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To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another); -- with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body. He said, and the sword his throat applied. Dryden.

To apply wrongly; to use for a wrong purpose; as, to misapply a name or title; to misapply public money.

To apply again.

Applying to or by one's self.

modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency from his example, of applying the expression "abstract name" to all names which are the result of abstraction and generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes. J. S. Mill.…

To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to misuse; to put to a bad use; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority. This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. Froude.

To show the correspondence of; to apply or make suit by analogy; to adapt or fit, as teachings to accidental circumstances, statements to facts, etc.; as, to accommodate prophecy to events.

To apply habitually; to devote; to habituate; -- with to. "They addict themselves to the civil law." Evelyn. He is addicted to his study. Beau. & Fl. That part of mankind that addict their minds to speculations. Adventurer. His genius addicted him to the study of antiquity. Fuller. A man gross . . . and addicted to low…

Reflexively: To prepare one's self; to apply one's skill or energies (to some object); to betake. These men addressed themselves to the task. Macaulay.

To use or apply; to administer. Camden.

To apply, as medicine or a remedy; to give, as a dose or something beneficial or suitable. Extended to a blow, a reproof, etc. A noxious drug had been administered to him. Macaulay.

A kind of atomizer for applying liquid coloring matter in a spray by compressed air.

To apply oil to or to pour oil upon, etc., as a sacred rite, especially for consecration. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his [Aaron's] head and anoint him. Exod. xxix. 7. Anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 1 Kings xix. 15. The Lord's Anointed, Christ or the Messiah; also, a Jewish or other k…

anguage; -- in the Kantian philosophy, such a contradiction as arises from the attempt to apply to the ideas of the reason, relations or attributes which are appropriate only to the facts or the concepts of experience.

To apply for the removal of a cause from an inferior to a superior judge or court for the purpose of reëxamination of for decision. Tomlins. I appeal unto Cæsar. Acts xxv. 11.

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

To apply. [Obs.] The act of faith is applicated to the object. Bp. Pearson.

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

Having of being applied or used; applying; applicatory; practical. Bramhall. -- Ap"pli*ca*tive*ly, adv.

Having the property of applying; applicative; practical. -- n.