Search the Dictionary

Changed from a state of uprightness, correctness, truth, etc., to a worse state; vitiated; depraved; debased; perverted; as, corrupt language; corrupt judges. At what ease Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt To swear against you. Shak.

either by the known condition and quality of the utterer or by the manifest likelihood of truth in themselves. Hooker. A very diligent and observing person, and likewise very sober and credible. Dampier.

Reliance on the truth of something said or done; belief; faith; trust; confidence. When Jonathan and the people heard these words they gave no credit into them, nor received them. 1 Macc. x. 46.

a caviler; a carper. When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature. I. Watts. You know who the critics are the men who have failed in literature and art. Beaconsfield.

, dramatic criticism. The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Beauty, in letters and the arts; Truth, in history and sciences. Brande & C. By criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant a…

rce down, as by an incumbent weight. To crush the pillars which the pile sustain. Dryden. Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again. Bryant.

i. e., one whose force increases as the statement proceeds. The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative. Trench.

Contention in words or arguments; discussion for the purpose of elucidating truth or influencing action; strife in argument; controversy; as, the debates in Parliament or in Congress. Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate. Pope.

ve by logical process; to obtain or arrive at as the result of reasoning; to gather, as a truth or opinion, from what precedes or from premises; to infer; -- with from or out of. O goddess, say, shall I deduce my rhymes From the dire nation in its early times Pope. Reasoning is nothing but the faculty of deducing unkno…

Performance; -- followed by of. [Obs.] Shak. In deed, in fact; in truth; verily. See Indeed.

The defendant's answer or plea; an opposing or denial of the truth or validity of the plaintiff's or prosecutor's case; the method of proceeding adopted by the defendant to protect himself against the plaintiff's action.

Determinate; positive; final; conclusive; unconditional; express. A strict and definitive truth. Sir T. Browne. Some definitive . . . scheme of reconciliation. Prescott.

eflecteth not, but lieth in the true meridian. Sir T. Browne. To deflect from the line of truth and reason. Warburton.

A kind of rhetoric employed in proving a thing and convincing others of its truth, in order to persuade them to adopt it.

There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth. F. W. Robertson.

Any fact or truth which is decisively attested or intuitively known as a psychological or philosophical datum; as, the deliverance of consciousness.

To lead from truth or into error; to mislead the mind or judgment of to beguile; to impose on; to dupe; to make a fool of. To delude the nation by an airy phantom. Burke.

party to an action, for the judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further. Demurrer to evidence, an exception taken by a…

A refusal to admit the truth of a statement, charge, imputation, etc.; assertion of the untruth of a thing stated or maintained; a contradiction.

of existence, or as a necessary condition; -- followed by on or upon, formerly by of. The truth of God's word dependeth not of the truth of the congregation. Tyndale. The conclusion . . . that our happiness depends little on political institutions, and much on the temper and regulation of our own minds. Macaulay. Heave…