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To engage in; to become occupied with; as, to enter the legal profession, the book trade, etc.

f of a cause or a subject; ardent and imaginative zeal or interest; as, he engaged in his profession with enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Emerson.

Practicing; professional. [Obs.] "Every exercent advocate." Ayliffe.

A specialist in a particular profession or department of science requiring for its mastery peculiar culture and erudition.

ndi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, ect.

nt, a confessor (called also father confessor), or a priest; also, the eldest member of a profession, or of a legislative assembly, etc. Bless you, good father friar ! Shak.

Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be rendered; especially, payment for professional services, of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge; pay; perquisite; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, etc. To plead for love deserves…

t and weak; limber; lax; drooping; flabby; as, a flaccid muscle; flaccid flesh. Religious profession . . . has become flacced. I. Taylor. -- Flac"cid*ly, adv. -- Flac"cid*ness, n.

To walk in, as a road or course; to attend upon closely, as a profession or calling. O, had I but followed the arts! Shak. O Antony! I have followed thee to this. Shak. Follow board (Founding), a board on which the pattern and the flask lie while the sand is rammed into the flask. Knight. -- To follow the hounds, to h…

Vocation; business; profession.

One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. Can they think me . . . their fool or jester Milton. April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bell…

foreign idiom or custom. It is a pity to see the technicalities of the so-called liberal professions distigured by foreignisms. Fitzed. Hall.

Men of the same class, profession, occupation, character, or tastes. With what terms of respect knaves and sots will speak of their own fraternity! South.

ins to any public officer in church or state; the activity appropriate to any business or profession. Tradesmen . . . going about their functions. Shak. The malady which made him incapable of performing his regal functions. Macaulay.

The official robe of certain professional men and scholars, as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc.; hence, the dress of peace; the dress of civil officers, in distinction from military. He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield. Dryden.

One whose professional habit is a gown, as a divine or lawyer, and particularly a member of an English university; hence, a civilian, in distinction from a soldier.

preaching of the gospel, etc. -- To do grace, to reflect credit upon. Content to do the profession some grace. Shak. -- To say grace, to render thanks before or after a meal. -- With a good grace, in a fit and proper manner grace fully; graciously. -- With a bad grace, in a forced, reluctant, or perfunctory manner;…

One who has received an academical or professional degree; one who has completed the prescribed course of study in any school or institution of learning.

Professional cant; the chatter of conjurers to divert attention from their tricks; hence, jugglery. [Colloq.]

ght; to equip with harness, as a horse. Also used figuratively. Harnessed to some regular profession. J. C. Shairp. Harnessed antelope. (Zoöl.) See Guib. -- Harnessed moth (Zoöl.), an American bombycid moth (Arctia phalerata of Harris), having, on the fore wings, stripes and bands of buff on a black ground.…