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To part; to fall asunder; to become separated. The joints of the body politic do separate and disunite. South.

One who would apply to political or other practical concerns the abstract doctrines or the theories of his own philosophical system; a propounder of a new set of opinions; a dogmatic theorist. Used also adjectively; as, doctrinaire notions.

e of gravitation." I. Watts. Articles of faith and doctrine. Hooker. The Monroe doctrine (Politics), a policy enunciated by President Monroe (Message, Dec. 2, 1823), the essential feature of which is that the United States will regard as an unfriendly act any attempt on the part of European powers to extend their syste…

sequences involving thousands of dominoes, arrayed in fanciful patterns. Domino theory. A political theory current in the 1960's, according to which the conversion of one country in South Asia to communism will start a sequential process causing all Asian countries to convert to Communism. The apparent assumption was t…

A contemptuous nickname for a timid, yielding politician, or one who is easily molded. [Political cant, U. S.]

visionary; one lost in wild imaginations or vain schemes of some anticipated good; as, a political dreamer.

A political dynamiter.

Destroying by dynamite, for political ends. Dynamiting is not the American way. The Century.

Relating to the means of living, or the resources and wealth of a country; relating to political economy; as, economic purposes; economical truths. These matters economical and political. J. C. Shairp. There was no economical distress in England to prompt the enterprises of colonization. Palfrey. Economic questions, su…

Political economy; the science of the utilities or the useful application of wealth or material resources. See Political economy, under Political. "In politics and economics." V. Knox.

One who is conversant with political economy; a student of economics.

up by production and consumption; esp., such management as directly concerns wealth; as, political economy.

To endow with a franchise; to incorporate into a body politic and thus to invest with civil and political privileges; to admit to the privileges of a freeman.

Admission to the freedom of a corporation or body politic; investiture with the privileges of free citizens. Enfranchisement of copyhold (Eng. Law), the conversion of a copyhold estate into a freehold. Mozley & W.

a thing are balanced, and hence equal; state of being equally balanced; -- said of moral, political, or social interests or forces. The means of preserving the equipoise and the tranquillity of the commonwealth. Burke. Our little lives are kept in equipoise By opposite attractions and desires. Longfellow.…

The state; the general body politic; the common-wealth; the general interest; state affairs. [Obs.] I call matters of estate not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever . . . concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. Bacon.

ether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions; as, political or social ethics; medical ethics. The completeness and consistency of its morality is the peculiar praise of the ethics which the Bible has taught. I. Taylor.

A portion of a country which is separated from the main part and surrounded by politically alien territory. [Recent.]

One who would exclude another from some right or privilege; esp., one of the anti-popish politicians of the time of Charles

or to test, establish, or illustrate some suggest or known truth; practical test; poof. A political experiment can not be made in a laboratory, not determinant in a few hours. J. Adams.