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To fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end. "To define controversies." Barrow.

The act of defining; definition; description. [Obs.] Shak.

One who defines or explains.

To define beforehand.

To make indefinite; to obliterate or confuse the definition or limitations of.

e, to express a quality of the thing named, or something attributed to it, or to limit or define it, or to specify or describe a thing, as distinct from something else. Thus, in phrase, "a wise ruler," wise is the adjective, expressing a property of ruler.

ding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton.

The unit of electric current; -- defined by the International Electrical Congress in 1893 and by U. S. Statute as, one tenth of the unit of current of the C. G. S. system of electro-magnetic units, or the practical equivalent of the unvarying current which, when passed through a standard solution of nitrate of silver i…

A comprehensive maxim or principle expressed in a few words; a sharply defined sentence relating to abstract truth rather than to practical matters. The first aphorism of Hippocrates is, "Life is short, and the art is long." Fleming.

One of the three words, a, an, the, used before nouns to limit or define their application. A (or an) is called the indefinite article, the the definite article.

f a letter with a full or strong emission of breath; an aspirated sound. If aspiration be defined to be an impetus of breathing. Wilkins.

The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence. There is an awe in mortals' joy, A deep mysterious fear. Keble. To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe. Macaulay. The solitude of t…

tances, extracted from vegetable products, having strong bitter taste but with no sharply defined chemical characteristics. -- Bitter salt, Epsom salts;; magnesium sulphate. -- Bitter vetch (Bot.), a name given to two European leguminous herbs, Vicia Orobus and Ervum Ervilia. -- To the bitter end, to the last extrem…

t stage in the development of the ovum in which the outer cells of the morula become more defined and form the blastoderm.

Participation in a common nature or character. [R.] Connature was defined as likeness in kind between either two changes in consciousness, or two states of consciousness. H. Spencer.

Obvious to the mental eye; easily recognized; clearly defined; notable; prominent; eminent; distinguished; as, a conspicuous exellence, or fault. A man who holds a conspicuous place in the political, eccesiastical, and literary history of England. Macaulay.

en seem agreed what is to be done; the contention is how the subject is to be divided and defined. Bagehot. This was my original contention, and I still maintain that you should abide by your former decision. Jowett.

her elements of reference, by means of which the position of any point, as of a curve, is defined with respect to certain fixed lines, or planes, called coördinate axes and coördinate planes. See Abscissa.

One of the lines serving to define the limits of the bowler and the striker. Bowling crease (Cricket), a line extending three feet four inches on each side of the central strings at right angles to the line between the wickets. -- Return crease (Cricket), a short line at each end of the bowling crease and at right ang…

The increasing moon; the moon in her first quarter, or when defined by a concave and a convex edge; also, applied improperly to the old or decreasing moon in a like state.