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Argumentative; discursive; reasoning. [R.] Bp. Hall.

Argumentation; ratiocination; discursive reasoning.

The act of discussing or exchanging reasons; examination by argument; debate; disputation; agitation. The liberty of discussion is the great safeguard of all other liberties. Macaulay. Discussion of a problem or an equation (Math.), the operation of assigning different reasonable values to the arbitrary quantities and…

The act of disputing; a reasoning or argumentation in opposition to something, or on opposite sides; controversy in words; verbal contest respecting the truth of some fact, opinion, proposition, or argument.

To contend in argument; to argue against something maintained, upheld, or claimed, by another; to discuss; to reason; to debate; to altercate; to wrangle. Therefore disputed [reasoned, Rev. Ver .] he in synagogue with the Jews. Acts xvii. 17.

or discussion of, any subject; a full examination or investigation of a matter, with the arguments and facts bearing upon it; elaborate essay; dissertation. For accurate research or grave disquisition he was not well qualified. Macaulay.

A formal or elaborate argumentative discourse, oral or written; a disquisition; an essay; a discussion; as, Dissertations on the Prophecies.

be without dissimulation. Rom. xii. 9. Dissimulation . . . when a man lets fall signs and arguments that he is not that he is. Bacon. Simulation is a pretense of what is not, and dissimulation a concealment of what is. Tatler.

A dissuasive argument or counsel; dissuasion; dehortation. Prynne. -- Dis*sua"sive*ly, adv.

Nice discrimination; hence, clearness; precision; as, he stated his arguments with great distinctness.

ut little success of all this upon the dogmatist; his opinioned assurance is paramount to argument. Glanvill.

The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence, also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim. He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison. Now thou knowest my drift. Sir W. Scott.

or state; as, to drive person by necessity, by persuasion, by force of circumstances, by argument, and the like. " Enough to drive one mad." Tennyson. He, driven to dismount, threatened, if I did not do the like, to do as much for my horse as fortune had done for his. Sir P. Sidney.

That part of an argument on which its conclusiveness depends; that which convinces of refutes an antagonist; a refutation.

or entice forth; to bring to light; to bring out against the will; to deduce by reason or argument; as, to elicit truth by discussion.

To break or dash in pieces; to demolish; as, to elide the force of an argument. [Obs.] Hooker.

Having the power of expressing strong emotions or forcible arguments in an elevated, impassioned, and effective manner; as, an eloquent orator or preacher. O Death, all-eloquent! You only prove What dust we dote on when 't is man we love. Pope.

an officer; to elude detection, inquiry, search, comprehension; to elude the force of an argument or a blow. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in shades, eludes he eager swain. Pope. The transition from fetichism to polytheism seems a gradual process of which the stages elude close definition. Tylor.…

To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to urge with energy; as, to enforce arguments or requests. Enforcing sentiment of the thrust humanity. Burke.

Diffusiveness of speech or writing; expatiation; a wide range of discourse or argument. An enlargement upon the vices and corruptions that were got into the army. Clarendon.