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The crime of buying or selling ecclesiastical preferment; the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice for money or reward. Piers Plowman.

e; as, a superfluity of water; a superfluity of wealth. A quiet mediocrity is still to be preferred before a troubled superfluity. Suckling.

beef, or the upper part of the loin. See Sirloin, the more usual, but not etymologically preferable, orthography.

ate; to mimic; to personate. (k) To find place for; to dispose of; as, more scholars than preferments can take off. [R.] Bacon. -- To take on, to assume; to take upon one's self; as, to take on a character or responsibility. -- To take one's own course, to act one's pleasure; to pursue the measures of one's own choic…

temporizers, ready to embrace and maintain all that is, or shall be, proposed, in hope of preferment. Burton.

The act of tergiversating; a shifting; shift; subterfuge; evasion. Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being freer from passions and tergiversations. Abp. Bramhall.

to theory and speculation; a speculatist. Cowper. The greatest theoretists have given the preference to such a government as that which obtains in this kingdom. Addison.

orality of actions should be referred. Chalmers. But what is a utilitarian Simply one who prefers the useful to the useless; and who does not Sir W. Hamilton.

s, expressed in some received and authorized way; the expression of a wish, desire, will, preference, or choice, in regard to any measure proposed, in which the person voting has an interest in common with others, either in electing a person to office, or in passing laws, rules, regulations, etc.; suffrage.…

more candidates than there are offices to be filled, the voter making a mark against the preferred names. [Eng.]

The diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus); -- so called from its preference for damp places near water.

culty or power of the mind by which we decide to do or not to do; the power or faculty of preferring or selecting one of two or more objects. It is necessary to form a distinct notion of what is meant by the word "volition" in order to understand the import of the word will, for this last word expresses the power of mi…

those of the same blood to succeed or inherit; -- applied to males, and expressive of the preference given them over females. Burrill.

ood of the yew. It is light red in color, compact, fine- grained, and very elastic. It is preferred to all other kinds of wood for bows and whipstocks, the best for these purposes coming from Spain.