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ischarge of agencies, trusts, and the like; uprightness; rectitude. The moral grandeur of independent integrity is the sublimest thing in nature. Buckminster. Their sober zeal, integrity. and worth. Cowper.

Without regard for conditions, circumstances, or consequences; unbiased; independent; impartial; as, an irrespective judgment.

ted; the system of courts of justice in a country; the judges, taken collectively; as, an independent judiciary; the senate committee on the judiciary.

m, of morality deducible from a study of the nature and natural relations of human beings independent of supernatural revelation or of municipal and social usages. -- Law of the land, due process of law; the general law of the land. -- Laws of honor. See under Honor. -- Laws of motion (Physics), three laws defined b…

as, the lawful owner of lands. Lawful age, the age when the law recognizes one's right of independent action; majority; -- generally the age of twenty-one years.

disposition of drapery, etc. (b) A mere puppet; one who serves the will of others without independent volition. -- Lay race, that part of a lay on which the shuttle travels in weaving; -- called also shuttle race.

o-one gear in an internal- combustion engine. It is generally a shaft moving more or less independently of the other parts of a machine, as, in some marine engines, a shaft, driven by a small auxiliary engine, for independently operating the valves of the main engine to insure uniform motion.

legs (Naut.), to have speed. -- To stand on one's own legs, to support one's self; to be independent.

Free by birth; hence, befitting a freeman or gentleman; refined; noble; independent; free; not servile or mean; as, a liberal ancestry; a liberal spirit; liberal arts or studies. " Liberal education." Macaulay. " A liberal tongue." Shak.

A friar authorized to receive confessions and grant absolution in all places, independently of the local clergy. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Sovereign; independent; having authority or right to allegiance; as, a liege lord. Chaucer. She looked as grand as doomsday and as grave; And he, he reverenced his liege lady there. Tennyson.

mage is thrown upon a plate of ground glass connected with the instrument, or on a screen independent of it.

Hence, a part of a whole; an independent constituent of a body; as:

One of a class of independent, isolated cells found in the mesoderm, while the germ layers are undergoing differentiation.

A mass of two or more ingredients, the particles of which are separable, independent, and uncompounded with each other, no matter how thoroughly and finely commingled; -- contrasted with a compound; thus, gunpowder is a mechanical mixture of carbon, sulphur, and niter.

pacity to perceive what is right or wrong in moral conduct, and to approve or disapprove, independently of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law. -- Moral theology, theology applied to morals; practical theology; casuistry.

Change of pitch in successive sounds, whether in the same part or in groups of parts. The independent motions of different parts sounding together constitute counterpoint. Grove.

A bolter from the Republican party in the national election of 1884; an Independent. [Political Cant, U.S.]

The fault of improperly uniting in one bill distinct and independent matters, and thereby confounding them. Burrill.

The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own. A nation is the unity of a people. Coleridge. Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. F. S. Key.