Search the Dictionary

A count or declaration. [Obs.] To tell tale of, to make account of. [Obs.] Therefore little tale hath he told Of any dream, so holy was his heart. Chaucer.

alt. Test act (Eng. Law), an act of the English Parliament prescribing a form of oath and declaration against transubstantiation, which all officers, civil and military, were formerly obliged to take within six months after their admission to office. They were obliged also to receive the sacrament according to the usag…

To make a solemn declaration, verbal or written, to establish some fact; to give testimony for the purpose of communicating to others a knowledge of something not known to them. Jesus . . . needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. John ii. 25.

A solemn declaration or affirmation made for the purpose of establishing or proving some fact.

The expression of an intention to inflict evil or injury on another; the declaration of an evil, loss, or pain to come; meance; threatening; denunciation. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats. Shak.

Speech; words or declarations only; -- opposed to thoughts or actions. My little children, let us love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John iii. 18.

, erroneous, inaccurate, or the like; as, a true relation or narration; a true history; a declaration is true when it states the facts.

prehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration; the court understands the advocate or his argument; to understand the sacred oracles; to understand a nod or a wink. Speaketh [i. e., speak thou] so plain at this time, I you pray, That we may understande what ye say.…

legal proceeding, which, to be effectual, ought to agree, -- as between the writ and the declaration, or between the allegation and the proof. Bouvier. A variance, in disagreement; in a state of dissension or controversy; at enmity. "What cause brought him so soon at variance with himself" Milton.

hat; it being the case that; since; -- used to introduce a preamble which is the basis of declarations, affirmations, commands, requests, or like, that follow.

The legal declaration of a person's mind as to the manner in which he would have his property or estate disposed of after his death; the written instrument, legally executed, by which a man makes disposition of his estate, to take effect after his death; testament; devise. See the Note under Testament, 1.…

d as implying the faith or authority of the person who utters it; statement; affirmation; declaration; promise. Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly. Shak. I know you brave, and take you at your word. Dryden. I desire not the reader should take my word. Dryden.