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Verbal expression; literal statement or meaning; exact signification or requirement. We must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law and the intention of the lawgiver. Jer. Taylor. I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. Tennyson.

equally distant from the center of the earth, or rather would be so if the earth were an exact sphere.

To raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority; as, to levy taxes, toll, tribute, or contributions. If they do this . . . my ransom, then, Will soon be levied. Shak.

That which is equal or similar to another; the counterpart; an exact resemblance; a copy. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. Shak.

given difference, but to which, under the law of variation, the variable can never become exactly equivalent. Elastic limit. See under Elastic. -- Prison limits, a definite, extent of space in or around a prison, within which a prisoner has liberty to go and come.

Following the letter or exact words; not free. A middle course between the rigor of literal translations and the liberty of paraphrasts. Hooker.

One who adheres to the letter or exact word; an interpreter according to the letter.

The science or art of exact reasoning, or of pure and formal thought, or of the laws according to which the processes of pure thinking should be conducted; the science of the formation and application of general notions; the science of generalization, judgment, classification, reasoning, and systematic arrangement; cor…

Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation. Whewel.

to establish; as, the plaintiff was unable to make out his case. (c) To make complete or exact; as, he was not able to make out the money. -- To make over, to transfer the title of; to convey; to alienate; as, he made over his estate in trust or in fee. -- To make sail. (Naut.) (a) To increase the quantity of sail a…

To make or procure the equal of, or that which is exactly similar to, or corresponds with; as, to match a vase or a horse; to match cloth. "Matching of patterns and colors." Swift.

lly precise; accurate; as, mathematical geography; mathematical instruments; mathematical exactness. -- Math`e*mat"ic*al*ly, adv.

That science, or class of sciences, which treats of the exact relations existing between quantities or magnitudes, and of the methods by which, in accordance with these relations, quantities sought are deducible from other quantities known or supposed; the science of spatial and quantitative relations.…

A person of strict piety; one who lives in the exact observance of religious duties; -- sometimes so called in contempt or ridicule.

In a minute manner; with minuteness; exactly; nicely.

cking bird (Zoöl.), a North American singing bird (Mimus polyglottos), remarkable for its exact imitations of the notes of other birds. Its back is gray; the tail and wings are blackish, with a white patch on each wing; the outer tail feathers are partly white. The name is also applied to other species of the same genu…

Any copy, or resemblance, more or less exact. Thou seest thy wretched brother die, Who was the model of thy father's life. Shak.

England, of giing every third year, on Whittuesday, to a hillock near the Bath road, and exacting money from all passers-by, to support at the university the senior scholar of the school.

Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact. But first with narrow search I must walk round This garden, and no corner leave unspied. Milton.

Overscrupulous or exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious in small matters. Curious not knowing, not exact but nice. Pope. And to taste Think not I shall be nice. Milton.