Search the Dictionary

-- used to express mere acceptableness or acquiescence, and implying a degree or quantity rather less than is desired; as, the song was well enough.

Rather than. I will be thrown into Etna, . . . ere I will leave her. Shak. Ere long, before, shortly. Shak. -- Ere now, formerly, heretofore. Shak. -- Ere that, and Or are. Same as Ere. Shak.

ideal or typic character -- character as influenced by the ethos (sense 1) of a people -- rather than realistic or emotional situations or individual character in a narrow sense; -- opposed to pathos.

f making proof; -- the latter, strictly speaking, not being synonymous with evidence, but rather the effect of it. Greenleaf. Circumstantial evidence, Conclusive evidence, etc. See under Circumstantial, Conclusive, etc. -- Crown's, King's, or Queen's evidence, evidence for the crown. [Eng.] -- State's evidence, eviden…

every general rule has its exceptions. Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark, Prove, rather than impeach, the just remark. Cowper.

Something external or without; outward part; that which makes a show, rather than that which is intrinsic; visible form; -- usually in the plural. Adam was then no less glorious in his externals South. God in externals could not place content. Pope.

hirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish. You are all resolved rather to die than to famish Shak.

hat is meant thereby, even the sectaries of our age. Fuller (1660). Fanatics are governed rather by imagination than by judgment. Stowe.

Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects.

Inclination; liking, formed by caprice rather than reason; as, to strike one's fancy; hence, the object of inclination or liking. To fit your fancies to your father's will. Shak.

Rather fast; also, somewhat dissipated. [Colloq.] Thackeray.

, baryta. They occur in crystals and crystalline masses, vitreous in luster, and breaking rather easily in two directions at right angles to each other, or nearly so. The colors are usually white or nearly white, flesh-red, bluish, or greenish.

The real and absolute worship of fire falls into two great divisions, the first belonging rather to fetichism, the second to polytheism proper. Tylor.

Pertaining to, or characterized by, fiction; fictitious; romantic."Fictional rather than historical." Latham.

ng feigned or imagined. Social figments, feints, and formalism. Mrs. Browning. It carried rather an appearance of figment and invention . . . than of truth and reality. Woodward.

and conveying liquors. It is generally larger than a bottle, and of leather or stoneware rather than of glass. A trencher of mutton chops, and a flagon of ale. Macaulay.

Tending to move away from a center, rather than remain in a compact group; -- used of hair or clothing or of small particles of matter. Light objects or particles readily taking a static electric charge may be moved apart by acquisition of a charge, or by approach of a charged object. Such a property is called flyawa…

To copy after; to take as an example. We had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble them whom we love. Hooker.

views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present. [Colloq.]

crity, or readiness for action; as, fresh for a combat; hence, tending to renew in vigor; rather strong; cool or brisk; as, a fresh wind.