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To find fault; to cavil; to censure words or actions without reason or ill-naturedly; -- usually followed by at. Carping and caviling at faults of manner. Blackw. Mag. And at my actions carp or catch. Herbert.

nguished from the questions of law; a suit or action at law; a cause. Let us consider the reason of the case, for nothing is law that is not reason. Sir John Powell. Not one case in the reports of our courts. Steele.

To consider; to turn or revolve in the mind; to plan; as, to cast about for reasons. She . . . cast in her mind what manner of salution this should be. Luke. i. 29.

n from the Scriptures, from the laws of society or the church, or from equity and natural reason; the application of general moral rules to particular cases. The consideration of these nice and puzzling question in the science of ethics has given rise, in modern times, to a particular department of it, distinguished by…

Expressing a cause or reason; causal; as, the ablative is a causative case.

That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive; as, cause for rejoicing.

Without just or sufficient reason; groundless. My fears are causeless and ungrounded. Denham.

To raise captious and frivolous objections; to find fault without good reason. You do not well in obstinacy To cavil in the course of this contract. Shak.

Disposed to cavil; finding fault without good reason. See Captious. His depreciatory and caviling criticism. Lewis.

The anterior, and in man the larger, division of the brain; the seat of the reasoning faculties and the will. See Brain.

-- in this sense often personifed. It is strictly and philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident; it being evident that these words do not signify anything really existing, anything that is truly an agent or the cause of any event; but they signify merely men's ignoranc…

ument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning. That heavy bodies descend by gravity; and, again, that gravity is a quality whereby a heavy body descends, is an impertinent circle and teaches nothing. Glanvill.

itself; reverting to the point of beginning; hence, illogical; inconclusive; as, circular reasoning.

To make clear; to free from obscurities; to brighten or illuminate. To clarify his reason, and to rectify his will. South.

Seeing with clearness; discerning; as, clear-sighted reason

Concise; to the point; as, close reasoning. "Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass." Dryden.

Closemouthed; silent. "Close-tongued treason." Shak.

His sides are clothed with waving wood. J. Dyer. Thus Belial, with with words clothed in reason's garb. Milton.

grace; to be in disfavor. -- In the clouds, in the realm of facy and imagination; beyond reason; visionary.

training; conclusive; forcible; powerful; not easily reasisted. No better nor more cogent reason. Dr. H. More. Proofs of the most cogent description. Tyndall. The tongue whose strains were cogent as commands, Revered at home, and felt in foreign lands. Cowper.