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in a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement. [An] epitome of the contents of a very large book. Sydney Smith.

An epitome or compend, as of a book; a shortened or abridged form; an abbreviation. Ancient coins as abridgments of history. Addison.

essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief. An abstract of every treatise he had read. Watts. Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled. Ford.

An abridgment; a compend; an epitome; a brief account or summary. A book entitled the abridgment or breviary of those roots that are to be cut up or gathered. Holland.

An epitome. Each woman is a brief of womankind. Overbury.

A compendium; an epitome; a summary. A compend and recapitulation of the Mosaical law. Bp. Burnet.

the principal heads, or general principles, of a larger work or system; an abridgment; an epitome; a compend; a condensed summary. A short system or compendium of a sience. I. Watts.

That which is comrehended or inclosed within narrow limits; a summary; an epitome. [Obs.] Though not a catalogue of fundamentals, yet . . . a comprehension of them. Chillingworth.

The act of comprising or comprehending; a compendium or epitome. A comprisal . . . and sum of all wickedness. Barrow.

A general sketch or outline of a subject; a synopsis; an epitome.

One who makes an epitome; one who abridges; an epitomizer. Milton.

To make an epitome of; to shorten or abridge, as a writing or discourse; to reduce within a smaller space; as, to epitomize the works of Justin.

little world; a miniature universe. Hence (so called by Paracelsus), a man, as a supposed epitome of the exterior universe or great world. Opposed to macrocosm. Shak.

; inconstant; variable. A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. Dryden. The names of mixed modes . . . are very various. Locke.