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without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses. Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest suspicion to the fullest assurance. Reid.

Having belief or faith.

on, assertion, or doctrine is not true; refusal of assent, credit, or credence; denial of belief. Our belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing. Tillotson. No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness that disbelief in great men. Carlyle.

A feigning to believe; make believe. J. H. Newman.

Erroneous or false belief.

The withholding of belief; doubt; incredulity; skepticism.

Continuous growth; an accretion. [R.] The silent accrescence of belief from the unwatched depositions of a general, never contradicted hearsy. Coleridge.

To of or admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in; as, to acknowledge the being of a God. I acknowledge my transgressions. Ps. li. 3. For ends generally acknowledged to be good. Macaulay.

of prayers, and meaning, So be it. At the end of a creed, it is a solemn asseveration of belief. When it introduces a declaration, it is equivalent to truly, verily. It is used as a noun, to demote: (a) concurrence in belief, or in a statement; assent; (b) the final word or act; (c) Christ as being one who is true and…

The belief of those in the Church of England who accept many doctrines and practices which they maintain were those of the primitive, or true, Catholic Church, of which they consider the Church of England to be the lineal descendant.

The belief that inanimate objects and the phenomena of nature are endowed with personal life or a living soul; also, in an extended sense, the belief in the existence of soul or spirit apart from matter. Tylor.

d silence in it, and the place answer to convenience. Shak. If this but answer to my just belief, I 'll remember you. Shak. As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Pro

To renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one's church, the faith or principles once held, or the party to which one has previously adhered. He apostatized from his old faith in facts, took to believing in Carlyle.

e world; also, one who initiates any great moral reform, or first advocates any important belief; one who has extraordinary success as a missionary or reformer; as, Dionysius of Corinth is called the apostle of France, John Eliot the apostle to the Indians, Theobald Mathew the apostle of temperance.…

an apostle; specifically, the Church of Rome; -- so called because, in the Roman Catholic belief, the pope is the successor of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and the only apostle who has successors in the apostolic office. -- Apostolical succession, the regular and uninterrupted transmission of ministerial aut…

badge of wit and an argument of parts for a man to commence atheist, and to cast off all belief of providence, all awe and reverence for religion South.

To declare to, solemnly; to assert to (any one) with the design of inspiring belief or confidence. I dare assure thee that no enemy Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus. Shak.

The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. Atheism is a ferocious system, that leaves nothing above us to excite awe, nor around us to awaken tenderness. R. Hall. Atheism and pantheism are often wrongly confounded. Shipley.

pnotism. Autosuggestion is characteristic of certain mental conditions in which expectant belief tends to produce disturbance of function of one or more organs.

To exercise belief in; to credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of, upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider; as, to b…