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The act of applying or laying on, in a literal sense; as, the application of emollients to a diseased limb.

Want of application, attention, or diligence; negligence; indolence.

A wrong application. Sir T. Browne.

The act of reapplying, or the state of being reapplied.

Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; exiting in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.

Improper treatment or use; application to a wrong or bad purpose; misuse; as, an abuse of our natural powers; an abuse of civil rights, or of privileges or advantages; an abuse of language. Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power. Madison.

Act of accentuating; applications of accent. Specifically (Eccles. Mus.),

The application of a writer's language, on the ground of analogy, to something not originally referred to or intended. Many of those quotations from the Old Testament were probably intended as nothing more than accommodations. Paley.

Act of addressing one's self to a person; verbal application.

The act of adhibiting; application; use. Whitaker.

To manage or conduct, as public affairs; to direct or superintend the execution, application, or conduct of; as, to administer the government or the state. For forms of government let fools contest: Whate'er is best administered is best. Pope.

- applied to persons and to acts; as, an adroit mechanic, an adroit reply. "Adroit in the application of the telescope and quadrant." Horsley. "He was adroit in intrigue." Macaulay.

y; describing by resemblances; figurative. "An allegoric tale." Falconer. "An allegorical application." Pope. Allegorical being . . . that kind of language which says one thing, but means another. Max Miller. Al`le*gor"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Al`le*gor"ic*al*ness, n.

on; a state of general or local insensibility produced by disease or by the inhalation or application of an anæsthetic.

The spiritual meaning or application; esp. the application of the types and allegories of the Old Testament to subjects of the New.

The application of the principles of anatomy, as in art. The stretched and vivid anatomism of their [i. e., the French] great figure painters. The London Spectator.

The application to God of terms descriptive of human beings.

To make application for the removal of (a cause) from an inferior to a superior judge or court for a rehearing or review on account of alleged injustice or illegality in the trial below. We say, the cause was appealed from an inferior court.

The act of applying; application; [Obs.] subservience. Shak.

By way of application.