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Doctrines and rites of the Ophites.

The doctrine that the geological changes in the earth's crust have been caused by the sudden action of violent physical causes; -- opposed to the doctrine of uniformism.

The care and support of orphans. [R.] Cotton Mather (1711).

Spurious philosophy; the love or practice of sophistry. Carlyle.

When a false argument puts on the appearance of a true one, then it is properly called a sophism, or "fallacy". I. Watts. Let us first rid ourselves of sophisms, those of depraved men, and those of heartless philosophers. I. Taylor.

Belief in theosophy. Murdock.

A caviling; a sophism. [Obs.] This doctrine is for caption and contradiction. Bacon.

One who holds the theory or catastrophism.

A combination; a complex. [Archaic] This paragraph is . . . a complexion of sophisms. Coleridge.

To clear from sophism or error. [R.] Hare.

A specious but fallacious argument; a sophism.

nt, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a sophism.

Delusion; illusion; trick. [Obs.] The sophisms of infidelity, and the prestiges of imposture. Bp. Warburton.

hen trith would set them free. Milton. HIs clear intelligence revolted from the dominant sophisms of that time. J. Morley.

Sophism. [Obs.] I trow ye study aboute some sophime. Chaucer.

Cf. Tang a twang. Such proceedings had a strong tang of tyranny. Fuller. A cant of philosophism, and a tang of party politics. Jeffrey.

n part equivalent to uniformitarianism, but also used, more broadly, as opposed to catastrophism.