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ranted by which restraint or illegality is removed; permission; allowance; license. David earnestly asked leave of me. 1 Sam. xx. 6. No friend has leave to bear away the dead. Dryden.

Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity. " A spirit of levity and libertinism." Atterbury. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity. Calamy.

Full of earnestness; active; wide awake; glowing; as, a live man, or orator.

Manner of life; as, riotous living; penurious living; earnest living. " A vicious living." Chaucer.

An eager desire; a craving; a morbid appetite; an earnest wish; an aspiration. Put on my crown; I have immortal longings in me. Shak.

In a mighty manner; with might; with great earnestness; vigorously; powerfully. Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. Col. i. 29.

ding, and exposing to contempt, by mimicry, by insincere imitation, or by a false show of earnestness; a counterfeit appearance. It is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Shak. Grace at meals is now generally so performed as to look more like a mockery upon devotion than any solemn applicat…

Importunity; earnestness. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

st; one who extols or praises, either by writing or speaking. If these panegyrists are in earnest. Burke.

Hence: To long eagerly; to desire earnestly. As the hart panteth after the water brooks. Ps. xlii. 1. Who pants for glory finds but short repose. Pope.

Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing. The pensive secrecy of desert cell. Milton. Anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed. Pope.

of the Supreme Being, and love of his character; loving obedience to the will of God, and earnest devotion to his service. Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. Rambler.

To invite earnestly; to solicit. [Obs.] Bp. Burnet.

To make request with earnestness or zeal, as for something desired; to make entreaty or supplication; to offer prayer to a deity or divine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving. And to his goddess pitously he preyde. Chaucer. When…

The act of praying, or of asking a favor; earnest request or entreaty; hence, a petition or memorial addressed to a court or a legislative body. "Their meek preyere." Chaucer

To inculcate in public discourse; to urge with earnestness by public teaching. "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation." Ps. xl. 9.

One who inculcates anything with earnestness. No preacher is listened to but Time. Swift. Preacher bird (Zoöl.), a toucan.

discourse; the art of sermonizing; also, a sermon; a public religious discourse; serious, earnest advice. Milner. Preaching cross, a cross, sometimes surmounting a pulpit, erected out of doors to designate a preaching place. -- Preaching friars. See Dominican.

To try to force (something upon some one); to urge or inculcate with earnestness or importunity; to enforce; as, to press divine truth on an audience. He pressed a letter upon me within this hour. Dryden. Be sure to press upon him every motive. Addison.

Earnest desire or longing. [Obs.] Holland. To pick a quarrel. See under Pick, v. t.