Search the Dictionary

or admission; as, indeed, you are right. (c) Denoting surprise; as, indeed, is it you Its meaning is not intrinsic or fixed, but depends largely on the form of expression which it accompanies.

Without expression or meaning; not expressive; dull; unintelligent; as, an inexpressive countenance.

Not sensible or reasonable; meaningless. [Obs.] If it make the indictment be insensible or uncertain, it shall be quashed. Sir M. Hale.

The condition or quality of being insignificant; want of significance, sense, or meaning; as, the insignificance of words or phrases.

Not significant; void of signification, sense, or import; meaningless; as, insignificant words.

Not expressing meaning; not significant.

The true meaning, understanding, or intention of a law, or of any legal instrument.

siness or pleasure. "Intent on mischief." Milton. Be intent and solicitous to take up the meaning of the speaker. I. Watts.

r feeling, as O! Alas! Ha ha! Begone! etc. Compare Exclamation. An interjection implies a meaning which it would require a whole grammatical sentence to expound, and it may be regarded as the rudiment of such a sentence. But it is a confusion of thought to rank it among the parts of speech. Earle. How now! interjection…

To explain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translate orally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; to decipher; to define; -- applied esp. to language, but also to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc.; as, to interpret the Hebrew language to an Englishman; to interpret an Indian speech. Emmanuel, wh…

The sense given by an interpreter; exposition or explanation given; meaning; as, commentators give various interpretations of the same passage of Scripture.

m or branch; -- often confounded with interpetiolar, from which it differs essentially in meaning.

A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

A command to a horse, probably meaning "stand still." [Obs.] Chaucer.

Greek words, meaning "Lord, have mercy upon us," used in the Mass, the breviary offices, the litany of the saints, etc. Addis & Arnold.

To be wanting; often, impersonally, with of, meaning, to be less than, short, not quite, etc. What hour now I think it lacks of twelve. Shak. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty. Gen. xvii. 28.

Slightly withdrawn from view or knowledge; as, a latescent meaning. Sir W. Hamilton.

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.

A prefix from L. laevus, meaning:

to limit the issue of paper money; to limit one's ambitions or aspirations; to limit the meaning of a word. Limiting parallels (Astron.), those parallels of latitude between which only an occultation of a star or planet by the moon, in a given case, can occur.