Search the Dictionary

A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of development. That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one. Johnson. What is now "idea" for us How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator conte…

sense; if absent, is imagination. Glanvill. Imagination is of three kinds: joined with belief of that which is to come; joined with memory of that which is past; and of things present, or as if they were present. Bacon.

An indistinct notion, remembrance, or belief.

stitutional qualifications; inadmissible; as, a person professedly wanting in religious belief is an incompetent witness in a court of law or equity; incompetent evidence. Richard III. had a resolution, out of hatred to his brethren, to disable their issues, upon false and incompetent pretexts, the one of attainder, th…

Not credible; surpassing belief; too extraordinary and improbable to admit of belief; unlikely; marvelous; fabulous. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead Acts xxvi. 8.

The state or quality of being i Of every species of incredulity, religious unbelief is the most irrational. Buckminster.

Indicating, or caused by, disbelief or incredulity. "An incredulous smile." Longfellow.

indoctrinated; instruction in the rudiments and principles of any science or system of belief; information. Sir T. Browne.

Want of faith or belief in some religious system; especially, a want of faith in, or disbelief of, the inspiration of the Scriptures, of the divine origin of Christianity. There is, indeed, no doubt but that vanity is one of the principal causes of infidelity. V. Knox.

The doctrine, belief, or principles of the Inralapsarians.

persons unable to pay their debts. Insolvent law, or Act of insolvency, a law affording relief, -- subject to various modifications in different States, -- to insolvent debtors, upon their delivering up their property for the benefit of their creditors. See Bankrupt law, under Bankrupt, a.

or among, or common to, different denominations; as, interdenominational fellowship or belief.

nce; we may reduce many distinct substances into one mass; men are led by evidence into belief of truth, and are often enticed into the commission of crimes'into; she burst into tears; children are sometimes frightened into fits; all persons are liable to be seduced into error and folly.

Not admitting relief; incurable; hopeless.

A peculiarity in the design of bas-relief by which the heads of human figures are kept at the same height from the ground, whether the personages are seated, standing, or mounted on horseback; -- called also isokephaleia.

he fleshy part of the arm or leg, to produce the secretion and discharge of pus for the relief of some affected part.

nst infidels or Mohammedan heretics; also, any bitter war or crusade for a principle or belief.

d his ken." Longfellow. Above the reach and ken of a mortal apprehension. South. It was relief to quit the ken And the inquiring looks of men. Trench.

together in small, separate knots, they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief. Sir W. Scott.

fly composed of mica, less decomposable than the mass of the rock, and forming knots in relief on the weathered surface; as, knotted rocks. Percival.