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Opposing; fronting. [Obs.] To the evil turn My obvious breast. Milton.

Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and fiatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; as, an absurd person, an absurd opinion; an absurd dream. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. 'This phrase absurd to call a vi…

The quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment. "The absurdity of the actual idea of an infinite number." Locke.

Clear or manifest to the understanding; plain; evident; obvious; known; palpable; indubitable. It is apparent foul play. Shak.

Plainness to the eye or the mind; visibleness; obviousness. [R.] Sherwood.

nd; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. 1 John iii. 2. Of their vain contest appeared no end. Milton.

To toss about, as from man to man; to agitate. Let not obvious and known truth be bandied about in a disputation. I. Watts.

To show or to indicate; -- said of what is not obvious at first, or would otherwise be concealed. All the names in the country betray great antiquity. Bryant.

t. 379), and in 145 U. S. 263 it was held that party tickets were also excepted as being "obviously within the commuting principle."

oncept. He [Herodotus] says that the sun draws or attracts the water; a metaphorical term obviously intended to denote some more general and abstract conception than that of the visible operation which the word primarily signifies. Whewell.

Open to the view; obvious to the eye; easy to be seen; plainly visible; manifest; attracting the eye. It was a rock Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds, Conspicious far. Milton. Conspicious by her veil and hood, Signing the cross, the abbess stood. Sir W. Scott.

or comprehend; profound; -- opposed to shallow or superficial; intricate; mysterious; not obvious; obscure; as, a deep subject or plot. Speculations high or deep. Milton. A question deep almost as the mystery of life. De Quincey. O Lord, . . . thy thought are very deep. Ps. xcii. 5.

or suitability to produce courage, as contrasted with scientific physical determinism, is obvious. F. P. Cobbe.

. gives him continual dislike to sin. Hammond. The hint malevolent, the look oblique, The obvious satire, or implied dislike. Hannah More. We have spoken of the dislike of these excellent women for Sheridan and Fox. J. Morley. His dislike of a particular kind of sensational stories. A. W. Ward.

Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like. Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good. Shak. Is it a great cruelty to expel from our abode the enemy of our peace, or even the doubtfu…

Occasioning doubt; not clear, or obvious; equivocal; questionable; doubtful; as, a dubious answer. Wiping the dingy shirt with a still more dubious pocket handkerchief. Thackeray.

Omission; a figure of syntax, by which one or more words, which are obviously understood, are omitted; as, the virtues I admire, for, the virtues which I admire.

of; to perceive with the eyes; to discover, as a distant object partly concealed, or not obvious to notice; to see at a glance; to discern unexpectedly; to spy; as, to espy land; to espy a man in a crowd. As one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, . . . he espied his money. Gen. xlii. 27. A g…

That which is obvious, public, or common. Dealing out exoteries only to the vulgar. A. Tucker.

In certain constructions, as from forth, from out, etc., the ordinary and more obvious arrangment is inverted, the sense being more distinctly forth from, out from -- from being virtually the governing preposition, and the word the adverb. See From off, under Off, adv., and From afar, under Afar, adv. Sudden partings s…