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tive rule of action; esp., a command respecting moral conduct; an injunction; a rule. For precept must be upon precept. Isa. xxviii. 10. No arts are without their precepts. Dryden.

Preceptive. [Obs.] [Passion] would give preceptial medicine to rage. Shak.

A precept. [R.] Bp. Hall.

Containing or giving precepts; of the nature of precepts; didactic; as, the preceptive parts of the Scriptures. The lesson given us here is preceptive to us. L'Estrange.

The head of a preceptory among the Knights Templars. Sir W. Scott.

Of or pertaining to a preceptor.

Preceptive. "A law preceptory." Anderson (1573).

A woman who is the principal of a school; a female teacher.

apal. Apostolical brief. See under Brief. -- Apostolic canons, a collection of rules and precepts relating to the duty of Christians, and particularly to the ceremonies and discipline of the church in the second and third centuries. -- Apostolic church, the Christian church; -- so called on account of its apostolic f…

hy, and instructive saying; a terse remark, conveying some important truth; a sententious precept or maxim.

arrest of a criminal. (b) To seize or take (goods or real estate) by virtue of a writ or precept to hold the same to satisfy a judgment which may be rendered in the suit. See Attachment, 4. The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason. Miss Yonge. Attached column (Arch.), a column engaged in a wall, so that o…

Capable of being attached; esp., liable to be taken by writ or precept.

A slave; a villain; a serf; a bondman. Carnal, greedy people, without such a precept, would have no mercy upon their poor bondsmen. Derham.

Any writ or precept under seal, issued out of any court.

Precept or warning against evil of any kind; exhortation to wariness; advice; injunction. In way of caution I must tell you. Shak. Caution money, money deposited by way of security or guaranty, as by a student at an English university.

The religion of Christians; the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ.

e control of a member of an order of knights who was called a commander; -- called also a preceptory.

An order or injunction given by authority; a command; a charge; a precept; a mandate. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. John xiii. 34.

The Ten Commandments or precepts given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and originally written on two tables of stone.

mpart. Till he these words to him deliver might. Spenser. Whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. Bacon.