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Superiority; superfluity. [Obs.] Sir K. Digby.

The state of being fatal, or proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity, superior to, and independent of, free and rational control. The Stoics held a fatality, and a fixed, unalterable course of events. South.

A dignitary of the church, a superior of a convent, a confessor (called also father confessor), or a priest; also, the eldest member of a profession, or of a legislative assembly, etc. Bless you, good father friar ! Shak.

aithful to his lord; the special oath by which this obligation was assumed; fidelity to a superior power, or to a government; loyality. It is no longer the practice to exact the performance of fealty, as a feudal obligation. Wharton (Law Dict. ). Tomlins.

A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.

A stipendiary estate in land, held of superior, by service; the right which a vassal or tenant had to the lands or other immovable thing of his lord, to use the same and take the profists thereof hereditarily, rendering to his superior such duties and services as belong to military tenure, etc., the property of the soi…

and is made dependent upon an obligation to render military service to the kind or feudal superior; feudal principles and usages.

A tenant or vassal who held his lands of a superior on condition of feudal service; the tenant of a feud or fief. The grantee . . . was styled the feudatory or vassal. Blackstone. [He] had for feudatories great princes. J. H. Newman.

An estate held of a superior on condition of military service; a fee; a feud. See under Benefice, n., 2.

Finished; brought to perfection; refined; hence, free from impurity; excellent; superior; elegant; worthy of admiration; accomplished; beautiful. The gain thereof [is better] than fine gold. Prov. iii. 14. A cup of wine that's brisk and fine. Shak. Not only the finest gentleman of his time, but one of the finest schola…

A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely. Knight.

The quality or characteristics of a flunky; readiness to cringe to those who are superior in wealth or position; toadyism. Thackeray.

Superiority; advantage; start; precedence. And, but for ceremony, such a wretch . . . Had the forehand and vantage of a king. Shak.

A kind of striped cotton fabric, usually of superior quality and striped with blue or red on white.

Distinguished mental superiority; uncommon intellectual power; especially, superior power of invention or origination of any kind, or of forming new combinations; as, a man of genius. Genius of the highest kind implies an unusual intensity of the modifyng power. Coleridge.

ted herself among a crowd of goddesses, she was distinguished by her graceful stature and superior beauty. Addison.

Holding the superiority; prevalent; controlling; as, a governing wind; a governing party in a state. Jay.

Superior; admirable; commanding; -- applied to thoughts, actions, and feelings.

or advantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing superior advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success; as, the handicap was five seconds, or ten pounds, and the like.

lation by simple apposition of comparatively smooth surfaces or edges, as between the two superior maxillary bones in man; -- called also harmonic, and harmony. -- Harmonic triad (Mus.), the chord of a note with its third and fifth; the common chord.