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Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished. An instinct is a propensity prior to experience, and independent of instructions. Paley. An instinct is a blind tendency t…

In an involuntary manner; not voluntarily; not intentionally or willingly.

The quality or state of being involuntary; unwillingness; automatism.

sedly; to blend or merge. [R.] The gathering number, as it moves along, Involves a vast involuntary throng. Pope. Earth with hell To mingle and involve. Milton.

ic substance; -- applied esp. to the spinal cord, because it is capable of conveying doth voluntary and reflex motor impulses, without itself being affected by motor impulses applied to it directly.

A condition of the body, or mind, when its voluntary functions are performed with difficulty, and only by a strong exertion of the will; languor; debility; weariness. The corporeal instruments of action being strained to a high pitch . . . will soon feel a lassitude. Barrow.

or identical with miryachit and jumping disease, the person affected performing various involuntary actions and making rapid inarticulate ejaculations in imitation of the actions and words of another person.

A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the face, particularly of the lips, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction, or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs. See Laugh, v. i. The act of laughter, which is a sweet contr…

pinal cord characterized by peculiar disturbances of gait, and difficulty in coördinating voluntary movements.

Slavery; involuntary servitude. [Obs.] Johnson.

he minister of a parish on the death of a parishioner. It seems to have been originally a voluntary bequest or donation, intended to make amends for any failure in the payment of tithes of which the deceased had been guilty.

position; movement; the passing of a body from one place or position to another, whether voluntary or involuntary; -- opposed to rest. Speaking or mute, all comeliness and grace attends thee, and each word, each motion, forms. Milton.

f choice, of discovering the whereabouts of hidden objects, etc., by inference from the involuntary movements of one whose hand the reader holds or with whom he is otherwise in muscular contact.

Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.

The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism. Of necessity, by necessary consequence; by compulsion, or irresistible power; perforce.

A rapid involuntary oscillation of the eyeballs.

An anthem chanted, or a voluntary played on the organ, during the offering and first part of the Mass.

Abolition of function, whether complete or partial; esp., the loss of the power of voluntary motion, with or without that of sensation, in any part of the body; palsy. See Hemiplegia, and Paraplegia. Also used figuratively. "Utter paralysis of memory." G. Eliot. Mischievous practices arising out of the paralysis of the…

taining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. Quoth he, "The m…

mas or St.Peter's day; -- called also Rome scot, and hearth money. (b) In modern times, a voluntary contribution made by Roman Catholics to the private purse of the pope. -- Peter's fish (Zoöl.), a haddock; -- so called because the black spots, one on each side, behind the gills, are traditionally said to have been ca…