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To pillage; to harry; to oppress. [Obs.] Spenser. Meaning thereby to harrow his people. Bacon

Vital part; secret meaning; real intention. And then show you the heart of my message. Shak.

d explanation; exegesis; esp., that branch of theology which defines the laws whereby the meaning of the Scriptures is to be ascertained. Schaff-Herzog Encyc.

Emblematic; expressive of some meaning by characters, pictures, or figures; as, hieroglyphic writing; a hieroglyphic obelisk. Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his, hieroglyphical of wisest secrets. Prof. Wilson.

hat branch of painting which represents the events of history. -- Historical sense, that meaning of a passage which is deduced from the circumstances of time, place, etc., under which it was written. -- The historic sense, the capacity to conceive and represent the unity and significance of a past era or age.…

being deciphered. Holocryptic cipher, a cipher so constructed as to afford no clew to its meaning to one ignorant of the key.

One of two or more words identical in orthography, but having different derivations and meanings; as, fair, n., a market, and fair, a., beautiful.

A word having the same sound as another, but differing from it in meaning; as the noun bear and the verb bear. [Written also homonyme.]

Having the same name or designation, but different meaning or relation; hence, equivocal; ambiguous.

A word having the same sound as another, but differing from it in meaning and usually in spelling; as, all and awl; bare and bear; rite, write, right, and wright.

A loud noise of many confused voices; a tumult; uproar. Milton. This hubbub of unmeaning words. Macaulay.

A figure of speech in which the expression is an evident exaggeration of the meaning intended to be conveyed, or by which things are represented as much greater or less, better or worse, than they really are; a statement exaggerated fancifully, through excitement, or for effect. Our common forms of compliment are almos…

ing to, or conforming to, the mode of expression peculiar to a language; as, an idiomatic meaning; an idiomatic phrase. -- Id`i*o*mat"ic*al*ly, adv.

nfall of the Republic it was assumed by Augustus and his successors, and came to have the meaning now attached to the word emperor.

To carry or include, as meaning or intention; to imply; to signify. Every petition . . . doth . . . always import a multitude of speakers together. Hooker.

Import; meaning; significance. [Obs.] The wisest beholder could not say if the importance were joy or sorrow. Shak.

Full of meaning. [Obs.] Shak.

Void of meaning. [Obs.] Shak.

sting, either wholly or in part. In its different applications, it approaches some of the meanings of, and sometimes is interchangeable with, within, into, on, at, of, and among. It is used: --

A prefix from Eng. prep. in, also from Lat. prep. in, meaning in, into, on, among; as, inbred, inborn, inroad; incline, inject, intrude. In words from the Latin, in- regularly becomes il- before l, ir- before r, and im- before a labial; as, illusion, irruption, imblue, immigrate, impart. In- is sometimes used with an s…