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Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. Spenser.

Possessed of noble or honorable principles.

To destroy the moral principles of. [R.]

Being without principles; especially, being without right moral principles; also, characterized by absence of principle. -- Un*prin"ci*pled*ness, n.

s propositions from the observation of facts, or by generalizations from facts arrives at principles and definitions, or infers causes from effects. This is the reverse of a priori reasoning.

racterizing that kind of reasoning which deduces consequences from definitions formed, or principles assumed, or which infers effects from causes previously known; deductive or deductively. The reverse of a posteriori.

A primer; the first principle or rudiment of anything. [R.] Fuller.

; inconsistent; -- followed by to. "Injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles." Gibbon.

The principles or measures of abolitionists. Wilberforce.

To imbue with the principles of abolitionism. [R.] Bartlett.

The bitter principle of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Watts.

ics), the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero. -- Absolute zero (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273º centigrade or -459.4º Fahrenheit.

The state of being absolute; the system or doctrine of the absolute; the principles or practice of absolute or arbitrary government; despotism. The element of absolutism and prelacy was controlling. Palfrey.

Of or pertaining to absolutism; arbitrary; despotic; as, absolutist principles.

to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority. This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. Froude.

A period of social improvement, or of intellectual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor. (Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its orbit, in consequence of which its period of revolution is now shorter than in ancient times. -- Acc…

A simple or compound principle, whose presence is necessary to produce acidity, as oxygen, chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc.

g action or motion; acting; -- opposed to Ant: passive, that receives; as, certain active principles; the powers of the mind.

` phrase applied to an appeal or argument addressed to the principles, interests, or passions of a man.

e attached, or devoted; to remain fixed, either by personal union or conformity of faith, principle, or opinion; as, men adhere to a party, a cause, a leader, a church.