigid adherence to religious or church discipline. [Obs.]

To break the natural order and relations of; to make incoherent; as, a disjointed speech.

Separated at the joints; disconnected; incoherent. -- Dis*joint"ed*ly, adv. -- Dis*joint"ed*ness, n.

matically two words or clauses, expressing at the same time an opposition or separation inherent in the notions or thoughts; as, either, or, neither, nor, but, although, except, lest, etc. -- Disjunctive proposition, one in which the parts are connected by disjunctive conjunctions; as it is either day or night. -- Di…

The doctrine of certain extreme adherents or disciples of Descartes and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which finds all the elements of knowledge in the ego and the relations which it implies or provides for.

Springing back; having a power or inherent property of returning to the form from which a substance is bent, drawn, pressed, or twisted; springy; having the power of rebounding; as, a bow is elastic; the air is elastic; India rubber is elastic. Capable of being drawn out by force like a piece of elastic gum, and by its…