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ind or of character; commanding excellence; eminence. Though she hated Amphialus, yet the nobility of her courage prevailed over it. Sir P. Sidney. They thought it great their sovereign to control, And named their pride nobility of soul. Dryden.

Ignobleness. [Obs.] Bale.

One of the Mohammedan nobility of Afghanistan and Scinde.

Something characteristic; a mark; a token. Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. Shak.

A title or degree of nobility; originally, the possessor of a fief, who had feudal tenants under him; in modern times, in France and Germany, a nobleman next in rank below a count; in England, a nobleman of the lowest grade in the House of Lords, being next below a viscount.

g into ruin or despondency. Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title. Burke.

Certainly; in truth; verily. [Archaic] Certes it great pity was to see Him his nobility so foul deface. Spenser.

The common people; those classes and conditions of people who are below the rank of nobility; the commons. The commonalty, like the nobility, are divided into several degrees. Blackstone. The ancient fare of our kings differed from that of the commonalty in plenteousness only. Landon.

One of the common people; one having no rank of nobility. All below them [the peers] even their children, were commoners, and in the eye law equal to each other. Hallam.

The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled chasses or nobility; the commonalty; the common people. [Eng.] 'T is like the commons, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign. Shak. The word commons in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank…

s. Shak. All the laws of England have been made by the kings England, consulting with the nobility and commons. Hobbes.

The legislative assembly, composed of nobility, clergy, and representatives of cities, which in Spain and in Portugal answers, in some measure, to the Parliament of Great Britain.

e sufficient to balance another force. The second nobles are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent. Bacon.

The wife of an earl in the British peerage, or of a count in the Continental nobility; also, a lady possessed of the same dignity in her own right. See the Note under Count.

nobles for their amusement. -- Court guide, a directory of the names and adresses of the nobility and gentry in a town. -- Court hand, the hand or manner of writing used in records and judicial proceedings. Shak. -- Court lands (Eng. Law), lands kept in demesne, -- that is, for the use of the lord and his family. -…

d; a poltroon. You are all recreants and dashtards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Shak.

he demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. Bancroft.

In England, one of the highest order of nobility after princes and princesses of the royal blood and the four archbishops of England and Ireland.

To raise to the rank of nobility; as, to ennoble a commoner.

The act of making noble, or of exalting, dignifying, or advancing to nobility. Bacon.