Search the Dictionary

l faculty; apprehension; as, a man of quick conceit. [Obs.] How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them. Sir P. Sidney.

n; a universal; the product of a rational belief or judgment. See Concept. He [Herodotus] says that the sun draws or attracts the water; a metaphorical term obviously intended to denote some more general and abstract conception than that of the visible operation which the word primarily signifies. Whewell.…

To test or assay, as silk (to ascertain the proportion of moisture it contains). McElrath.

will I confess, also, before my Father which is in heaven. Matt. x. 32. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both. Acts xxiii. 8.

hose measures which appear the most just. Addison. Consistency, thou art a jewel. Popular Saying.

le, or worthless; disdain; scorn. Criminal contempt of public feeling. Macaulay. Nothing, says Longinus, can be great, the contempt of which is great. Addison.

Self-restraint; self-command. He knew what to say; he knew also, when to leave off, -- a continence which is practiced by few writers. Dryden.

lity or state of being contingent or casual; the possibility of coming to pass. Aristotle says we are not to build certain rules on the contingency of human actions. South.

To assert the contrary of; to oppose in words; to take issue with; to gainsay; to deny the truth of, as of a statement or a speaker; to impugn. Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, And say it is not so. Shak. The future can not contradict the past. Wordsworth.

d or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. His fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction. Shak.

self against; to meet; to encounter. I love to cope him in these sullen fits. Shak. They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down. Shak.

Burrill. Sometimes he contrived, in deflance of the law, to live by coshering, that is to say, by quartering himself on the old tentants of his family, who, wretched as was their own condition, could not refuse a portion of their pittance to one whom they still regarded as their rightful lord. Macaulay.…

ical examination or estimate of a work of literature or art; a critical dissertation or essay; a careful and through analysis of any subject; a criticism; as, Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." I should as soon expect to see a critique on the poesy of a ring as on the inscription of a medal. Addison.…

wer. Her who fairest does appear, Crown her queen of all the year. Dryden. Crown him, and say, "Long live our emperor." Shak.

a cross; to put to death by nailing the hands and feet to a cross or gibbet. They cried, saying, Crucify him, cricify him. Luke xxiii. 21.

Cuneiform. "Cuneatic decipherment." Sayce.

cause to coagulate or thicken; to cause to congeal; to curdle. Does it curd thy blood To say I am thy mother Shak.

The state of being a cur; one who is currish. [Jocose] How durst he, I say, oppose thy curship! Hudibras.

Curt; brief; laconic. Essays and curtal aphorisms. Milton. Curtal dog. See Curtail dog.

A short tobacco pipe. Ramsay.