Search the Dictionary

uance in time; the portion of time during which anything exists. It was proposed that the duration of Parliament should be limited. Macaulay. Soon shall have passed our own human duration. D. Webster.

, manner, sensibility, etc.; obduracy; stiffness; want of pliancy or feeling. A certain induration of character had arisen from long habits of business. Coleridge.

A hardening of the heart; hardness of heart. [Obs.]

Long continuance. [Archaic]

To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights. "The bridegroom . . . abridged his visit." Smollett. She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. Fuller.

A period of immeasurable duration; also, an emanation of the Deity. See Eon.

The whole duration of a being, whether animal, vegetable, or other kind; lifetime. Mine age is as nothing before thee. Ps. xxxix. 5.

Without old age limits of duration; as, fountains of ageless youth.

he council. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols 2 Cor. vi. 16. Expansion and duration have this further agreement. Locke.

The whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, quality, or degree of; the whole; the whole number of; any whatever; every; as, all the wheat; all the land; all the year; all the strength; all happiness; all abundance; loss of all power; beyond all doubt; you will see us all (or all of us). Prove all things: hold fast th…

Old; that has been of long duration; of long standing; of great age; as, an ancient forest; an ancient castle. "Our ancient bickerings." Shak. Remove not the ancient landmarks, which thy fathers have set. Prov. xxii. 28. An ancient man, strangely habited, asked for quarters. Scott.

hath admitted so many abuses, trough the degeneracy of the nobles, that the period of its duration seems approach. Swift.

Measurement of life; calculation of the probable duration of human life.

Shortness of duration; briefness of time; as, the brevity of human life.

Short in duration. How brief the life of man. Shak.

ss; to prop; to brace firmly. To set it upright again, and to prop and buttress it up for duration. Burke.

t which, when placed in contact with the chest, will register graphically the comparative duration and intensity of the heart's movements.

Induration of the heart, caused by development of fibrous tissue in the cardiac muscle.

measuring minute intervals of time; used in determining the velocity of projectiles, the duration of short-lived luminous phenomena, etc.

shall continue forever, can not choose but aspire after a hapiness commensurate to their duration. Tillotson.